Aim to Be Awesome, Not Perfect

Last year, as an end of year project, my students used a bunch of skills we had learned over the course of a year to create a Humongous Hero project. It was suggested by a fellow math teacher that parts of the project might be good as an inquiry project or as practice thinking proportionally. We spent a day looking a ratios around our school and a day looking at basic proportions, since the idea of ratios and proportions are new to 6th graders. However, next time, I might just start with this first. When they entered the classroom, there were multiple large hands around the room.  I told them a giant had broken in during the night and had left fingerprints in my room.  And I wanted to know how tall he was.  The only directives they had was that they could choose who they worked with and they use anything in the classroom in order to solve the problem.  As you can see, they used each other, meter sticks, their own bodies, rulers, and even me to help so...

Math is Real Life!  It is the first Wednesday of November, which means it is time for Math is Real Life! I actually had an recent experience in my house that I shared with my students how my husband and I used the skill they were learning to make waffles. On Saturday morning tradition is to have waffles or pancakes for breakfast. A couple weeks ago, my husband and youngest daughter decided to make waffles and to use what pancake mix was left in the box.   I was in another room, but when I heard my husband say " 2 times one and a half equals 3", I ran into the kitchen and said "What did you say?" He replied "The recipe calls for 2 cups of mix, but there is 3 cups, so I figured out that 2 times 1 1/2 equals 3, so I will multiply my other ingredient amounts by 1 1/2 to determine what I need".  Well, I was a giddy mess, because in my ACCEL class I was introducing Multiplication of Fractions on Monday.  This is a topic that the kids always question me wh...