Submitted by Amy Wix.
It’s our job, as the middle level educators to be
the go-between and start the dialog with our math departments K-12 to encourage the
reasoning and understanding with the use of precise language in our classrooms. Let’s
get rid of these rules that expire!
Submitted by Sara Van Der Werf
As we enter 2016, my wish for the all teachers is that we would stop wasting time making excuses for why our students are not learning, we would not waste time wishing for students to arrive with more skills than they have. I wish we would see the assets our students do arrive with. I wish for all of us that we would actively do something different if our students are not successful. My wish for 2016 is that all of us would ‘get off the escalator’ and make intentional choices in our teaching.
Submitted by Heather Novak.
With any career pursuit, most learning happens in the first few months on the job – the learning curve is inevitable…In my classroom, the following have been absolutely essential in building a classroom environment where learning math is engaging, interactive and fun.
Submitted by Anna Thompson.
Does every picture tell a story?
Conversely, we might say that every story has a picture and in algebra that picture is usually a graph…. enter: Dan Meyer’s Graphing Stories.
Submitted by Nina Smith.
Faye B. Clark and Constance Kamii report “Multiplicative thinking was found early (45% of second graders demonstrated some multiplicative thinking) and developed slowly (only about 48% of fifth graders demonstrated consistently solid multiplicative thinking)”. So how can we support students to develop this type of thinking?
Into the fall and winter many people find themselves out hunting. No different the mathematicians perusing the NCTM Regional Conference Program Book in November in Minneapolis. With pen and highlighter poised participants were ready to hit the target of the perfect session(s) to find that “just right” strategy to address the focus of classroom or district needs.
Continue readingThe word “Mindset” has a nearly automatic association to many educators out there…but what if all along we haven’t been putting this theory in its rightful place as a facet of a larger, more important mindset, the Academic Mindset?
Continue readingAs members of the Minnesota mathematics community, it may be no mystery that the Gopher state opted out of adopting the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics.
Continue readingI recently attended the Regional NCTM conference in Minneapolis where I sat in on a lot of great sessions. One of the sessions I sat in on was titled Using Area Models To Teach Multiplying, Factoring And Polynomial Division.
Continue readingI attended the NCTM regional conference in Minneapolis in mid-November. As I reflected on the sessions I attended, I kept coming back to a recurring theme: The focus of instruction needs to primarily be on building understanding of the structure of mathematics.
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