Archives - April 2003

activity of the month | web site of the month | book of the month

Dear Math Teacher,

Developing sense about proportional reasoning is critically important for learners in the intermediate and middle grades, yet it is often inadequately developed even among high school students. As teachers, it benefits our students when we provide them with an extended toolkit for solving proportions.

For April, we offer the first of a two-part series on ratio and proportion. This month's newsletter contains six strategies for solving proportions. In addition, we offer your students a great tool for making sense of word problems that involve proportions and percents.

Next month you'll receive an engaging and in-depth problem for applying these new skills. Once again we thank you for your emails and kind words. We are fueled by your encouraging words and your students' success!

Download This Month's Activity:
"Ratio Boxes"

The free activity is in PDF file format (206k) and will take approximately 1.5 minutes to download with a 28K modem. Viewing this activity requires Adobe Acrobat Reader. Click logo to download a free version of Reader.

Free Math Activities from our books
If your students like this month's project, remember that we offer many other free activities for your use. Go HERE for free lessons on fractions, geometry, and algebra:


Two New Books
Our popular title, Simply Great Math Activities: Number and Operation is now in its second (and thicker) edition. The new title is Simply Great Math Activities: Number Sense.

We have also just finished our latest and much anticipated book, Simply Great Math Activities: Fractions, Decimals, and Percents.


FREE HANDOUTS from our conferences http://tttpress.com/download.html


Mathematics Web Site of the Month
Mathematics Lessons that Are Fun!
by Cynthia Lanius, Executive Director
Center for Excellence and Equity in Education, Rice University
This website provides more than 20 website activities teachers can use to engage their students in some exciting and interesting topics in mathematics. Tables, graphs, linear functions, real-world problems, fractions, patterns and formulas, ratios, fractals, slope and rates of change, and polyominoes are some of the topics covered.

Mathematics Book of the Month
The Joy of Mathematics, by Theoni Pappas
This book is designed to help the reader appreciate mathematics by showing how its many facets relate to the world around us. Each subject is treated in a few pages, and the book is useful to teachers looking for enrichment topics. It includes many tie-ins to art, science, history, and human endeavors. The book contains mathematics having breadth, beauty, and insight for curious students and teachers. Topics are selected that stimulate the reader's imagination and sense of wonder.

Here are three online bookstores and a website specializing in finding prices from many online bookstores. We supply these for your convenience only without recommendation.

Amazon.com
Barnes & Noble
Powell's City of Books
Best Book Buys

Workshops & Conferences
Here are upcoming conferences and workshops by Bill and Brad:

• April 10 & 11: Various topics, NCTM National Conference, San Antonio
• April 26: Geometry, Orange Co. Dept. of Ed., (714) 966-4391
• April 29 & 30, Algebraic Thinking, Orange Co. Dept. of Ed., (714) 966-4391
• May 3: Math Games that Educate and Motivate, Shasta County Off. of Ed., (530) 225-0242
• Full workshop schedule and registration information.

To host a workshop in your area, or to just send in a comment you can contact Bill and Brad at these email addresses:

Happy teaching,
Bill and Brad