I love running into former students and hearing what they remember about fourth grade. More than once in the last couple of years I've had a student tell me, "I remember how you let us watch the ACC tournament in class." I'm not sure what that says about my academic rigor, but it definitely shows where one of my passions besides teaching lies: college basketball!
Growing up in North Carolina means you have a loyalty to a college basketball team. It doesn't matter if anyone in your family ever went there or if you've ever even visited the campus. You still cheer enthusiastically for one team and enthusiastically hate the other three. I can remember crying at night growing up because I didn't want to go to school the next day when my team had lost. My sister and I may have been known to throw away admissions packets from one particular college because we'd had rather died than attend there, even if a full scholarship had been offered.
One of my co-workers is not from around here and the first year we worked together I asked her what she was planning for ACC math the first week of March. She gave me a completely blank look and said, "What are you talking about?" Ten years later and I still haven't fully convinced her this is an important, though unstated, objective in the fourth grade state math curriculum. But I'm just going to keep on writing my lesson plans as if it counts.
Novel units are my thing but so is ACC basketball! These are my ACC Math Task cards that I update annually with current ACC team and player statistics. You can download a free sampler here containing four word problems featuring the North Carolina ACC teams. The full product containing 60 word problems (four featuring each of 15 ACC teams), recording sheets and an answer key can be found here. Most fourth grade math objectives are covered, but the word problems are appropriate for advanced third graders or for fifth grade review as well.
Whatever you do to celebrate the ACC tournament next week (March 7th-11th), remember that your students WILL remember... whether that's what you thought they'd remember or not.
Go Deacs!
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Growing up in North Carolina means you have a loyalty to a college basketball team. It doesn't matter if anyone in your family ever went there or if you've ever even visited the campus. You still cheer enthusiastically for one team and enthusiastically hate the other three. I can remember crying at night growing up because I didn't want to go to school the next day when my team had lost. My sister and I may have been known to throw away admissions packets from one particular college because we'd had rather died than attend there, even if a full scholarship had been offered.
One of my co-workers is not from around here and the first year we worked together I asked her what she was planning for ACC math the first week of March. She gave me a completely blank look and said, "What are you talking about?" Ten years later and I still haven't fully convinced her this is an important, though unstated, objective in the fourth grade state math curriculum. But I'm just going to keep on writing my lesson plans as if it counts.
Novel units are my thing but so is ACC basketball! These are my ACC Math Task cards that I update annually with current ACC team and player statistics. You can download a free sampler here containing four word problems featuring the North Carolina ACC teams. The full product containing 60 word problems (four featuring each of 15 ACC teams), recording sheets and an answer key can be found here. Most fourth grade math objectives are covered, but the word problems are appropriate for advanced third graders or for fifth grade review as well.
Whatever you do to celebrate the ACC tournament next week (March 7th-11th), remember that your students WILL remember... whether that's what you thought they'd remember or not.
Go Deacs!
