Foster Collaboration in Math Class with 3 Incredible Ideas

Collaboration in math is one of the most important parts of a math classroom community. As you start the year are you thinking about how you can promote collaboration in math? Today I have three ways that you can use in your first month back to help students engage in collaboration in math. Partnerships are […]
3 Simple Steps to Teaching Classroom Routines in Math

Teaching Classroom Routines will create a student centered classroom community that will engage your students for the entire year. In the analogy of building a student centered math class is just like a house, we are in step 2- the structure. When you’re building a house first you need a solid foundation. In this case, […]
3 Tips to Motivate Students to Take Risks in Math

Are you looking for ways to motivate your students to take risks in math class? If you’re like me you want your students to be motivated and take risks in math class. I have three tips to help your students be motivated to take risks in math class! #1: Choose the Right Math Task to […]
Math Stories: Using Our Pasts to Empower Students

Reflecting on our math stories can help us analyze how we got to where we are in math. Our past experiences, current mindset about teaching are all part of our math stories. Our Math Stories: Past, Present, & Future Let’s start by reflecting on where’ve we’ve been, our past. What memories do you have of […]
Test Motivation and Confidence is the New Way to Test Prep

It’s Testing Season And that means we have to get test motivated. What is test motivated? Keep reading… I’m gonna explain it all. I don’t know about you, but spring means April showers, May flowers and standardized testing. I don’t know about you, but it instantly makes me shake my head. Don’t get me wrong […]
Positive Math Mindset: 2 Epic Lessons

Are you looking for lessons to help form positive math mindset? Here are my favorite two lessons to help students for positive math mindsets!
Math Norms for Building a Growth Mindset

What are math norms? Math norms are an agreement that everyone in the math classroom community agrees to follow. Norms in math are short, easy to remember statements that clearly express the expectations for the math classroom. These clear expectations help students know what to expect and help them hold themselves accountable. In addition, it […]
Building a Math Growth Mindset

By using positive affirmations I am not a math person. I’m just going to be real honest…. for MOST of my life I didn’t love math. I didn’t even like math. When I became a teacher I knew I would have to teach math, but figured I could just follow the curriculum. I would throw in […]
Daily (Morning) Meetings

Our daily meeting is by far my most favorite way to start the day. I love sitting down next to my students in a circle. Spending time checking- in and “seeing” each other before we jump into the busy day of learning and work. This special time, each day, allows us to learn about how […]
Got Math Attitude?

Surveying Students’ Attitudes Got Math Attitude?We ALL have some attitude about math. Maybe it is enthusiastic attitude or uninterested attitude? Our students come to us with a wide range of what I like to call “Math Stories”. Some come loving math and knowing exactly how to seek challenge but ask for help when overwhelmed. Then, […]
Parent Communication- Newsletters

Do you send out a newsletter? Monthly? Weekly? Bi-weekly? I’ll be honest, I always struggle to be consistent with a newsletter. It gets to a point in the year when I think to myself, is anyone really reading this? The answer is always yes. So, I’m going to share with you my best tips to […]