Keep Calm and Love Fractions

Presenter: Marcie Abramson, Ed.M. Teachers21

Date: Thursday, May 31, 2018 
Time: 8:30 AM - 3:30 PM 
Session: 18-233701

Description: What is a fraction? This highly participatory workshop, designed for teachers of grades 3-5, will engage teachers in CCSS tasks geared to developing a better understanding of fractions. Specifically, what a fraction is, what a fraction means, and how fractions fit into our base ten number system. Through the use of various manipulatives, models, and representations, teachers will be able to deepen their conceptual knowledge of fractions and be able to work through misconceptions that may arise in the learning process. The goal of this workshop is to allow teachers opportunities to build a repertoire of strategies, tasks and a “magic-math-bag” of fraction fun to help both students and teachers better understand, communicate, and apply fraction sense to problems.

Participants will:

• Ponder, wrestle with, and discuss the question “What is a fraction and is it a number?”
• Become more fluent with and better able to model parts/wholes.
• Identify and compare unit fractions and recognize the advantage of using them to solve problems.
• Explore the concept of equivalency and what that means in terms of working with fractions.
• Investigate different ways to compare fractions.
• Rekindle their enthusiasm for the often misunderstood, but lovingly accessible and purposeful, fraction!

Audience: 3-5+ Teachers, SPED Teachers, Curriculum Coordinators, Administrators

PDP/COA: 6 hours. 10 PDPs with project. 
Registration Fee: $159 NRC member districts. $169 Other districts. 
Register by: Friday, May 11, 2018 Register online through your school district’s SmartPD link to the Collaborative offerings, through NRC’s SmartPD at www.northrivercollaborative.org on the PD webpage, or by fax or email.

About the Presenter: Marcie Abramson’s passion for teaching mathematics is contagious and has made her an increasingly sought-after consultant and presenter. With over 25 years of teaching middle school mathematics, Marcie continues to be a clinical professor at Brandeis University, teaching Elementary School Curriculum and Teaching: Mathematics as well as being an adjunct faculty member at Lesley University, where she teaches and coaches teachers. She also taught at Boston University’s Upward Bound program for fifteen summers and continues to love being a consultant for Teachers 21.
     Marcie’s publications include Painless Math Word Problems (Barron’s 2010, 2001) as well as co-authoring Mathematics-Exploring Your World (Silver, Burdett and Ginn, 1990), Math Extra – The Sum Times (DLM Teaching Resources, 1988), Amazing Facts and Real Problems: Decks I and II (Creative Publications, 1988) and Trivia Math: A Problem a Day (Creative Publications, 1986).
     Marcie’s presentations at Regional Conferences and Annual Meetings of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) have taken her all over the country. Her most recent NCTM and Association of Teachers of Mathematics in New England (ATMNE) workshops have focused on Differentiated Instruction in the Math Class.
     Marcie Abramson is a Summa Cum Laude graduate of Boston University where she also earned an Ed.M. in Mathematics Education. (Biographical information is copied from http://www.teachers21.org) 

(Rescheduled from March 26, 2018)