Hey, everyone! Now that readers have had the chance to get to know the whole Squad via their origin stories and related activities, it’s time to go through their first adventure. You’ve had the opportunity to download the whole graphic novel in its printed form. Now you get to see it in its digital form! […]
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Day 5: Radical’s Leap Days
Today’s activity is just a little warm up for what is about to come. Make sure kids read Radical’s origin on pp. 105-106 of the book, which if you still haven’t downloaded it for free, is available here. Today, we’re talking about leap days and leap years, and why we have them. This involves some decimal […]
Day 4: La Calculadora’s Churros Recipe
Hey, everyone! No big math activity today. Take a day off! Instead, there’s just a little measuring to be done with fractions as you make LaCalculadoras Cinnamon Churros Recipe ! As you can read her origin on p. 101 of Solution Squad, Dora’s recipes helped her mother’s boss’s restaurant be successful. This is one of them. Buen […]
Day 3: Equality’s Palindrome Search
Hello, everyone! As the creator of Solution Squad, I am sometimes asked, which of the characters is my favorite? And I take the easy way out on that, responding that they’re like my children and how could I choose from them? But the longer answer is, they’re not my children; they’re me. I relate to […]
Day 2: Graphing on the Coordinate Plane
Hey, everyone! This isn’t necessarily something you need to do immediately after the writing prompt I posted yesterday. This is just something you can do whenever the fancy strikes you and your kids. Using graph paper, kids are going to draw the Solution Squad insignia, the “SS” symbol! Graph points on the coordinate plane to […]
Day 1: What Would You Do With One Billion Dollars?
Note: This was adapted from a previous post, but serves as a good example of how Solution Squad isn’t merely for math! There isn’t only one way to teach using Jim McClain’s Solution Squad. I’ve been using it for years. Ordinarily, I’d go right through the first story, developing prime number skills. But given current headlines, […]
The New “Normal”
Hey, everyone! Solution Squad creator Jim McClain, here. First, I want to assure you that I am not one to capitalize on tragedy. I was a classroom teacher for 32 years and I know how hard the job is. I just retired in January, in the hopes of traveling the country talking about using comics […]
C2E2!
Jim is set up at Artist Alley table Y-3 and is offering a 20% discount to all educators! Also, offering educator discounts are: Christopher Jones (Young Justice), 10%, table X-10 Unshaven Comics, 10%, table W-4 Katie Schenkel, co-creator of Cardboard Kingdom, 10%, table R-12.
Back to School, Take 32
I recently decided to stay in the classroom until I’m at least 59, instead of retiring at the first opportunity a year from December. I’m hearing rumblings that the economy is about to tank, and that’s probably not the best time to rely on doing school visits with Solution Squad. My decision to postpone my […]
Digital Comics and How to Use Them in the Classroom
One of the common questions I receive is, “How do I use Solution Squad in my classroom?” That’s a fair question to which I have an unfair answer. I generally don’t use the physical book in my classroom. I have copies on hand for kids to read, but the physical book really isn’t meant for […]
Excellence In Graphic Literature Awards
Just a few weeks ago, we were honored to learn that Jim McClain’s Solution Squad is a finalist in the 2018 Excellence In Graphic Literature Awards, sponsored by Pop Culture Classroom and Denver Comic Con. It is one of six finalists in a field of 90 books that were submitted for Best in Middle-Grade Books. I (Jim) […]
What Would You Do with One Billion Dollars?
I have to take a half day off the first day of the new semester to take my wife to the doctor and I need a quick lesson plan for kids I’ve never met. My go-to is a writing prompt with which I like to begin each new class: What Would You Do with One Billion Dollars? […]
The Calendar, Part I
Happy New Year, everyone! Here is an abbreviated history of the Julian and Gregorian Calendars that we all know and love! I’ll be coming back to it later this week to talk about this fascinating subject. But for now, I thought a little history is in order: The calendar is a fascinating mechanism. It’s full […]
How Many Days Old Are You? Part 1
When I want to assess my students’ problem solving abilities to begin the semester, I ask one simple question. It’s the title of this post. So simple. It requires nothing more than whole number addition and multiplication and a rudimentary knowledge of the calendar. But watching student after student answer the question incorrectly, I lay […]
On Solid Ground
This is going to sound weird, but bear with me a moment. See this sunrise? I took this photo from my campsite in my hometown of Mesick, Michigan. It’s a tiny town up by Traverse City and Cadillac, near the stomping grounds of a young Ernest Hemingway. Every so often, I go up to Mesick for a […]
Teaching with Jim McClain’s Solution Squad, Part 3
Students continued their writing today, and I promised them that I would do the activity right along with them. I guess their thought is if we suffer together, it’s more bearable? Since they’ve moved past the organized list phase into the paragraph writing phase, I modeled what I think their paragraphs should look like. What […]
Teaching with Jim McClain’s Solution Squad, Part 2
There isn’t only one way to teach using Jim McClain’s Solution Squad. I’ve been using it for years. Ordinarily, I’d go right through the first story, developing prime number skills. But this year, I decided to go off-script. My favorite Solution Squad activity is a writing prompt: What Would You Do with One Billion Dollars? […]
Teaching with Jim McClain’s Solution Squad, Part 1
We have published our first graphic novel, available here and here, but now the question is, “How do we teach with it?” The answer follows! In my seventh grade classroom yesterday, I polled my students to find out how many of them had never read a comic book or a graphic novel. I was pleased to […]
Solution Squad Phase III
Hello, everyone! It’s been too long since I updated the website, and I think it’s time for that to change! The first phase of Solution Squad was producing a webcomic and then a print comic book that could be used to test the waters, so to speak, of educational comics. The first webcomic premiered on February […]
We Have Arrived!
Thanks to IngramSpark, Jim McClain’s Solution Squad is now available from booksellers everywhere! You can find the 146-page paperback version available at Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, Chegg, and elsewhere! The hardcover copies are still about a month away from being completely printed, but in the meantime, we have a book!
We Are Funded!
Our Kickstarter is a success and the project is a go! We’re not done yet by a long shot! I just wrote a small story for Christopher Jones to draw and another one for Jessica Lynn! We’re making the book bigger if we get to $12,000! Check it out!
Kickstart Us!
Hey, everyone! The long wait for the book is finally over! We have a 132-page hardcover book ready to roll, and we’re live on Kickstarter to get support for printing it! Here’s the cover by Serena Guerra (pencils, colors) and me (inks)!
Free Download!
For a limited time, the widescreen digital version of Solution Squad #1 is available for free, right here! The download code is FALLBACK. And if you really don’t know what to do with that, I’ve created a new 15-minute video that will guide you through just that. This isn’t the kitchen sink, but it’s certainly […]
New York Comic Con 2016 Panels
Jim attended New York Comic Con last week, where he presented on two panels: Comics, Graphic Novels and STEM, as well as Comics, Graphic Novels and the Reluctant Reader. Both were well attended, and recorded on his phone. Enjoy!
Welcome!
If you’re coming here from Comic-Con International San Diego, welcome! Solution Squad is an all-ages comic that teaches math. If you attended one of my panels, you already know this, so let’s get started! You’re already in the right place for free webcomics. We are currently finishing the second Solution Squad story, “The Trouble with […]