School's out for summer! Which means I'm hittin' the road.

Hi everyone,

Well, we haven't quite made our updating goal for 2013, but the year is only halfway over and it's never too late to try again, right?

As usual, once school winds down for all of my teacher friends, my busy season on the road starts!  This summer is already off to a bang-- in the last week, I've gotten to spend some time in one of my very favorite cities, Nashville!  Thanks everyone who showed up on Thursday and Friday!  Jeff and I also got to do something very special-- we made it to FanFest this year!  It's hard to pick a favorite, but we had some highlights: Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood, and Keith Urban were all hard to beat!

Jeff and I, rocking out!  Doesn't Jeff look happy?  :)

I'm currently in Phoenix with my dear friend, Patti Launi, who was also one of my very first Kim Sutton Associates!  If you're in the Arizona/New Mexico area, you NEED to check Patti out here.  Thanks to everyone in my class today-- what fun!

So what are you going to do with your "free time" (haha!) this summer?  Are there any series you need to get caught up on?  My husband and daughter keep trying to get me to watch "Game of Thrones" but I keep hearing nice things about this "Downton Abbey."

If you're like me and you're thinking of your classroom even in the summer, have you checked out my free download section at my website?  I post all my conference handouts and freebies from my classes here.  I'll be posting exclusive pictures of some of these activities to my Pinterest board and Facebook in the next week (which you can find by clicking the icons on my blog), so stay tuned for those!

Back home tomorrow for a few days and then I'll be coming to see my friends in Kansas!  I'll be posting some fun and blog-exclusive video clips soon!!

Mathematically Inspired

Today's post comes to us from Cheryl Henjum, a fabulous presenter who we've had the good luck to welcome her into the Creative Mathematics family!  If you haven't had a chance to see a workshop with this electrifying woman, check out her upcoming classes and locations here.  Cheryl's known for inspiring a rejuvenated mathematics teaching style, and I'm so happy to get to share her thoughts and some of her journey to Creative Math here.  Enjoy!

Mathematically Inspired

By: Cheryl Henjum

Have you ever hit a teaching wall? Felt that sense of blah, as you look at your lesson plan book? Well, I have! It made me feel like an inadequate teacher, who was more focused on state tests, district assessments and structure that seriously suffocated my creativity and knack for teaching. I needed some inspiration!!! I love creating lessons that are engaging, fun, interactive, challenging, celebratory, and inspiring for all levels of learners.

I quickly searched for classes that would help bring back the “creative” twist to my classroom. I found a workshop by Kim Sutton and I thought the name of her company suited exactly what I was looking for, “Creative Mathematics.” Bingo!!! Just what I needed!

During the workshop I was engaged with games and activities that could easily be adapted to ALL learners. We used dice to create equations, identify place values of numbers, T-charts helped us find unknown patterns and the music was super catchy and FUN! I was truly inspired! Well, that was over 10 years ago when I first saw Kim Sutton. Today, thanks to Kim, I am still inspired, driven and always awaiting her next new book with eagerness.

Kim has a way of bringing mathematics to life without threat. She uses music to grab the attention of the students, engages them with activities and games that are interactive and FUN…..AND she is practical! As an elementary administrator I am always looking for ways to increase mathematical competency in each and every classroom within my building. The activities and games that Kim has created are easily adaptable to every learning level within the classroom, tracking sheets allow teachers to grab the data they need to establish and sustain mathematical competency. I call many of her activities and games “organic.” I guess I came up with organic after really seeing each student creates their own path, pattern, equation, etc. Students are then inspired because they truly have a part in the learning process.

I have seen drastic improvements in the quality of mathematical lessons delivered in our classrooms. Students are excited and learning is active. I am now inspired and have a sense of creativity even in light of all the changes that are happening within our education system.

Don’t let your creative senses dry up…..instead visit Kim Sutton the next time she is in your area. You will feel inspired, motivated and energized to build mathematical competency within your classroom!

2013 + New additions to Creative Math

Well hello everyone!  Happy (belated) 2013!

I meant to have something about this up earlier, but as you can clearly see, our blog has been updated!  We've gotten a bit of a facelift from Lindsay over at Sour Apple Design-- didn't she do a great job?  We've also started using a different platform-- blogger.com-- so now you'll be able to follow us and get real-time updates to this blog.

Speaking of, we have a new way we're going to do things around here!  One of our New Years' resolutions-- post to the blog more frequently!  (Clearly, we're off to a great start.)  We'll have new posts every week-- about what's new at Creative Math, where Kim's at, math news and stories and things we're excited to share with you.  We also hope you'll take the time to add comments if you have questions or if there are things you want to know more about!

