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Fifteen Ideas for Encouraging Play at Home in Today’s Virtual Learning Environment Welcome to the first of several “idea-generating” articles created to support and ensure successful learning in an environment where school is partially or fully virtual. We know how challenging it can be to engage little ones in a virtual school environment, and yet…

Each year our middle school celebrates the circle and its mathematical relationships on “Pi Day,” March 14, using the date of 3/14 to honor the 3.14 approximation of pi. A local bakery donates pies and, in every math class, students measure round things and consume their pieces of pie. Amidst the Pi Day activities, students…

We know it’s important to encourage our students to adopt a growth mindset towards their mathematical abilities. But when we draw a smiley face on a student’s paper or say “good job,” are we building a growth or a fixed mindset? These types of feedback are meant to encourage but they fail to give students…

Why is it that engaging preschool and kindergarten students in talking about their mathematical ideas is considered such an important key to fostering the development of early math skills? What is gained by devoting valuable time and effort into classroom discussions about math, and how can teachers set the stage for lively and meaningful math…

Do you want to inspire a culture of mathematics in your classroom and school? Join @Math_Solutions for our first #InspireMathCulture Twitter chat of 2019 Tuesday, January 29th at 8pm ET/ 5pm PT.   Nikki La Londe, Director of Professional Learning, and Nicole Bridge, Professional Learning Consultant, will co-lead a discussion on how our personal math stories affect…

Educators know what a good mathematics classroom looks like (see the Math Solutions Instructional Practices Inventory) and we want to provide this type of learning environment for every one of our students. Unfortunately, implementation of research-based instructional practices across all mathematics classrooms has proven challenging. This is due, in part, to a phenomenon known as…

Be sure to check out Part 1 and Part 2 of our “Coaching for a Mathematical Mindset” blog series. Below are two conversations between a teacher and a coach. How are they different? What might the teachers’ observations and explanations reveal about their mathematical mindsets? Conversation 1 Coach: You’ve been trying some new instructional practices…

  “Math has always been difficult for me to understand. Word problems are the worst. Every time I see a word problem it scares me. I already know I won’t be able to solve it.” These are not the words of a student in elementary school or even high school. They were written by Kimberly,…

There’s a lot of talk these days about the importance of mathematical mindset and its impact on student learning. In About Teaching Mathematics, Fourth Edition, Marilyn Burns identifies six dispositions that are important for students to develop in the math classroom: Interest to figure out solutions to problems Willingness to persevere when solutions are not…

First grade is the beginning of exposing students to mathematics. Counting, comparing, and grouping, as well as learning the comparison symbols <, =,>,  are key foundations in building a mathematical mindset. Try this game with your students, and give them a chance to practice comparing counters with a partner as they take turns shaking and…