Over at Divisible by 3, I shared a post on using Google Forms and Sheets to create your own form to use with students all year long. I think it's so important we capture, sort, assess, and discuss the rich thinking and data students can give us. Hope you find it useful. Please let me know if you have any questions or suggestions.

Days 201-205 challenge students with fitting small and LARGE marshmallows inside a glass with 8 ounces of hot cocoa. You might ask, "Mr. Stadel, why didn't you do a chubby bunny estimation challenge?" I ran out of marshmallows. Ha!

I'm really curious what conversations might arise in your classrooms as students formulate ideas and reasoning.

In addition to the new Winter challenges, I've also given the Google Forms a crisper appearance and added some constraints/prompts to the fields for students to submit.

What's too LOW?
I've put a boundary and prompt to challenge students to be braver (greater) than zero.

What's too HIGH?
I've put a boundary and prompt to challenge students to be braver (lower) than 1,000,000.

Your estimate.
There's a prompt for students to check if their estimate is within their range.

Your reasoning.
I know we (students and teachers) can do better than simply saying "I guessed."
I'm suggesting a sentence starter for your students, having them type, "I noticed" first and follow it with their reasoning.

I'm open for feedback on these constraints/prompts. Please let me know what you think.

Two years ago, I officially launched Estimation 180. In celebration, T-shirts will ship for free this week! 
Don't forget, you get a free sticker with every shirt. Thanks for your ongoing support!

A few months ago I received a gift in the mail from my favorite professor, who I still have yet to meet. Hopefully NCSM or NCTM, Boston 2015. So Professor Triangleman gifted me NCTM's 1986 yearbook Estimation and Mental Computation by Harold L. Schoen and Marilyn J. Zweng. I just started reading it a few days ago and have already found a few gems. Maybe you saw me tweet them out. I'm about to embark on a section titled "Reasons for Making A Special Effort to Teach Estimation". Here's the introductory paragraph:

Does estimation merit an important role in the curriculum? Perhaps estimation is so easy and so pervasive that students learn the ideas even without formal instruction. Most leaders today disagree with this view; it is generally felt that the amount of instruction in estimation is not what it should be. (Increasing attention to this subject is one reason for the existence of this yearbook!) But why, if estimation is so widely represented in mathematics, must a special effort be made by teachers to work with these concepts? There are many reasons for such an effort, and these reasons for teaching estimation are not the same as the reasons for doing estimation. 

Almost 30 years later, is this worth discussing? 
Would Schoen and Zweng feel differently today?
I'm curious to know where Schoen and Zweng are headed in the following pages of this section. Are you?

I look forward to posting some follow-up notes in the next week. In the meantime, what are your thoughts?

From now until September 1, 2014 (Labor Day), there will be free shipping on all shirts in honor of Back to School! 

As I said in my last post, I'm not selling Estimation 180 gear to make money; it's a hobby to simply spread the number sense and break even. I want to thank all of you who have already bought t-shirts and/or stickers. I truly appreciate the support and I can't tell you how cool it is to see you posting pictures of your gear online. Here are a few of the pictures from my Estimation 180 scrapbook.

Order a gift for your colleague or simply strut your Estimation 180 shirt at a teacher pre-service day. Plus, you still get a free sticker with every t-shirt you buy!

Head on over to the store.

They're here! Estimation 180 t-shirts and stickers! Yes, I'm excited.

Estimation 180 was born out of my love for number sense and visual mathematics. In addition, it was important I help my students develop better number sense and see the world of mathematics in a different way. Little did I know, the site would make its way into classrooms across the United States, Canada, and other parts of the world. Thank you all for tweeting or emailing your experiences as I find it so cool that students are exploring number sense in your classroom and having mathematical conversations, sometimes even constructive arguments.

It makes my math heart full of joy to see other teachers do amazing things with Estimation 180 and beyond. Please make some time to check out blogs like Joe Schwartz, Jonathan Claydon, Mary Bourassa, and Megan Schmidt who are just a FEW of the teachers taking the idea and running with it. Teachers like Michael, Hedge, Dan, Robert, John, Matt, and others spread the Estimation 180 love when doing teacher trainings or presentations. I couldn't be more appreciative and grateful. Thank you! Chris Harris even shared some bacon estimations to a roomful of parents one weekend.  I love how the site has become an instrument to help teachers create a classroom of curiosity with students, building number sense along the way. In addition to daily estimation challenges, the site has many of the lessons I've developed over the past few years.

These shirts are just another extension of my passion for number sense. As I present at conferences and give teacher trainings, I'm excited to give away some t-shirts to attendees nailing estimation challenges built into my workshops. Likewise, stickers are available for you to stick some number sense in your favorite place. This is how I roll!


