Teaching Math: Grades 4-6 - Pass Christian University

Teaching Math: Grades 4-6 Reinvent math instruction for grades 4-6 by bringing hands-on learning, inexpensive manipulatives, and real-world connections into your classroom. Whether you’re a new teacher or a seasoned pro, this course will help you get your students excited about math!

Over the next six weeks, you'll learn the best ways to walk students through the complexities of elementary school math. From teaching them the best way to learn complicated vocabulary to turning them into problem-solving detectives, you'll discover lots of fun and practical ways to extend your students’ learning into their homes, the community, and the world. Whether you end up using clever geometry manipulatives or handmade fraction bars, math journals or Family Math nights, you'll soak up dozens of strategies that require little or no money if you supply a lot of imagination.

If you’ve been waiting to jumpstart your math instruction, now’s the time to double your teaching power without adding a lot of work.

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Students who enrolled in Teaching Math: Grades 4-6 were also interested in the following courses:

Singapore Math Strategies: Model Drawing for Grades 1-6

Syllabus:

All courses run for six weeks, with a two-week grace period at the end. Two lessons are released each week for the six-week duration of the course. You do not have to be present when the lesson is released, but you must complete each lesson within two weeks of its release.

A new section of each course starts on the second or third Wednesday of each month. If enrolling in a series of two or more courses, please be sure to space the start date for each course at least two months apart.

Week One

Wednesday - Lesson 01

Whether you’re a new math teacher or an old pro, this course will help you get your students excited about math! To get started, you need to know what kind of learners you have in class. Visual, auditory, and tactile-kinesthetic students are all going to process your lessons differently. The trick is learning teaching strategies to get everyone up to speed, so that's what we'll talk about here in our first lesson.

Friday - Lesson 02

Today, you're going to find out how to teach your students to talk the talk as they walk the walk in your math classroom. You'll discover five keys to effective vocabulary instruction, and you'll find out how to start using them today.

Week Two

Wednesday - Lesson 03

Ever wonder if your students have any number sense? It’s sometimes tricky for children to understand how 1 relates to 100 or how 100 relates to 1,000. But they won’t be confused much longer if you try the smart tips for number play that we'll go over in this lesson.

Friday - Lesson 04

Is multiplication mastery becoming a bore for your students? In this lesson, you'll learn how to multiply the fun in your classroom with models, facts beyond the tables, and real world applications.

Week Three

Wednesday - Lesson 05

Today we'll step into division, evaluating strategies for teaching the long and short of it. From the grocery store to the baseball game, you'll discover ways to connect division to life outside the classroom. This lesson is packed with a creative punch!

Friday - Lesson 06

Are you ready to halve the work with fractions in your classroom? In this lesson, we’ll look at a variety of manipulatives and models that bring fractions to life. You'll learn how to tell when they’re proper, improper, and mixed numbers so you can teach them like a pro.

Week Four

Wednesday - Lesson 07

Ready, set, solve! Today, I'll show you how to get your young math detectives thinking with some innovative problem-solving strategies. The best part is that you get to bring the whole world into your four walls.

Friday - Lesson 08

Today’s the day to hop a plane with geometry. This topic is a student favorite! You'll learn how to make geometry hands-on and practical within the space of one lesson. As an added bonus, you'll learn how to get your students thinking into the future with some geometric career connections.

Week Five

Wednesday - Lesson 09

You may have already tried cooperative group work in your math classroom, but get ready to polish your approach with today's tips on integrating group work to maximize student learning. Whether you want to use pairs, clusters, or teams, ask your students to pull together for some fun math lessons.

Friday - Lesson 10

It might seem a little funny to break out the composition books in the math classroom, but don’t be surprised that when your students read, write, and talk about math, they're learning multiplies. By getting kids to write, you not only get a sneak peek into their minds, but you can help them embrace the multidisciplinary world around them.

Week Six

Wednesday - Lesson 11

Most students see assessments as red pens and big x marks, but it doesn’t have to be this way. Today, you'll learn the keys of effective performance and traditional assessments that will help you understand how well you’re teaching and how well your students are learning.

Friday - Lesson 12

Are you always looking for ways to involve students’ families in math? From assigning the right homework to designing Family Math Nights that’ll have the whole school talking, you can take the math classroom to students’ homes and bring their families to school with the smart strategies you'll discover in today's lesson

This course includes a knowledgeable and caring instructor who will guide you through your lessons, facilitate discussions, and answer your questions. The instructor for this course will be Michele Thrailkill .

