Thank you so much for your kind words. BUT - I am an 'old' dog here
and have learned so much from the people who came before me on this
board.

I think that I try to 'recycle' a lot of what I have learned from
others (and I do try to give them credit for it) - there is a lot to
say for years and years of experience.

I will try to continue to help. Considering that I usually feel that
I haven't succeeded with the kids, Thanks, again - you made my day.

On 7/04/08, Message To DSF/NJ wrote:
> You consistently have some of the best ideas on this board. Thank
> you for sharing. You have helped make my classroom a better place
> and I sincerely thank you once again.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On 7/03/08, DSF/NJ wrote:
>> First of all, these names are not really deliberately long and
>> obtuse. These words all have meaning and they make sense -
>> however, we no longer speak the english language the way they
>> did hundreds of years ago; we no longer study latin and other
>> languages to understand the roots of some of these words.
>>
>> Whenever I can, I try to break these words down into parts and
>> define them for the kids. If they understand what it means, it
>> makes it easier to remember.
>>
>> Also, a colleague of mine used this word wall technique and I
>> liked it, so I adopted it. (Thanks, Delia.):
>>
>> She (and I) bought mini-sentence strips from Lakeshore (easier
>> than cutting card stock and larger than index cards) and when a
>> new term was introduced, in addition to writing it on the board
>> and having the kids copy it into their notes with a definition,
>> she would hand off a sentence strip and a fat marker to a
>> student and tell him to write the word legibly on the card and
>> staple (that's how we were told to put things up)it to the wall.
>> The kids liked angling the cards.
>>
>> In later years, I used a 'wall pocket' system of the type that
>> elementary teachers use for vocabulary words. I tacked it to
>> the wall and simply swapped out the words when they became too
>> old to leave up and I needed room for new topic words.
>>
>> One of my teachers uses 6x8 index cards and has them stapled to
>> a bulletin board starting from the bottom up. She does it
>> systematically, row by row, until the entire board is full by
>> the end of the year.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On 7/03/08, Sara wrote:
>>> On 7/02/08, Math Mommy wrote:
>>>> How do you teach math vocabulary? My district is insistent
>>>> on teaching vocabulary each six weeks. I want to do
>>>> something more creative then just looking up the
>>>> definition in the book. Are there any good creative ways
>>>> to teach vocabulary that will really help my students
>>>> understand the meaning of the words? (this would be for
>>>> 8th grade math and Algebra)
>>>
>>> Yes. Have them invent new words and phrases for those words
>>> and phrases. Math words and phrases are too long, too heavy
>>> and too obtuse.
>>> What else could we call 'decimilization of fractions'? My
>>> kids shut down at the very name.
>>>
>>> And why do we call algebra algebra? Where did the word come
>>> from and why? And what better could we call it? What's
>>> another phrase for 'quadratic equations'? What if you HAD to
>>> rename all those things?
>>>
>>> I find it gets kids thinking, really thinking and they love
>>> the task - they feel like they're getting back somehow at
>>> whoever gave these things such long and obtuse names.
>>>
>>>

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