Foundations of Fractions Online Course

Against the Norm

Over the past 2 weeks, I’ve released a series of fraction videos in collaboration with my good friend Christina Tondevold (@BuildMathMinds). Each video addresses some of the ways I tackle fractions in an elementary classroom. In the series, I shared some fraction...

Reasoning with Fractions Through the Lens of a 10 Yr Old

Against the Norm

My daughter has laid down a marker when it comes to reasoning with fractions. Well, at least in my small world. She’s 10. She won’t read this post for a long time because her mom and I know what she reads on the internet…at least we hope we do. Maybe she’ll never read...

Behind the Scenes: The Creation of a Progression Video

Against the Norm

In recent months, I’ve received a lot of questions asking how I create the progression videos. Here’s how it all goes down. Step 1: Research There are so many great resources available for early number concepts but I continually found myself coming back to...

The Progression of Early Number and Counting

Against the Norm, counting, K-2, Making Math Accessible, Making Sense Series, Math Progressions, Number Sense, Strategy Development, Teacher Content

If you’re not a pre-k, kindergarten, or 1st-grade teacher, you need to find one and give them a hug after watching this video.  They do the work of an army and many times their work goes unnoticed. There’s so much happening in the early years of school,...

3-Act Task: A 5th-grade lesson captured

3-5, 3-Act Tasks, 6-8, Estimation, Fractions, Intellectual Need, Math Progressions, Modeling, Teacher Content

A while back I shared a kindergarten lesson and I was really happy with the way it turned out.  The 5th-grade lesson below, not so much.  The students did great but there are definitely some things I need to improve. We recently finished up a district PL where we used...