"Hold Up, Wait a Minute, Let Me Put Some Math In It!"

I know, try to control yourself. While sitting there reading the title I'm sure you almost leapt out of your seat. Who couldn't? I'm actually not going to get too arithmetically deep on you, so hear me out. The more I sit through my Intro to LA class and ponder how I am going to use the skills I am learning in my math class...the more I find answers. Imagine that. One of my questions I always want to consider as a future teacher is "How can I effectively, and appealingly, convey this to my students?" On top of teaching me to think outside the box, my class has once again provided me with an answer. As I have mentioned before, The Giant Jam Sandwich, was my favorite children's book growing up. It's about a community who has a seemingly unsurmountable problem and works together to come up with a solution (theme: working together to solve problems). To me that story couldn't provide a better picture of what I want my future classroom to be -- a community of learners working together to figure out how to solve seeming unsurmountable problems. So I would make a first day/week lesson using this book as a read aloud in order to give the children a light-hearted example of who we are aiming to be. It is very important for me as a teacher to set up these devices of structure and purpose early on because it saves me and my students a lot of heartache and time later on in the year. The primary story element that makes The Giant Jam Sandwich work for my lesson is the plot. I want my students to walk away with the lesson knowing that our class will be a community, I only expect them to be learners (not experts), the fact that everyone has something to contribute, we will share success and failures, and that it will take time. All these points to relate to what happens to the characters in the story. Speaking of which....what happens in the story? I suggest and strongly reccomend that you take the time to go find out! You won't regret it.