Comments on: Frenzied Multiplication

By: leighnewton

leighnewton — Mon, 19 May 2008 10:52:12 +0000

Thanks for the information. I’m going to give this a go in the dying weeks of the Northern Hemisphere calendar. My Grade 5 kids needs some revision on their time-tables and this will be perfect. I like the idea of showing volunteers’ graphs in front of the class. I have a data projector at least. (no IWB however).

I’m thinking I might use the Addition Frenzy sheets next year with my new class of Grade 5s.

By: jacksoncc

jacksoncc — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 22:14:11 +0000

I really liked this idea for practicing multiplication facts. I think the simplicity of the worksheet will be easy for my elementary school students to use and understand. I appreciate that the worksheet comes with a printable answer key – anything that helps to save time is much appreciated. I also like the idea of graphing the results as an individual motivational tool. I like to encourage my students to compete with themself – success can be found in making positive improvement from the time before (not just in comparison to their classmates). The idea of a graph is a wonderful visual tool for the students to note their progress. Thank you for the great website and ideas!

By: Sally

Sally — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 19:32:24 +0000

I like your idea and display my student’s progess in a chart with stickers that hangs in the room. It motivates them. I have had more trouble this year with students not catching on or not caring to learn their facts.

By: Taylor

Taylor — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 18:16:01 +0000

This *is* a great idea for a motivator, but I’ve always questioned the reason we’re supposed to memorize those. I spent almost 2 whole school years trying to memorize multiplication tables, and it killed my self-confidence in math. It also lead to many unpleasant and traumatic memories of confrontations at home with dad. It also lead to the first of two times in my school career that I cheated.

Why, in general, not in your classroom only, do we not teach the *concept* of multiplication, then paste the times tables to the desk for reference & go on? I think the memorizing would happen eventually.

It always felt to me like memorizing disconnected facts was turning me into a machine.

But since I’m not a math teacher, I don’t know if this has been tried, or what the other concerns are.

By: schoolspirit

schoolspirit — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 20:43:37 +0000

Great idea with the spreadsheet if you can find the time to input all the data. I think the kids would get right into it with images like that.

What I’d never thought of was getting the kids to pre-mark the questions they thought were the easiest and quickest before these sort of tests were taken. I’ve told them to scan down once we start and complete the quick ones, but I might have to try the pre-marking.

Thanks for the idea.

By: Ankita- Interactive whiteboards fan

Ankita- Interactive whiteboards fan — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 07:56:06 +0000

Thanks for sharing the idea of using a spreadsheet and specially that Maths Drill website.

By: Shaun Fletcher

Shaun Fletcher — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 01:49:20 +0000

I really like the idea of using the spreadsheet as a motivational tool. It got me thinking that I could use my Senteo Responders and Smartboard in the same way. I could also motivate the students to help each other with their facts to achieve class mastery. If you computer access Timez Attack is a video game that students move through when mastery is achieved, it also reinforces multiplication as grouping sets of numbers.

By: Graham Wegner

Graham Wegner — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 10:52:19 +0000

I was using Excel so I just used the graph function from within the spreadsheet – the IWB is like a giant touch screen computer so I create it in front of the class in a matter of seconds but I don’t usually save the graph. Does that make sense?

By: Allanahk

Allanahk — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 20:22:25 +0000

I like the graphing aspect of this idea so kids can see their progress.

I have never seen a IWB used like this so this may well be a dumb question…

How do you get the graph that the kids have made on to the interactive whiteboard for class viewing?