I’ll Rip Your Face Off: The Art of Defacing Manipulatives
It's our fault. We have no one to blame but ourselves. We unknowing pigeonhole student thinking with the manipulatives we use. Take fraction tiles for example. Much to my disappointment, they come with labels and it kills me. Manipulatives that come pre-labelled ruin...
Where’s Poly? An Exploration in Geo-Dotting
Download the Resource What's geo-dotting? I have no clue but that's what I'm calling this lesson. We started by asking, "What do you notice?" Our favorites: Looks like Pac-man I see dots and they make a "Y" Looks like someone went crazy with a hole...
GCTM 2016 – Ignite Talks
For the second year running, we tackled Ignite Talks at Georgia's Math Conference. Mike Wiernicki https://vimeo.com/190360814 Katie Breedlove https://vimeo.com/190362489 Jenise Sexton https://vimeo.com/190364708 Karla Cwetna https://vimeo.com/190381786 Carla...
Colorblind Teachers, Invisible Students (Ignite – GCTM 2016)
We recently finished up our state math conference here in Georgia. Last year I shared our Ignite Talks in this space and plan to do the same with our 2016 session. As I edit the videos and prepare to release them, there's one talk I've watched multiple times. Carla...
The One-Handed Clock in a Digital Era
It's tough to make a case for the analog clock in our digital world. I'll leave the debate of its relevance up to the professionals. Nonetheless, the analog clock remains a staple in the majority of math curriculums. Let's take the following standard for example:...
3-Act Task: A kindergarten lesson captured
Over the past few months I've been asked for videos that capture a 3-Act Task being taught in the elementary grades. I didn't have any, or know of anyone that has captured an elementary 3-Act except for this Teaching Channel piece. Before moving forward, this post...
Geometric Subitizing: A Different Kind of Number Talk
Download the Resource These Geometric Subitizing Cards have been in beta the past two years. I asked our buddy Joe Schwartz to take them for a test drive last spring and he reported back. Joe's all in. How do they work? Let's play......
The Task Graveyard
It's where my ideas go to die. But like the mighty phoenix, I have one idea for a task that keeps rising from the ashes. It just won't die. If Bruce Willis was a math task, I've seen his face. I can't help it. I'm fascinated by them. The containers below have sat on...
Conservation: The more things change, the more they stay the same
Every once in a while I stumble across Piaget's 7 Conservation Tasks and then I move on. This week was different because my thoughts around conservation won't go away. In a recent meeting with kindergarten and 1st grade teachers we discussed the importance of students...
Building a Conference
I'm currently serving on the 2017 Orlando Regional Program Committee and honored to work with some great folks. When we met over the summer there was one thing we knew right from the start, we want this conference to be different. In our attempt to be different we...