In my quest to engage students and encourage them to think creatively and with inquiring minds, I have spent many hours this week reading blogs, internet sites, and tweets and listening to various TED talks. So far, these are my faves, in no particular order:
This site has extensive resources for K-12 classes with a focus on engineering, or how humans have designed our world. You can search by individual lesson, activities, or entire units. The plans are detailed, providing learning objectives, a materials list, background information for teachers, step-by-step procedures, and extension activities. Assessment ideas and worksheets are also given. All of these things are provided free of charge.
2. nrich
This site focuses on developing rich mathematics tasks. Once again, all resources are provided free of charge. It is based in the UK, so check out the key stage/age equivalencies on the help page. They put out a monthly publication with new tasks, or you can search the archives in the “For Teachers” section.
3. Sir Ken Robinson on TED talks
Humorous and thought provoking, he speaks about creativity, or lack of it, in educational settings.
From 2010 Bring on the Learning Revolution
4. Dan Meyer on TED talks
Asks us to consider a new perspective on teaching math – check out his blog when you are done.
