Fractions, Making Math Accessible, Math Tools, Strategy Development, Teacher Content, Who Knows?
Last week I was reminded why I love being a teacher. I’m currently throwing down a PL gauntlet in my district for all our elementary and middle school teachers. For each grade level I’ve focused on 1 or 2 of the big ideas outlined within CCSS. In 3rd grade, I...
counting, Intellectual Need, Making Math Accessible, SMPs, Strategy Development, Teacher Content
Counting and cardinality is critical in kindergarten. Without it, all math fails. With that being said, counting can be extremely boring which causes many students to quickly lose focus. One thing I’ve tried to do this year is identify ways to engage students in...
Cheese Mover, Intellectual Need, Making Math Accessible, Modeling, Planning, SMPs, Strategy Development, Teacher Content, Who Knows?
I received an email from a principal in my district last Tuesday: Please send me info on why teachers should be careful about teaching kids to pull out keywords from word problems as a key way to define what operation to use. I went to my Virtual Math Buddies (VMB)...
Fractions, Making Math Accessible, Math Tools, Modeling, Patient Problem Solving, SMPs
I tried “the Big Pad” with a 4th grade class and my anticipation of possible solutions was way off!!! I mean, c’mon Graham, think outside the box. Our students attacked this problem in more ways than a charter bus filled with senior citizens attacks...
Making Math Accessible, Strategy Development, Teaching in a Context
I returned to the class where I sucked more than Maggie Simpson. I wrote about it here. The highlights from yesterday’s do-over: For the most part it went way better and the additional pieces I created to scaffold the lesson helped out. Some students...
Against the Norm, Making Math Accessible, Planning, Teaching in a Context
I taught a lesson on Tuesday and it sucked…Real bad! It sucked more than Maggie Simpson sucks her pacifier! I really felt for the 21 students, 4 teachers and the administrator who were observing. My face is still a little numb from how flat I fell on it! In my...