Category: Teacher Tips

Start Math Class Calmly with these 3 Productive Ideas for Every Teacher

start math class

If you’re anything like me, then you’re a teacher looking for ways to start math class calmly and engage every single student. That’s what we want right? We want our students to walk into math class and immediately engage in some deep math thinking. However, we want it to be calm, welcoming, and easy for […]

Student Centered Math: What Exactly Does That Mean? A Classroom Tour

student centered math

Student Centered Math in My Classroom Have you heard of student centered math? I’m confident that by the end of this episode you’ll understand what makes a classroom student centered.You’ll find out why student centered math helps students understand more deeply and motivates them to participate. Finally, you’ll get some tangible ideas of how to […]

Math Vision: How will your students experience math in your class?

math vision

When you consider how you want your students to experience math in your classroom, what comes to mind? This is your math vision. Your math vision is what you want your math class to look like, sound like, and feel like. Your math vision also includes the actions by both teachers and students that will […]

Why Use Math Tasks to Engage Students in Math Class this Year?

math task

Are you wondering why (and how) to start the year with math tasks? By using open math tasks you’ll engage every student and create a positive classroom community. Let’s chat about what math tasks are and how they can be used to jump start engagement in your classroom. What are Open Math Tasks? An open […]

Real Life Math: 2 Simple Strategies for Joyful Math Talk

real life math

Today we have the pleasure of hearing from expert in real life math, Alice Aspinall of @EveryoneCanLearnMath. If you follow Alice on social media you will see her beautiful pictures of real life math and practical tips on how to use opportunities in our everyday life to incorporate math! I knew having a guest blog […]

Unlock the Power of Coteaching with these 4 Practical Power Moves

coteaching

Coteaching is a model for teaching in which educators work together to plan, teach and assess the same group of students, generally in the a common classroom. Coteaching is an opportunity to maximize the skills and strengths of each teacher while reaching all students. Introducing… Carly McKeague, coteaching pro! I would like to introduce you […]

4 Reasons Mistakes in Math are a Good thing

mistakes in math

Mistakes are proof you’re trying! When you’re teaching in your classroom you might wonder… are mistakes really a good thing? Don’t students have to get the answer right, too? Today we are going to talk about why mistakes are a good thing in the math classroom! Let’s jump in. What are Mistakes in Math? Mistakes […]

How to have a growth mindset in the elementary math classroom

math mindset

Can I just say that I’m SO excited! I makes me so happy you are here, searching out ways to have a growth mindset in math. This is exactly what we need in our math classrooms! I can’t wait to jump into this work with you. In fact, if we haven’t met yet I hope […]

5 Tips to Engage All Learners in Math Discussions

engaging students in math discussions

Math Engagement is a real problem and one way teachers can re-engage students is by using math discussions. This post will give you 5 tips to engage students in math discussions tomorrow. Because when you get students talking, it not only helps them love math (because what kid doesn’t love talking about themselves?) it also […]

Top 4 Ways I’m Teaching Decimals

to my 4th & 5th Grade Are you frantically searching the internet because you’re teaching decimals and you NEED ideas. Teaching decimals is hard. Are your students struggling with conceptual understanding of decimals and you’re fighting the urge of just showing them all the “short cuts” that landed you (and I) hating math and feeling […]

Me Museum: A Back To School Activity

July is almost over and all I can think about it what will our first week look like? We recently got word that we will start doing digital learning. We will have 2 weeks to build our classroom communities online. In addition to building community, we will use this time to teach students how to […]

Self Assessment– Levels of Understanding

Have you ever wondered how you can get your students to care about their grades? I wonder, have you taught them what their grades mean? As a class, have you walked through what it looks like to meet the goal, or be skill developing in a skill? Self assessment is a key part of establishing […]

Math Attitude Survey

Got a math ‘tude? Let’s face it we ALL do. Read how I start the school year by helping my students face their math story and begin to rewrite it.

Apologies Have 4 Parts

What do you mean 4 Parts?! We’ve all heard someone (or maybe it was us?!) tell a child to “say sorry”. The kid quickly, or begrudgingly, forks out a “SORRY!” along with a facial expression that clearly communicates the child is not in support of the words coming out of their mouth. We use 4 […]

Grapple

productive-struggle

In my crew, we grapple. My students know that learning takes place when we grapple. I tell my students that if they go home and say school was east I didn’t do my job! I tell them, “you should be struggling & grappling everyday because that’s when the learning happens!” Think about it, have you […]

End of the First Day

problem-of-the-day-for-math

Are you wondering about the first day of school? The school year JUST ended and I’m already wondering what the first day will look like (thanks global pandemic). The anticipation we all feel for the first day is… special. It doesn’t matter if it is your first year or 10th year, virtual or in person […]