'Ah ha' Moments from 2013
With the end of another calendar year, I have been thinking a lot about teaching 'ah ha' moments from 2013. Here are a few of my favourites. 1. Make it real and relatable! Earlier this school year, I was inspiried by a conversation with my Grade 2 students about the video game Super Mario Bros. I embedded this into our learning about number patterns and relationships. They were totally engrossed in this inquiry. The context was real to them, which made the learning meaningful. What surprised me the most was how they took this inquiry and extended it further. After solving and proving the original question, they asked what would happen if Mario already had some coins. This led to discussions about possible tools to help solve this problem, as well as identification of patterns within the hundreds chart when skip counting from various starting points. All possible because of meaningful engagement. 2 . Give them tools to be successful. I a...