Back-to-School: New Printables and Math Tools

Printables for Digital Cameras, Blogs, and Spreadsheets

I have started the process of creating printables to help teachers get started with weblogs, digital cameras, and spreadsheets in their math classrooms. The printables are located on the individual pages on the Future of Math website and include:

• Writing Prompts for Math
• Using Blogs in the Math Classroom
• 38 Uses for Digital Images in the Math Classroom
• How to Make a Graph Using a Spreadsheet
• Writing Formulas for Spreadsheets

There are many more to come. The printables are in PDF format so they are platform independent.

Math Tools: A Great Web Resource from the Math Forum

If you are interested in bringing technology into your math classroom but aren't sure quite where to find good resources, look no further than Math Tools from the Math Forum. Math Tools is a website that contains "...a wealth of resources designed to help you use the power of interactive software to enhance the teaching and learning of mathematics." This digital library includes, but is not limited to, the following resources for math teachers:

• Tools for many different technology types: graphing calculator, handhelds, and computers, including Cabri, Fathom, Flash, Shockwave, Java applets, Java script, Sketchpad, with more to come.

• Lesson Plans: Many tools have lesson plans that were written to give a teacher an idea of how the technology can be used within a mathematics curriculum.

The Math Tools website has two main features: A catalog of resources and a discussion forum. You can browse the catalog by choosing the grade level or math course that you teach, the resource type (lesson plan, tool, etc.), and the technology you would like to use (graphing calculator, Java applet, etc.). There is a resource for every type of math taught at the K-12 level (some topics have over 40).

Upon registration (registration is free), you will be able to save resources, locate and keep a Friends list of other users, and post to the discussion forum. The discussion forum allows registered users to discuss topics in the catalog with other educators. Registered users can also contribute a resource that they have created to the site, a great way to share your work with others.