Math Is Trending! I presumed it was an excellent day when I saw that math was trending on Twitter until I saw some of the responses and that the overall math message was lost in the problem that was trending. It definitely got an exchange going. But I think it was the...
Formative and summative assessments are usually poorly understood. They are very different and serve different purposes. The role of assessments is to help students succeed. Let’s dig into what they mean and what they do. During my workshops, I like to present...
Classroom set-up tips from blogs and Pinterest boards usually give you ways to make your classroom cute, warm, and inviting. Those are all great, but the tips written here are what you REALLY need to have a great math environment. Depth > cute Here are some...
Keywords have been a plague in math instruction. What do I mean by a plague? Keywords are a contagious disease that kills reasoning. It causes trouble, irritation, suffering, and sometimes tortures. Yeah, it is that extreme. It is crucial that we lay these keywords to...
This year I attended my first New Cubed conference held by the Associations of Mathematics Teachers of New York, New Jersey, and New England. For short AMTNYS, AMTNJS, and AMTME. Get it now “New Cubed”. Here are my takeaways from the conference. Mike...
By definition, a worksheet is anything printed on copier paper and given to students to write on.Greg Tang has said, “the word ‘worksheets’ shouldn’t be a bad word.” And I would agree with that. However, the type of worksheet matters. For this blog, I...
What Are Rich Tasks? Recently there has been a lot of buzz around the word “Rich Tasks” or “High- Quality tasks”. It’s not a new concept just one that has been brought to the surface. So what does a rich or high-quality tasks...
I first read 5 Practices For Orchestrating Productive Mathematics Discussions in 2013, it’s resurfaced with its second edition. It’s a whole group instruction format that allows for every student to have an opportunity to engage. It is not the traditional, whole...
Kids Will Always Keep You In Check Son: Madre why do you call it Zenned Math if you’re always angry about something in education? Me: Yeah, my blog posts sometimes do sound angry. Son: That’s not very Zen. Me: You’re right. Math has become this thing...
We do not learn from experience, we learn from reflecting on experience. -John Dewey Through reflection, we grow. Our attitudes change. Our awareness changes. We improve what we are providing our students. Our professional growth allows us to be better educators. This...
