Math Stories: Using Our Pasts to Empower Students

math stories

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 […]

How Problem Solving Changed my Math Teaching

problem solving

What can you honestly say has changed your teaching? I don’t say that lightly. Honestly, I will claim just 2 things have changed my teaching career– character education and problem solving. Problem Solving Definition Let’s form a common definition. My training and research comes from a book called Children’s Mathematics: Cognitively Guided Instruction. This training […]

Virtual Math Discussion – 4 Ways to Make it Work!

virtual math discussion

Never Teach a Live Class to Crickets again! 4 Tips to Engage students in Virtual Math Discussions Anyone else feel like they are teaching a live virtual class to… no one? With student’s cameras off and hesitations to turn their mics on I often feel like talking to myself and my zoom screen. Believe me I get […]

Virtually Teaching Math? 3 Tech Tool Reviews!

Virtually teaching math

Are you virtually teaching? I am going to assume your inbox has been inundated with emails from every tech company that has ever made an education tool. The onset of virtual teaching in March of 2020 opened the flood gates on technology tools for education. Let’s be honest, it is overwhelming.  I’ve been 100% virtually […]

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 […]

Got Math Attitude?

math growth mindset

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, […]

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 […]

Math Discourse- Sentence Stems

Student Led Discourse- Step 1: Sentence Stems Our discourse is student led. In my crew (that’s what I call my class), students do the heavy lifting in the discourse. What I mean is, they do the noticing, they ask the questions & they even call on one another. The number one question I get asked […]

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.