Welcome to Shannon’s 1st ever VLOG!
Get the inside scoop on the Math Mights show from the creator herself – from how the show came about, the characters, to where you can watch it and how SIS4Teacher will continue to support the show. Most importantly, see how the show, and related resources on mathmights.org, gives you everything you need to get started using these strategies in your classroom right away!
Vlog Transcript
Hi my name is Shannon! Thanks so much for joining me this week! Instead of doing my normal blog this week, I’m doing a blog to talk about an exciting opportunity that we’ve been working really hard on at SIS4Teachers.
0:15
As many of you know, I’m the creator of Math Mights, and they were brought to life in 2017. I’ve always wanted the Math Mights to be able to have a great outreach to help children in all different areas understand math strategies “three ways plus the traditional.” Many of you have seen me present, or maybe even have been a part of some of my online things to show how to use the Math Mights. We were offered a really exciting opportunity to partner with PBS and the new Michigan Learning Channel in Michigan, which is providing educational partnerships with schools and parents all around the state of Michigan. We are now able to connect with them and are able to do our Math Mights Show which is releasing two shows every week on Kindergarten, First, Second and Third Grade.
1:02
Each of these shows have been really thought out and really developed around the philosophies that we use at SIS4Teachers. We talk so much about the idea of Concrete-Pictorial-Abstract (CPA), getting kids to be able to explain their mathematical thinking, and to really be able to create a common language in math. Throughout the thoughtful process of each of the shows, we have used lots of different rich material, from number talks to get kids to communicate their thinking, to visual models for word problems, and being able to explain math where we can invite all students to the math lesson, getting them to have a preview to think about the content.
1:41
The exciting part about what we’ve been working on is each show that we create really aligns to what you’re teaching in your classroom in real time. So the January show comes out, and you might be working on place value in your first grade room, or you might be finishing learning about the basics of multiplication and division. The show will kind of grow with you throughout the school year, featuring different lessons that you can use right away.
2:06
I think some of the coolest news that I’ve gotten this week, with it being our launch week, is that we’ve already had teachers that have told me they’ve used it in their classroom, hit pause from the michiganlearning.org website, had their kids do the number talk that we were talking about in the show, and then turned it back on and kids who are relating to our characters in the Math Mights Show, not only with the strategy, but also the way that the other kids solved the problem. And so I think that connection is really important. For teachers to have accessibility to lessons that they can do virtually, whether they’re teaching virtually, in a hybrid situation, or even face-to-face.
2:45
This show also helps to branch out for parents, it’s accessible on the PBS channel in all different areas of Michigan. They can go on to their TV, even if they don’t have a computer, they can get the idea and the philosophy behind the lesson to do with their child. You also can get the lessons on demand on the mathmights.org website that we’ve created or the Michigan Learning Channel. For each episode we created an extension activity that was thoughtfully planned with the standards that we were delivering so that we could get those activities to be used and readily available for teachers or parents.
3:22
We also want the show for students to be able to enjoy and have fun. The Math Mights, if the kids can get in the world of the Math Mights thinking and Mathville, and thinking about all the ways that our characters solve the problems. It is truly amazed me at the students that I have seen that remember those characters, they remember the strategies that they’ve learned, and they’re able to explain their thinking.
3:46
The neatest part about the Math Mights is that if you learn the addition strategies, let’s say in first grade, and you get the idea of D.C. and Value Pak and maybe even Abracus, you can do all of those strategies when you’re doing multiplication. So you can take teen numbers and decompose them to make it easier to multiply with D.C. You might be familiar with doing partial products, which is part of decomposing by place value, which features our friends from the Value Pak. You also can use Abracus, which is compensation, as we do different things in our compensation for multiplication. And of course, T-Pops just always fits in because there’s always that traditional method. But students start to understand that there’s more than one way to solve the problem.
4:31
The show has been incredible on my end from developing. As you know I’m a presenter and a classroom teacher. I’m used to actually having an audience versus looking at a camera. Our crew at SIS has really pulled together, from everyone that we’ve worked with behind the scenes, to producing it in our studio, as well as doing all of the edits and all the outreach.
4:53
We have three fabulous teachers that have joined our team. Rhonda Askew is our third grade teacher, that’s doing an amazing job right now with multiplication and division. We have our first grade teacher, Tiffany Markavich, who is doing a great job with a lot of different things in place value. And then we also have Alicia Gray is our Kindergarten teacher. I play the second grade teacher in the show, so I’m able to use a lot of the different Math Mights and sort of be at the front of showing all the different portions to it.
5:22
I’ve created and developed all of the shows, which has taken a ton of time, and kind of rethought about the way I think about delivering things. But I think the most important part is is that we’re getting this information out to parents, not just in Michigan, but all throughout the United States because you can go to the show on the internet, which is great.
5:43
So in the coming weeks, I’m going to dedicate my time and my blog around the show. I’m going to be giving you tips and tricks for the different strategies that we use in each of the shows. Using those standards that you’re already on, really helping you figure out the philosophies of why we use certain tools and why we’re instructing in a certain way. So I hope that you’ll look forward to more of our blogs that have to do with that.
6:08
If you’re a part of our M3: Molding Math Mindset, you have a special ticket! You are going to get all the behind-the-scenes footage, even the PowerPoints that I have developed, that you can use in your classroom! And the big secret is all the animated pieces that we use in the show come in the PowerPoint! So the kids are gonna love it! For those of you that are part of our M3: Molding Math Mindsets membership website.
6:34
I hope that you’ll take time to join us on our social media channels that are Math Mights with our Facebook, we also have Instagram and Twitter. There’s going to be lots of great announcements as we do different shows, as we’re airing shows all through the second semester of this year and I think you’re going to really enjoy them.
6:51
If you want to check out more, you can go to MathMights.org. Or you also can see things on the michiganlearning.org which is the vehicle of which all of the on demand shows are. On our website, we’ll have lots of different tutorial videos and ways for different free downloads. I even matched all the Virtual Manipulatives that you can use from the items we’re using in the show. I truly hope that the show makes a difference for you, for your families and your students. Thanks so much!
