Activities for Teaching Unit Rate

Unit rate is one of my favorite topics to teach in Consumer Math. There are endless examples of unit prices gone wrong, and they all give me a giggle. But as funny as they can be, it's important for kids to know how to calculate unit rates so that they can determine the best deals. Sometimes, or maybe a lot of the time, the best deal isn't always obvious.

In this post are some of the photos I have taken of unit price fails as well as some unit price activities I have made for students. Here are some photos I have taken over the years of unit prices gone wrong:

Mathematicians look like all of us project

Like so many awesome math teachers, I met Megan McLean through social media at some point over the last few years. Megan is a teacher all the way on the other side of the US, and with the help of Instagram, I get to feel like she is my colleague next door. Over the last few months, Megan has been researching mathematicians from all over the world and collecting their stories into her Instagram account @mathematicianslooklikeallofus. This post highlights a small sliver of the mathematicians she has found and also links to where we can learn more. Here is Megan's guest post on the work she has done so far on this important project.

Guest post by Megan McLean

@mathematicianslooklikeallofus

Digital Math Escape Rooms

Wowza, what a school year. Whether your students are working independently in your classroom or distance learning from home, I wanted to make some super-engaging digital math activities to get students excited about practicing their math. These new digital math escape rooms have been built in Google Forms with no outside links. The directions are simple -- enter a 4-letter code to advance to the next puzzle -- so students can focus all of their energy on their math.

Because the sudden, widespread need for digital math activities, I updated many of my printable math materials to also include digital versions. You can see those here. I have also recently been creating some digital-only math activities to work in Google Slides and Google Forms. One of the newest activity types I've been making in Google Forms are these digital math escape rooms.

I have been getting some great feedback on these digital math escape rooms: 

Moving Math Forward: Virtual Math Conference October 2020

I am very excited to be presenting at the Fall 2020 Moving Math Forward virtual conference with 14 other awesome math educators. This will be a 3-day event starting Monday October 5, 2020, with options to attend 1, 2 or all 3 days.

Digital Math Word Walls

Over the years, I have written a lot about math word walls and how strongly I feel about them. In the classroom, they are an extension of my teaching and give my students the tools they need to work more independently. Our word walls help me to quickly make visual connections to other parts our math curriculum while teaching. During group and independent work, my students know they can access our math word walls for support. I always find myself gushing about math word walls because I know how well they work for my students.

Virtual Math Classroom Decor

So much learning has happened these past few months! More than I ever thought possible. If you had asked me in February if I knew what a bitmoji classroom was, I'd have looked at you funny. Now fast forward a few short months later, and I have my own virtual classroom and lots of virtual math classroom decor!