Personal Learning Path

Hi Everyone! This week I wanted to take a deeper look into the Common Core NYS Standards for 1st Grade. In New York State, 1st graders are instructed to focus on four specific areas: 1. operations and algebraic thinking (1. OA) 2. number and operations in base ten (1. NBT) 3. measurement and data (1. MD) 4. geometry (1. G) In addition these four areas are broken down, covering specific areas some of which I was surprised were part of the Grade 1 instructional expectations. My intention for this post is to cover one of the four, measurement and data which covers a board range of topics. I was most intrigued by the concept of represent and interpret data ( CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.1.MD.C.4 ). I discovered the objective of this grade 1 instruction is to help students organize, represent and interpret data, ask and answer questions about the data, encourage students to determine how many in each and determine this using words more than or less than. The best way to cover the con...

In the spirit of Valentine's Day , I looked for some ways I could incorporate the yearly celebration into a lesson! So, this week I decided to focus on one of the 8 addition strategies, sketching . I decided I wanted to find some cool ways to include creativity in a math problem. As an elementary school student I gravitated to visual learning and holding a Bachelor's in Textile Design I still gravitate to sprucing up other subjects with forms of art.  It was always best if I was given the freedom to draw out an image of how I solved problems. Many times I found myself creating my own word problem or story using the numbers from an equation provided. Here is a sweet worksheet I found, that helps students with addition problem using chocolate kisses. A few ways I would revise the worksheet to provide a better understanding of the sketching strategy is by removing the chocolate kisses in the boxes. In doing this I would allow students demonstrate their own sketching techniq...

I currently work in a corporate office for a Men's Fashion Company where reviewing weekly selling reports and quarterly sales reports is part of my daily responsibility. The main goal of these reports, is to determine how, as a company we are increasing or decreasing in sales. When I first started working here, I was nervous on the scale I would have to dive into using my rusty math skills. Quickly I began to notice while I am required to review such reports and provide them to the Executive Vice President of Sales in my company, I realized I had the support of excel ! So instead it became a journey of mastering excel and the formulas that would automatically calculate those numbers. Then I began this course... I got to thinking, as a student what would I need to master to be successful in a company like the one I am currently in? As a company we are always concerned what the percentage increase for selling units or retail sales. So for this personal learning path I decided to ...