Posts tagged as: blog

Many students will be home these next several weeks due to the COVID-19 pandemic. What might happen if children spend a portion of their time doing real-world mathematics? At a minimum, they could discover that mathematics is interesting and useful. Perhaps they will decide that they are indeed math people. Here are some investigations to…

Also known as March 14th, Pi Day is when mathematicians and math lovers around the world celebrate pi, often approximated to 3.14, which is the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. The circle is often the first shape many learn in childhood, and can be observed in nature in pinecones, apples, oranges, the cornea…

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…

When I began teaching almost 20 years ago, one of the veteran teachers made a quick visit to the classroom that we shared to pick up materials. She was very impressed with my students’ behavior and remarked, “Wow, they are so quiet!” The veteran teacher’s comment was kind of funny to me because my students…

Subitizing! This ability to instantly “see” how many is a critical component in young students developing number sense.

In this clip from Beyond Pizzas & Pies, students describe how they found the rods that are 1/6 of the unit interval. What important fraction concept does Marcela’s reasoning support?

My eight-year-old neighbor Zoe spent the day with me recently so we decided to do a little baking. The recipe we were using called for ½ cup of sugar and three cups of flour. After using the ½ cup measuring cup to add sugar to the batter, I suggested we use the same measuring cup…

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…

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…