Fractions in Fractions: Sparking Creative Mathematical Thinking

9 May 2023

Third Grader Owen was ready for third grade math a while ago. I only met him recently, but I'm guessing he was ready in... second grade? First? It's unclear. Something…

The Case of the Impossible Triangles

3 Apr 20233 Apr 2023

The first thing I noticed when I walked into Caitlin's third grade class was that every student was, with bowed head, focused on writing in their math notebooks -- even…

“What Are You Hoping For?”: Facilitating the Number Boxes Game to Develop Reasoning – Learning with Teachers

8 Dec 20223 Feb 2023

Number Boxes is one of my favorite games to play. The set up looks similar to an Open Middle problem, with empty boxes that you will place digits into. Open…

Restless Teachers

13 Oct 202213 Oct 2022

My favorite educators are restless. They have that itch. Nothing is ever completely satisfying. If you chat with them after a lesson, they'll tell you three things they would change.…

Secret Squares and Stop Signs

28 Jun 2022

I wrote a deeply sad post today. As I went to publish it, I hesitated. Yesterday was my last day of school, and instead of ending with sadness, I'd like…

The Learning that Led to Today

19 Apr 202219 Apr 2022

"You aren't these kids' first teacher, and you won't be the last."-Jennifer N. When I was an early career teacher, teaching 4th grade, I wanted to teach my students everything.…

The Ramadan Calendar

6 Apr 2022

Friday, April 1st, marked the first night of Ramadan. On Saturday, April 2nd, we began our daily fasting ritual that will last for the entire month. Beyond fasting, Ramadan is…

What Will Help Plan for Tomorrow?

31 Mar 2022

What do I need to know about student thinking today before I teach tomorrow? Towards the end of a math lesson, this refrain plays in my head. ______ In third…

Building Mental Representations

25 Nov 201917 Nov 2019

"Sabrina is fascinating. She will look at a problem for three minutes, not appearing to be thinking about it at all, and then come up with the correct answer," her…

The Story of Fibonacci, and the Math Ethnic Studies Framework

17 Oct 201917 Oct 2019

In the late 12th century, a young Leonardo Bonacci -- better known as Fibonacci -- traveled with his merchant father from their home in Italy to Algeria (North Africa). They…

Listening to Early Understandings of Division: “12 ÷ 5 is either -3 or 0”

20 Aug 20195 Oct 2022

This blogpost is a part of the (2019) HUMANIZING MATHEMATICS CONVENTION: Virtual Conference on Humanizing Mathematics hosted by Sam Shah and Hema Khodai___ I love, love listening to early understandings…

One of Favorite Games: The Skip Count Game

30 May 20198 Feb 2023

This game is part of my "simple but high leverage" collection of games that are flexible, engaging, and easy to prep. Others include Number Boxes and the Answer Is... I've played the…

One of My Favorite Games: Number Boxes

29 May 20193 Feb 2023

This game is part of my "simple but high leverage" collection of games that are flexible, engaging, and easy to prep. Others include The Answer Is... and the Skip Count Game. I…

One of My Favorite Games: The Answer Is…

28 May 20196 Jun 2019

This game is part of my "simple but high leverage" collection of games that are flexible, engaging, and easy to prep. Others include Number Boxes and the Skip Count Game. I have…

The Striped Snake Barbecue Puzzle: Exploring “Challenge” in 3rd Grade

4 Mar 20196 Feb 2022

Who gets to be challenged in class? How does the work we give students impact their status (or how they perceive their status) in the classroom? Meet Calvin You've probably…

What does it mean to be “struggling” in math class? (Eduardo’s Story)

5 Feb 20195 Feb 2019

It was a sea of dots. Eduardo's work for 47 + 27 Over and over again, for both computational and story problems, third grade student Eduardo drew dots. Eduardo's work,…

Cultivating a Listener’s Mindset — with ELs

10 Jun 20186 Feb 2022

In a post last January, I wrote about how the "mental load" teachers carry can impact their ability to listen to their students. ...but listening is critical. It's especially critical when…

Leading Act 3: Using the 5 Practices & Intentional Talk To Deepen Discourse About the “Whopper Jar”

3 Oct 201727 Oct 2022

The books 5 Practices for Orchestrating Productive Mathematics Discussions (Smith and Stein, 2011) and Intentional Talk (Kazemi and Hintz, 2014) have helped me transform how I facilitate discussions. I try my best…

Coherence, Round 2: The Power of Connecting Instructional Routines

20 Sep 201720 Sep 2017

For a million reasons, I love, love instructional routines*. They engage students, active thinking and discourse, and, with the structures in place, students are given the freedom to focus on…

Inaba’s Place Value Puzzles: Making Connections and Asking “What If”

21 Feb 201713 Feb 2019

Last week, my sixth graders helped me make connections between a puzzle I used in third grade and their current work with place value, specifically multiplying and dividing by powers of…