Author: Kimberly Gilliland

LINCS Makes Math Fun

Lincoln Elementary School has been working towards helping students learn their basic math facts for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division through fun and engaging activities.

For the past six weeks, students were given the opportunity to stay an hour after school on Tuesdays or Thursdays for extra practice with Ms. Love, a student teacher in Ms. Sullivan’s and Mrs. Lippen’s classroom.

According to Ms. Love, the main learning objective for this club was, “For students to gain a better understanding of their math facts through engaging activities in order to help them achieve success in their math classrooms.”

Some of the students’ favorite games and activities included: Even Steven’s Odd, making multiplication fact bracelets, a Chutes and Ladders board game for subtraction and division, and dice games where students could roll dice to achieve the highest answer for any operation.

A 5th grade student stated, “Math can be challenging but it’s easier when it’s fun!” Many students expressed how the club was a fun way to learn math facts with their friends.Untitled-1

Students exemplified leadership qualities by assisting and collaborating with others in order to find solutions while working through frustrations. Ms. Love noted that students would teach others multiplication tricks or help guide them to the correct answers.

Lincoln Elementary is the first Leader In Me school in Wisconsin. The school district focuses on encouraging students to exemplify the Seven Habits of Highly Efficient Students on a daily basis.

This month’s habit is “Seek first to understand, then to be understood.” Students are taught to listen to other’s ideas and feelings and understand alternative perspectives.

The math facts club helped students prioritize and set goals. Students decided that they would work first before going home and relaxing or playing outside with friends. Many students would also receive help on their homework before participating in the math games.

Students were proactive by taking the time to meet after school and by coming up with new ideas on their own. During the last few meetings, students were encouraged to work together to create their own board games focusing on math.

The time spent in the math facts club was highly beneficial for the students.

My Digital Self

On a national/international level, I’m most interested in news about the environment, celebrities, and for the time being, politics. I’m usually not too interested in politics, but this most recent election has helped me realize the importance of being informed on certain issues. I care a lot about the environment so I like to know what’s going on with that. For example, I followed the DAPL news closely. As for celebrity news (gossip) that’s my guilty pleasure. I know that news isn’t very important but I just can’t turn away!

On a state level, I like to know news about new policies/laws and police reports. I’m interested in what the governor is saying and doing. I’m also interested in what crimes are happening. My hometown is in Lake County, IL so I’m close to the Wisconsin border. I keep up on news in both Illinois and Wisconsin, however I follow Illinois more closely.

On a more local level, I’m interested in community and school news. I used to work for the Royal Purple Newspaper so I was a lot more up to date on local news because I would know the stories before they were even published. I was most interested in what kind of community events were happening and how people in the community were coming together. At the university, I was most interested in the outcome of sporting events; that was my favorite news to cover. The feature stories in the Royal Purple interest me as well.

I do not closely follow news from my hometown, however I do occasionally read up on it. Most of the news I see is about the passing of someone or a minor crime committed. If I did want to read about what’s going on in Lake County, the best news source would be the Daily Herald.

Typically, when I search for news I use Google’s search engine. When I do go directly to news sites by typing in the web address, I usually visit CNN.com, NBCNews.com, and FoxNews.com. I would say my favorite news site is CNN.com. The three sites I use the most have very similar content, but CNN has a few unique features I like. The site has a ‘live updates’ and ‘live TV’ section, the content is very organized and easily readable, and there is a wide variety of photos, videos, and text.

When I consume news, I like to read text as well as look at photos. I’m a photographer so I always like to analyze the photos. I do occasionally listen to news, such as on TV or a video, but I prefer to read text because then I can go at my own pace. It also allows me to skim and pick and choose the information I want to focus on.

I have interacted with news sources in the past. I have worked for two newspapers (Royal Purple and Southern Lakes Newspaper) as a photojournalist so I have sent them photos and been published.

Social media does lead me to news. I see a lot of news either shared by friends or promoted on Facebook. Typically it is my college age friends or older adults who are sharing news stories relevant to them. I do use Twitter as well, however not as often. I follow a few celebrities that lead me to news. For example, the musician G-Eazy often shares music related news from Complex. I also follow National Geographic and I am able to access a variety of news through what they post to their account. I do not read blogs or listen to podcasts.

I cannot recall a time when I thought a story was legitimate and it ended up being fake. I know I can always trust big news sources such as CNN, NBC, and Fox. I think it would be illegal for them to publish false news. When I do read questionable stories, I try to check other news sources for a similar story. If I can find the same general story from different news outlets, I can trust that the story is accurate.