Build Math Confidence   February 2016 Volume 81
Winter Events
Tuesday March 1 2016 Everyone Reading Conference New York, NY 
Friday March 11 LIMACON SUNY Old Westbury, LI, NY
Friday March 18 Good Ideas in Teaching Rutgers/New Brunswick, NJ

How to be a Good Math Student...according to students
Check out these posters from Class 1 of the new semester!  
Inspired by Jaz_math as Tabletop Twitter with the prompt "How to be a good Math student",  responses included: "Practice and self check", "Do your homework every day", "Good notes" as well as "Ask for help when you need it.". This activity was done with groups rotating through 4 other posters with questions like "What will make this a good learning environment?" and "What makes a good Math teacher?" which will be shared at a later time.  
These Post It Self Stick posters are pricey but make showing student work easy.
Nix the Tricks
This free downloadable "guide to avoiding shortcuts that cut out math concept development" helps teachers, parents and students understand Math rather than just learning a trick.  This book, authored by Tina Cardone, had much input from the #MTBoS (Math Twitter Blog o Sphere) and includes a list of corresponding Common Core State Standards by grade level on page 64.  
Click here for the Table of Contents.
Chapter 2 starts with clue words -- for example many students are taught that "total" or "in all" always means "add" -- for example, "Tina has 3 cookies, Chris has 5, how many cookies are there in all?".  But "in all" can also be used in "Cookies come in bags of 15. If you buy 3 bags of cookies, how many cookies do you have in all?"
Khan Academy and the new SAT
I will be taking the SAT for the 4th time on March 5th -- the first administration of the new exam.  The College Board has teamed up with Khan Academy to provide free SAT test prep online.   I started using this site last week and it is great on a desktop to learn and review for Math as well as Reading and Writing.  While many colleges have gone SAT/ACT optional, studying for the test can help fill in gaps in your education and is like going to the gym but for your brain!   Hopefully, Android and iphone versions will come out in the near future so students can study for the SAT on the go!
Brain Teaser
Some people think January 1, 2000 was the first day of the 21st century. Others think it was January 1, 2001. But everyone should agree that January 1, 2002 was the first "sum-day" of the new century- when you write out the date in numbers, 01/01/02, and 1+1=2. A sum-day is a date in which the day and month add up to the last two digits of the year. With that in mind:  
A) What is the last sum-day of the 21st century?
B) How many sum-days are there in the 21st century?

Answer to last month's brain teaser:  91/216
Click here for the question and solution to January's Brain Teaser  
Thanks, Robin the Math Lady Schwartz
www.mathconfidence.com        
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