18April2011

NCTM Convention Follow-up
I wish that it would hav ebeen possible for ALL of you to travel to NCTM last week, but...that is not very realistic. You should all know what a great resource the [|NCTM website]is for teachers. Here are the giveaway lesson packs for this year and last year. Each of the 2011 packets has one activity that uses the expandable sphere that Kelsey M picked today.





**Arne Duncan calls teachers "Nation Builders"**


A short [|summary] of Secretary Duncan's remarks is available on the NCTM page. A video of the entire talk may be uploaded later. //You can see the NCTM logo on the front of the podium.// One of the things that Secretary Duncan talked about was the need to recruit new teachers in upcoming years as the baby boomers (old folks like me) retire from the ranks. A new government website devoted to information about teaching is available. You can go out and watch a short video of Julia Louis-Dreyfus or Oprahtalking about their favorite teachers.

Apps for iPhones and iPads
Another NCTM session that I attended was led by Tim and Lesley Pelton, a husband and wife teaching team who have done some work writing mathematical apps. Here is a link to [|their blog] with reviews of several apps they have developed as well as others. They focus on free and cheap ($.99) ones.

[|Clockmaster] [|Find Sums] [|Multiples]

One of their blog entries (August 2, 2009) lists a number of recommended apps.

During the session, they also provided the following list of recommended apps. Given the large number of apps out there, this helps to narrow it down to some that they believe are mathematically sound.

[|Addition Coach] [|Carbon Choice] (science to help find your carbon footprint - in honor of Earth Week) [|Dia Math] [|Fractions App] [|Math Drills] [|McGraw Equivalent Fractions] (free this week for NCTM) [|My Math App] [|Nine Gaps] [|Number Line] [|Pearl Diver]

Then there is my own personal favorite app from the last month, [|Cut the Rope]. Joel Tanis, artist friend, introduced us to this and the ever-popular [|Angry Birds].

For app searching, I was using the search on this site:

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