number talks – Embrace the Challenge

Using Screenshots & Photos to Reflect on Practice

28 Nov 20203 Apr 2021

Back in the Before Times, I took hundreds of photos of student work. "What do you do with all of those photos?" students would ask. I am a student of…

Back to School PD: Sharing Participant Thinking

12 Sep 202011 Sep 2020

Last week, I facilitated a few PD sessions for elementary teachers in my district. There were some predictable -- and wildly unpredictable! -- tech hiccups. I stumbled over some words.…

in the classroom

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…

in the classroom

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…

in the classroom

Making Connections during Number Talks

All hands shoot up in 1M, a first grade classroom. The students strain their arms, employing arched eyebrows and pursed lips to entreat me to call on them. Of course, once I…