Melissa

=**December Entry-Dilemma**= **So...here is my dilemma. I have many juniors and seniors who cannot convert (without a calculator) fractions, decimals & percents. I decided to have them work on these for the "Problems of the Day" so that I could address the issue and continue on with the curriculum. The "Problems of the Day" should never take longer than 20 minutes, unfortunately it is taking twice that time. Did I mention that long division is a problem also:)** **It feels like a crisis......** =GOD BLESS you for trying. I think it has to start at the younger grades.= http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/23/technology/at-waldorf-school-in-silicon-valley-technology-can-wait.html?pagewanted=all
 * Melissa **

Maybe no or little technology until they are in high school? = = = = =**November Entry- It's New!**= On an assessment in Core 3, Sarah and I decided to have the students describe the investigation that they completed to discover the concept of one "radian". Having them describe the experiment made them think about what we had done and was helpful for them to pull all of the information together to have a more concrete understanding of what radians were (unit of measure for circles) and what to do with them.

I love the pipe cleaner activity so that students actually create one radian! The only suggestion that I can come up with is to have students create more than just one radian per circle. If they create 3 radians on one circle, they'll see that those 3 radians fall just short of half the circle, so if they want to go to the 180 degree mark it has to be a little more than 3 radians. You can then ask "What number is a little bit more than 3?" and most students will think of pi. You can then have them continue making radians until they see that 2 pi radians equals 360 degrees. Having them describe in words who they created a radian is huge and really helps them make the connection between degrees and radians. Good job! :) -Katie