Against the Norm, Cheese Mover, Math Tools, SMPs
My dear friend Krystal Shaw texted me this Vimeo Clip at 5:23am so I knew it had to be good… My gut reaction…this is awesome! The focus on number crunching has superseded our students’ ability to problem solve for far too long. There’s a...
Against the Norm, Making Math Accessible, Math Tools, Strategy Development, Teacher Content
The concept of 10 more/less is a beast in the primary grades. Last week I realized that I’ve been feeding the monster that I’m continually trying to defeat. Almost every day, in every K-2 classroom across the United States students encounter this guy: I made a...
Against the Norm, Making Math Accessible, Teaching in a Context
Think about the majority of K-2 students and the thought process they go through when encountering a word problem. Normally they read the problem focusing solely on the two quantities and engage in a game of craps. They throw the dice and hope that the operation they...
Against the Norm, Intellectual Need, Measurement and Data, Teacher Content
I took some time last night to look through 3rd grade units from all over the map. I was amazed to see that about 95% of them suggested teaching perimeter first. Why is that? The two most common definitions 3rd graders give for area and perimeter are: Perimeter: you...