Introduction: Welcome to my blog

Why are numbers important? This is an essential question that I will plan on asking my students continually throughout their studies. We can answer this question in almost every area of learning by answering more specific unit questions. For example, if we are doing a language arts lesson, we can ask: How can I find a page number I am looking for in my book? This will help students realize that without numbers, it would take a lot longer to locate a desired page in their reading. Other questions revealing the importance of numbers that can be asked come in both history and math lessons: How do I know when something happened in history and How can I show someone what number I am talking about without holding up that many fingers?

In order to help my students answer these essential and unit questions, it is necessary to use both inquiry and project-based learning. Sometimes it will be easiest for me as the teacher to demonstrate certain unit questions which would make students learn through inquiry. I could show the children where page numbers can be found in a book and how to use a table of contents and then they can try this skill themselves, asking as many questions as they need to. Project-based learning is also crucial when figuring out the essential question of why numbers are important. When dealing with the history question of dealing with when something happened in the past, students can do a timeline project. They will be able to work with other students to create a large timeline of important dates in history, learning how to organize them in chronological order. Although very different in theory, both inquiry and project-based learning are great tools to use when teaching students how to answer question effectively.