Michele Thrailkill fell in love with math as a child and has spent the last 10 years of her teaching career making numbers fun for a diverse range of students. Eager to share her easy, inexpensive, and creative teaching strategies with others, Michele worked for a state Department of Education, where she created statewide lesson plans and evaluated Web-based material for classroom inclusion. In her spare time, she published two teachers' manuals focusing on introductory mathematics for preschool and elementary students.

Requirements:

Internet access, e-mail, the Microsoft Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox Web browser, and the Adobe Flash and PDF plug-ins (two free and simple downloads you obtain at http://www.adobe.com/downloads by clicking Get Adobe Flash Player and Get Adobe Reader).

Student Reviews:

"Great instructor, great class!"

"I am a retiree starting a new career. The course was excellent for me. The instructor was helpful in the discussion center and taught the lesson in a conversational way which made it easy to follow."

"I am finding your feedback and this discussion area to be just as informative as your lessons."

"I am just enjoying these math lessons so much. I am currently getting re-certified so I'm not in the classroom, but I have a third grader and a fifth grader, and the techniques have really helped me to help them expand their knowledge without them even knowing it! Thanks so much!"

"I found this class to be very helpful. The lessons were loaded with lots of useful strategies to use in the classroom. I also liked the supplementary material. I have already used those in my room. Thank you!"

"I have had some family health issues and it was challenging for me at first, but I always enjoyed the tremendous ideas you shared and techniques. Everything was easy for me to relate to and better yet, utilize. Thank you from myself and my junior high resource kids."

"I loved this course. I have accumulated so many great ideas from the instructor and other students. It has been so valuable. Thank you"

"I really liked this chapter. I am not fond of word problems but your approach really explained things in a clear and concise way."

"I thoroughly enjoyed this class. The creative tips were very helpful and I will definitely use them and frequently refer to my notes. Thanks a bunch!"

"I thought the instructor did a great job of presenting the material and gave very helpful links for the teachers to use in the classroom."

"Michele,I truly enjoyed this course. You gave many practical, helpful suggestions on how to make math more interesting and relevant to today's students. Even though I am a veteran teacher, I am constantly looking for new ideas to incorporate into my lessons. I'm keeping the printouts of the lessons and the website links to reference in the future. Thanks so much!"

"Michele - thank you for a great class. I am just starting math centers for my gifted students, and now I have so many great ideas! This class has been an excellent experience – well worth the time."

"Michele, Thank you for all the effort you have put into this lesson, as well as all the others. I have learned a lot. Your explanations are clear and concise, and I really enjoyed the entire course."

"Michele Thrailkill is awesome! I thoroughly enjoyed this class, and the information was extremely helpful, relevant and applicable in the classroom. This course is a great resource for anyone who wants to teach math more effectively. I learned a lot!"

"Thanks! This class was full of wonderful information. I look forward to trying these in my classroom."

"Thank you for a terrific class; it was so much fun and I gained may new ideas to use in my classroom. Your passion for math made me smile through all the lessons. You have a wonderful teaching style and it was a pleasure to have you as my instructor."

"Thank you for putting together such a useful course! Each lesson was full of creative and practical ideas for the classroom. Thanks."

"Thank You!!! I have learned so much from this course. There are so many things that I have already used. I can’t wait to use more of the ideas that you have presented. I enjoy taking classes that allow me to take things back into the classroom and use right away. I learned about so many wonderful ideas. Thanks again for all that you provided."

"Thank you Michelle. I absolutely loved your course and found the information to be pertinent and extremely useful. I have been putting off taking a course because I sometimes feel like the instruction hands out information that I would never use in my own classroom. However, your course was different in the fact that I can use absolutely everything that you recommended. I am happy that I was able to be a part of this experience; you were very helpful and have definitely made me a more creative teacher. Thanks again!!"

"Thank you so much for the free flowing way the course was conducted. I had not been in a classroom environment in quite some time. After my retirement I look forward to teaching and sharing so many of the new techniques you have shared with us. I only hope I can make learning as exciting has you have for me."

"Thank you so much Michele, being English as my second language, your step by step guide really help me a lot. It is wonderful."

"This class was definitely worth taking. I got a lot of new ideas on how to approach different concepts. Almost sorry that it is only 12 lessons long!"

"This has been a very helpful course! I appreciate your patience with the time frame on assignments - my own class and teaching schedule keeps me busy but I enjoy learning and have definitely picked up several helpful lessons from your class! Thank you too for writing back and keeping in touch with your students – that makes a huge difference! Have a great year and thank you again!"

"This has been my favorite class out of the five I have taken."

"This has been the best online course I have taken. You have fabulous ideas and didn't water down the curriculum. You treated us like professionals and I highly recommend this class! Keep up the good work!"

"Very interesting and, more importantly, useful! Would highly recommend to others."