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On a recent walk through my neighborhood I came across a father teaching his young son how to ride a bicycle. The father was holding on to the bike as the boy sat atop the seat, gripping the handlebars tightly. It appeared that the father was much more confident in the boy’s ability to learn…

An effective math coach possesses a multitude of skills, but the ability to ask purposeful, targeted questions is one of the most vital to the coaching process. As coaches, we want to allow teachers to reflect on their practice and on the impact they’re having on students, as well as to think about how they…

For this episode we compiled some of the key insights from our guests throughout the year, and pulling it together is our way of celebrating the important work happening in the field of math education.

This article is excerpted from Math Matters: Understanding the Math You Teach, Grades K–8, Second Edition by Suzanne H. Chapin and Art Johnson One of the most famous patterns is the Fibonacci sequence, which is made up of Fibonacci numbers. Fibonacci was the nickname of Leonardo de Pisa, an Italian mathematician (1175–1245); he is best known…

I recently joined a 5K training group. There are people in the group who volunteer to serve as coaches to individuals who seek to move themselves from a sedentary lifestyle toward a more active one. In my role as a math coach, this was a great experience for me. It really got me thinking about…

Recently, I was in a school bathroom and saw a beautiful painting hanging on the wall of an African woman dressed in African garb. I was immediately filled with awe and joy because the painting radiated beauty and was a positive image in a surprising place. I am often one of few African American women…

How much is 12.6 × 10? This is a question from the Math Reasoning Inventory (MRI) decimal assessment. What do you think were the most common incorrect answers given by the more than 7,800 students who figured out the answer in their heads? And what about the boy who answered, “One hundred twenty and thirty-fifths?”

Many educators share the misconception that because it uses symbols, mathematics is not associated with any language or culture and is ideal for facilitating the transition of recent immigrant students into English instruction. To the contrary, language plays an important role in learning mathematics. Teachers use language to explain mathematical concepts and carry out math procedures.…

This post was originally published on Marilyn Burns’ Math Blog. Involving students as creators of problems for others to solve provides an experience for them that’s different from the teacher always being the source of problems. Also, when students have opportunities to solve their classmates’ problems, I find that they invest in their learning in a different way, often with…

During Matt Larson’s webinar Overcoming Obstacles to Make Mathematics Work FOR Students he shared this quote from Dylan Wiliam’s book Embedded Formative Assessment: If your students are going home at the end of the day less tired than you are, the division of labor in your classroom requires some attention. It got me good, as…