You might have already noticed this, but we are now available on Teachers Pay Teachers.  We don't have too many products loaded up yet, but we'll be adding more all the time.  In honor of our San Francisco 49ers, we'll be running a SUPER Sunday sale tomorrow here, with 15% off select merchandise-- but the sale ends on Monday!  (Maybe earlier if the other Harbaugh wins-- just kidding, Ravens fans!)

One product we just added to Teachers Pay Teachers is Kim's Valentine's Choices activity.  This product has been available for some time on our website, but we gave it a bit of a makeover-- added some new color graphics and touched up a few of the worksheets.  It's a great seasonal math center, to be used daily to help with mathematically motivating children.  I cringe when I hear adults say that they never liked math growing up-- everyone has the capacity to love math, and Kim's centers help make it easier!  Who wouldn't enjoy math with conversation hearts?  This unit covers fractions, algebraic functions and patterns, among other things.  Check it out!  Here's the cover image below.

I hope you're having a wonderful weekend-- enjoy the Super Bowl tomorrow, if you're watching, or the Puppy Bowl if that's your cup of tea.  Kim will be visiting beautiful British Columbia next week-- if you'd like more information on these workshops, or any upcoming Creative Math workshops and presenters, please visit our page here.

Go Niners!

Lots of Blessings to Count

Sitting in an airport on this Saturday morning waiting for a flight out of Newark.  Just finished the NCTM Regional in Hartford.  Flight canceled last night so it seems the relaxing weekend is not to be….. ah well.  Just posted on my website the list of computational strategies from my 10 Block Schedule for Math Fact Fluency.  Hope this helps those of you looking for ways to achieve math fact fluency.

There were so many sessions on Fact Fluency at the conference it was amazing.  My daughter is assisting with the weekly Facebook contests.  Don’t forget to go and answer the weekly question!  You may win!  I believe that we have six winners from the first two weeks!  Awesome!  Just loved the funny answers to the Halloween questions!  Still laughing!

We have a fun offer for those of you attending the CMC Palm Springs Math Conference next weekend.  Check it out!

You simply must see the amazing photos from Deborah Fisher’s classroom!  So inspiring!  I am so proud of my first group of KSAs and their powerful workshops!  Check them out in your area—Darlene, Julie and Kathy in Texas!  Patti in Arizona!  Deborah in Idaho!  Terry in California!  Kim in Omaha!  Cheryl who is all over the place!  They are amazing!

Ellen also sent some amazing photos about digital root…… her class deserves a “shout out!” and a big prize!  Both are coming!

Go SF Giants!  Beat Detroit!

Finally a sweet “shout out” to our wonderful daughter who is running in her first half marathon this morning in Northern California!  We are so proud of her quest for fitness….what an inspiration!  You go girl!  Enjoy this great achievement!

Mathematically yours!

Go Giants! Beat Detroit!

Sometimes the impossible happens!  The SF Giants are up 4-0 for game 1 of the World Series…… can’t ever count this team out!  How inspiring is this?  I have been a fan since I was a little girl.  I am really digging this.  It is only a game but these moments in life are amazing!  You can’t but help feeling the magic.  It is only the bottom of the 4th inning but……

I love orange for Halloween and the Giants!

Ornaments or Tools?

Ornaments or tools?  It hit me hard recently that our classrooms are exciting reflections of learning opportunities.  But if something like my number line is on the wall it should be more than an ornament.  Everyday use of this tool will change the learning environment for mathematics.  Every area of content that we teach mathematically can be reinforced with daily questioning on the number line.  As we count to the 100th day of school the number line can be a part of each exciting number along the journey.  The questions we ask students are so much more meaningful than the worksheets we run off.  Just some thoughts at 4 am………. check out the free section of my website for daily questions to ask students.  Those will be posted later today…..

Welcome Back!

Here we go, one more time and everybody’s feeling fine!  New year, new students new challenges!  Here’s hoping that summer gave you rest and relaxation to recharge your battery.  My summer workshops are drawing to a close but it has been a great summer.  I have enjoyed the challenges that summer brings for me…… lots of different kinds of presentations and great teachers who make it all worthwhile.

So happy to welcome my first group of Kim Sutton Associates!  Wonderful folks who will bring their own special magic to my presentations in places that I can’t get to.  Had the realization that time is passing quickly and there are so many places to go and we can’t get there without help!  They came to California for a week of training in June and it was amazing.  Last year we started with two special folks, Patti Launi and Cheryl Henjum.  What powerful presenters they are!  If you have been lucky enough to have heard them, you know what I mean.

Are you starting the year with the class number line?  I certainly hope so.  Check out the research about number lines under the Free PDFs and Conference Files.  The last three years have brought so many powerful experiences in classroom using this tool and then going into empty number lines for elapsed time, making change, rounding readiness, multiples, fractions and decimals.

Mathematically yours!