Thursday, October 15, 2015

Project Work Synergy

This is a sample of the number project students are working on. They have the chance
to work on the project online and/or offline. 
There's something wonderful about the quiet solitude of working alone on a project you love, and there's also something terrific about working on a shared project with many people.

Today we jumped into our number poster project with lots of enthusiasm, a bit of discomfort, and many steps. The best part for me was listening to children use lots and lots of mathematical language, collaboration, and problem solving as they chose the right attributes, calculated multiples, drew arrays with correct relative proportions, wrote numbers with word form and expanded form, and navigated many Google tools. Ideas and information jumped about the room like popping corn. While it was a bit noisy, the enthusiasm for the project and student effort was terrific.

A good project creates terrific synergy, the kind of connection making and information share that boosts math knowledge, concept, skill, and engagement.