I'm not in this to make money. This is more of a hobby to go along with the site. I would be eternally grateful if you decide to buy shirts and stickers and spread the Estimation 180 love. Head over to the Estimation 180 store and check out the shirts, their sizes, and how easy it is to order.

Nuts and Bolts:
If you're interested, I think it'd be good to be transparent on the nuts and bolts behind the t-shirts and stickers. If you're not interested in the nuts and bolts behind the t-shirts, skip the rest of this post and check out the t-shirts and stickers.

No outside party is financially backing Estimation 180. AND I don't plan on charging for using the site, ever! Therefore, I have done everything I can think of to make these shirts as affordable as possible, because I'm not in this to make money. Any money made from shirts and stickers would go back toward web costs associated with Estimation 180 and the free t-shirts and stickers I would pass out at conferences. As you can imagine, it's been one huge math task keeping track of expenses in order to set reasonable price points for the t-shirts and stickers so that teachers can afford them.

$20 for a shirt gets you a lot! You get a high-quality shirt for one. This price also includes tax and shipping. It also looks like I can throw in a sticker with each t-shirt order. Sweet! This $20 also goes toward the cost of the blank shirt, printing, mailing envelopes, and labels (mailing and return).

$2.50 gets you a high-quality sticker. This covers the cost of getting the sticker made, the envelope, labels, and postage. Of course, if you order two or three stickers, it's a better deal.

*Important note: my buddy Johnny from Speysyde was in charge of printing the t-shirts and he did a fantastic job! Please cruise by his site. It's all about the sustainable lifestyle:
Our mission is simple. To spread awareness and advocate an eco & social sustainable lifestyle through the creative collaboration of culture, music, sport, art, adventure & travel.

I declined using some of the premium web store features my host offers, such as shipping calculators, tax calculators, and other premium web store features. This drastically keeps the cost of the shirts at $20. For each purchase and transaction, Stripe takes a small percentage from my side. There is no additional cost to you. Their service, similar to PayPal, makes each transaction secure, safe, and easy.

I think you'll truly enjoy your shirt. I am!

Andrew

Here are a few updates I'd like to share with you at my math blog, Divisible by 3.

Okay, so I'm finally taking the Bacon Estimates off the home page [sad face]. However, what would Spring Break be without creating a few estimation challenges, right? The Word Count estimates came from a short conversation these two cool guys had a few days ago.  

Day 187: Let's make 180 by repeating "Estimation 180" a bunch of times. How many?

Day 188: Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address is awesome. Here's the most common version. Love the top hat! 

Day 189: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave one of the most memorable speeches of all time. How many words was it?

Day 190: Heard of those cool things known as the 8 Standards for Mathematical Practice? I hope so. 

If anyone is interested in how these estimation challenges were designed, nudge me in the comments or on Twitter.

Last month I added the Lessons page to Estimation 180 so you can quickly access lessons I've made. I will continue to add lessons as I make them and host them right here.

This month, I'm adding a Presentations & Workshops page to the site. Since last November, I've been fortunate to work with some amazing math teachers at conferences and workshops. I've learned a lot and have truly enjoyed doing math with teachers as we share instructional strategies and lessons. My goal is to help support math teachers in strengthening their instructional tool belt for the Common Core classroom. 

I'm excited about this new chapter. Drop me a line if you're interested.

You'll see this lovely new option in the menu bar at Estimation 180.

I've added a "Lessons" page with many lessons I've created, sorting them by their CCSS. I'd like to thank Dan Meyer and Robert Kaplinsky for their friendly suggestions (nudging) to tag my lessons in an attempt to make it easier for other teachers to find and use. Plus, I'm tired of my lessons collecting digital dust and hope that teachers can find and use them.

I was honored to give a workshop for teachers in my district today. The workshop became the motivating factor for making this Lessons page. Right now, most of the lessons are 3 Act lessons that can be found at Dan's 101qs.com A few other lessons are ones I've blogged about. However, I have added two test pages at Estimation 180 where the entire lesson is available for teachers to use. Right now. At Estimation 180.

Pay close attention to my File Cabinet and Stacking Cups lesson PAGES!.

These two full-on lessons are ready for you and your students. You'll see all three acts, teacher notes, student work, student handout (if you like/need), and downloadable videos. Let me know if you have any thoughts, advice, or questions.

I hope this "Lessons" page is useful and/or better than that silly unorganized spreadsheet I've got lingering. You'll notice a few links are under construction, but many links deliver the goods. Check in often for updates.

P.S. Thanks to Fawn, Nathan, Robert, and Eric for your feedback.