Here’s how it happened.

  

Free Math Worksheets at DadsWorksheets.com

This Dad deserves Father of the Year!  There are loads of great resources here and every single thing you click on is absolutely FREE!  I always find something useful when I visit Dad’s Worksheets.  There are some great drill and practice worksheets, printable reference charts, maths activities and strategies for consolidating maths concepts.  Dad started this as a free service (he was making them anyway, right?) and has continued to provide all his resources free of charge!

A great Dad with two daughters, starts creating worksheets for them to use when practicing addition facts at home. Knowing that good old fashioned practice is the best way to master number facts, this Dad was determined to make life in the maths classroom as easy as possible for his daughters.  When he realised that he had created more than a thousand worksheets he decided to upload them to a website.  The rest is history.  More than 7 000 worksheets later, Dad continues to upload FREE, printable resources to anyone with internet access.  He also blogs regularly with tips and tricks for learning basic facts including rhymes and stories.  As his daughters have grown, the website has too.  Dad continues to help out, by creating more worksheets and practice tasks for more areas and maths concepts including: place value, problem solving, fact families, geometry, exponents, order of operations, fractions, unit conversions, telling time, investment, data analysis, averages, money and more.

Courtesy of http://www.jantoo.com

I hope you check out “Dad” and find something useful.  He is certainly worthy of your time and repeated visits! 

In my humble opinion: Dad is also worth sharing with any teacher or parent that you know.  Get tweeting, Pinning, G+1ing, Posting, Pressing, emailing and using every other type of social media you have at your disposal to get the word out.  Dad deserves it!

FYI: “Dad” mentioned on this site is not at all related to me, even though there are times when I say, “I can’t get by without my Dad’s Worksheets”.  I have not been paid for this recommendation, I am simply sharing a great resource with my great readers.  All opinions here, are my own.

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Numeracy Teacher Text

Donna, the Math Coach, has reviewed a text which I am now dying to buy and read and use.  The text itself sounds great, but I haven’t actually read it, so I will let Donna ‘sell’ it to you.  Donna makes some interesting points about the importance of formative assessment and processes for planning numeracy lessons.  Something tells me that Math Coach’s Corner is going to become one of my ‘go to’ sites this semester.

Check it out!

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The deputy principal at my school found this website while searching for some information about formative assessment.  He thought it was great and shared it with all the staff at the school.  I did some further exploring and decided that he was right.  There are strategies for both teachers and students to utilise in the classroom.  Black Line Masters (printables/ photocopy templates), graphic organisers, photos of student work and links to even more resources can all be found there.  Use the tabs at the left side of the page to explore the category.

Check it out here: http://wvde.state.wv.us/strategybank/

This link will also be added to the “Teacher Resources Online” page of this blog.  So you will always be able to find it.

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http://www.morrisgleitzman.com/fst_contents.html

Have you heard of Morris Gleitzman?  He is an accomplished children’s and young adult fiction author. He has teamed up with Paul Jennings for two books and has been compared to other excellent children’s writers such as Roald Dahl, JK Rowling, Andy Griffiths and Jeff Kinney.  His books have been made into television series and plays, such as Misery Guts.  His books are both entertaining and thought provoking, covering timely controversial topics such as equality (Two Weeks with the Queen), natural disasters (Water Wings and Belly Flop), bullying (Misery Guts) and even politics (Once, Now, Then, Water Wings) and all the issues we face when growing up.

Did you Know that Morris Gleitzman offers FREE samples of his books in both written and audio form. Simply go to the Bookshelf  page (or click on the link) of his website, click on the book you want to read and you will be transported to the first chapter of the selected title.  You can also listen to a snippet from the audio book while you read along.

What a great resource for the classroom! I can see homework assignments, listening centre activities during literacy rotations, virtual classroom activities, mentor text deconstructions and kids getting into reading!

Professional Reading: Vocabulary Strategies That Work

The Literacy Coach is expected to be the point person for literacy resources in their school.  Some teachers can not believe how much “stuff” I have and they don’t realise how much of it is essential to my job.  When a teacher has a question or is looking for an activity I can usually turn to my shelves and pull something out to help them. If I can’t it doesn’t take me long to find something.  It is a good thing that I like to read.  The burden of being the designated expert on resources is the need to read… constantly.  I won’t go into the length and breadth of the different texts that I am expected to know about (not today).  I will say that with all this reading, it is nice to find something that reinforces your philosophy and teaching practice.  Recently, that is exactly what I found.

Vocabulary Strategies That Work by Lori Wilfong is an excellent reference for Literacy Coaches and teachers of all subject areas.  I know why using a word wall is important, but I probably couldn’t put it so succinctly as Wilfong does in this book.  She has a simple approach to explain to teachers the best way to teach vocabulary and she uses real world examples to back it up.  Wilfong explains the actions and pedagogy of vocabulary instruction using a “do this…not that” structure.  Her publisher Eye on Education, took the liberty of producing an infographic of the Do’s and Do Not’s of Effective Vocabulary Instruction.   While the infographic gives you the main principles, the book gives you so much more.

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I purchased the e-book version yesterday and I’m almost finished reading it.  While I might have a slightly more motivated perspective (I have to present PD next week on this very topic) my speed is more likely related to the readability of the text.  In 7 chapters I have been reminded of sound education/pedagogy theories and appropriate vocabulary activities.  I can link my learning from this text to pedagogical frameworks used at my school such as Dimensions of Learning.  I have also found new activities, graphic organisers, templates, planning processes and action statements for my future instruction.  I am armed with specific information and activities for my own teaching and I am ready to support (as the Literacy Coach) any teacher who may need it.

The straightforward layout and language make this a text I will return to again and again.  I am also loving the e-book format as I can highlight and add notes to the side very easily (all from my ultrabook, without printing a thing).  I also like the idea that I can print one page (or selected pages) to share with my colleagues without having to visit the photocopy room. Purchasing the book Vocabulary Strategies That Work, was a great investment for me and I will be encouraging our school to purchase a few more copies for our teacher reference section of the library.  This is a great resource.

I better get back to work!

Mel

The Literacy Coach