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Perseverance and Growth Mindset
No matter how many years of experience we’ve logged as educators, we all have to put in the work at the beginning of a new school year to build our classroom culture. This always starts with student relationships.
What do special educators need?
What do new Special Education teachers need most? More support for teaching math!
Systems Matter
I began my career in education because I believed it was a broken system that we could mend. My senior year I read Jonathon Kozol’s The Shame of the Nation and became convinced that the way to solve poverty in our country was to fix the savage inequalities of our education system. I thought if we can make schools great for all children, then we can change everything. I vigorously adopted Teach for America’s rallying call that one day all children will have access to an excellent education, and I moved to New Orleans on a mission. I truly believed that by becoming a teacher warrior I could help …
Why Math Menu Matters Even More Right Now
Published: Fall 2020 This school year has so many of us feeling like our first year teacher-selves, struggling with the work and effort that is required when you’re learning how to do something new. It feels like we are facing more obstacles than solutions and more don’ts than do’s. It has brought us face to face with so many gaps, struggles, emotions, hardships, and inequities. As teachers who are on a mission to ensure all means all in our school buildings, we confront these struggles on a daily basis as we dive into the complex work of building trusting relationships with our students to he …
Ask a Smaller Question
I just finished working with a large group of teachers in Montpelier. They were inquisitive and eager. In the exit slips, several participants asked for more information about using questions to teach. This post is a response to these requests for more. I tell everyone who will listen that the two most important elements of effective math instruction are: The learner must do the work. And What the students have to say to each other is more important than what you have to say to them. My goal in telling teachers this is to get them to have students make personal meaning of important concepts. I …
30 Minute Intervention Block Using Math Menu
At Malletts Bay School, we had a set 30 minute intervention block beyond what we call “First Instruction.” My everyday math block consisted of about 55 minutes for the math lesson that day and then an additional 30 minutes set aside for intervention. That first 55 minutes of math includes a Number Talk, the Math Message, the Focus Lesson, Independent Practice and a Summary. Typically, this takes more like 45 minutes because we have 10 minutes of snack in between first instruction and Intervention. The 30 minutes of Math Intervention is the time when our math interventionist pulls a small group …
Pick the Mini-Marshmallows
On a cold afternoon after my boys had been out sledding we were making hot chocolate with marshmallow of course! My youngest commented on how tiny the marshmallows were in comparison to the jumbo ones we use for roasting over the fire. The mini-marshmallow and jumbo marshmallow made me think of a conversion I had with a colleague about planning successful interventions. I remember years ago I would create a list of the gaps, skills and understandings that a student needed to develop and set forth to provide intervention to accomplish the entire list. I felt like I would ever so slowly chip awa …
From “Hey guys!” to “Hey y’all!”
I’m working on breaking a deeply ingrained habit of addressing groups of people as “guys”. I’ve played on sports teams my entire life and “guys” is just part of the sports lingo. I’ve used the word so often that now I use it without even thinking about it. In fact, I often begin workshops with a greeting and a direction that sounds something like, “Hey guys, welcome. Please sign the attendance sheet and fill out your name tag.” I don’t intend to be offensive so I’m unaware that I may have just excluded some participants from entering our learning space. I’m lucky enough to have a colleague who …
Finding Math Outside
Teaching during a global pandemic has brought about many changes and some of those have been good things that have moved teaching, learning and student engagement forward in a positive way. One change I hope sticks around is getting kids outside more frequently. What started as getting kids outside for a mask break has become an opportunity to engage kids in the mathematics of the world around us. When we get kids outside, we bring real life mathematics to them in an engaging and exciting way. I recently went on a longer outdoor adventure with a large group of kids who are in kindergarten and …
