At Maneuvering the Middle, we take pride in the versatility of our resources. There is not one right way to use a student handout, activity, or even the student math videos. Teachers in our Facebook Group shared how they used the student videos to meet the needs of their students and I was blown away. What is most fascinating is how teachers use them in ways we didn’t even think of ...
Student Organization in Middle School
Do you struggle with When I taught my super sweet (not!) high school students, students would throw away their papers as they left my room – IN FRONT OF ME. Has this happened to you? Today, I am sharing what student organization system has worked for me and how other teachers have students organize notes and other papers using Maneuvering the Middle ...
Ordering Rational Numbers
Comparing and ordering rational numbers is a complex skill with many steps, often complicated by the number of ways the problem can be presented. These tips and ideas will help scaffold this skill and make it more hands-on and engaging for your students. Standards Comparing and ordering rational numbers is predominantly a 6th grade skill in both Common Core and TEKS. It will also ...
Planning and Designing PBL Projects in Math
If you are interested in Project Based Learning, you might be wondering - where do I start? How do I find these projects? All of the ideas in this post come from Project Based Teaching, a book that we are reading to learn more about implementing projects in our math classrooms this year. Click the link here to grab your copy - a must for any teacher’s shelf. Make sure to ...
What Makes Maneuvering the Middle Different
Maneuvering the Middle resources are used in an estimated 10,000 classrooms all around the world. (Wow!) What is it about our math curriculum that has teachers telling other teachers and their administration about it? Maneuvering the Middle Curriculum Works The reason we can proudly promote our resources as the best thing for students (and teachers) is because we have first ...
Teaching Multiplying and Dividing Integers
Multiplying and dividing integers is the perfect math concept - the computation is relatively simple, there are opportunities for hands-on learning with manipulatives, and there are an abundance of explanations that support the conceptual understanding. However, it is a little tricky! Be sure to read “How to Teach Integer Operations” where we cover the specifics on adding and ...
Multiplying Fractions with Models
Multiplying fractions: the good news - the process for teaching modeling fraction multiplication is much more straightforward than teaching dividing fractions with models! But if you are teaching fraction multiplication, then you will most likely be teaching dividing fractions shortly, so be sure to check out our dividing fractions post where you can get a free guide. While the ...
Promoting Perseverance in Math
Do your students give up as soon as they see a problem that requires a little more effort? Promoting perseverance is a highly complex skill to teach! This problem recently was brought up in our Facebook group, and our amazing community of teachers delivered some spectacular solutions. While I have written on cultivating a growth mindset in your classroom in the past, these ideas ...
End of the Year Ideas for Middle School
The end of the year is upon us! While there is no tired like teacher tired, I would argue that there is no tired like end of year teacher tired. If you are reading this, hopefully, state testing is behind you and you are looking for some easy ways to make the end of the year memorable but doable. Here are 8 end of the year ideas for middle school. 1. Try Something ...
Strengthening Classroom Culture Through Projects
At Maneuvering the Middle, we are all reading Project Based Teaching by Suzie Boss and John Larmers. Throughout the next few months, we will be discussing what we are learning as we read the book. There are 7 best practices for Project Best Teaching, and today we are covering building a strong classroom culture. If you are interested in incorporating more projects in your classroom, ...