Over or Under?: A Fraction Number Sense Routine

The first ten minutes of math workshop are often my favorite part of the day. This is a time when we use number sense routines to build math understanding and also to build communities in which students are talking about and playing with math. We try to make this time a time when every single…

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Is There Room For Math That Isn’t Hard?

I want to share a question with you that has been clanking around my brain for a while. At first I wasn't even sure if I wanted or was even "allowed" to share and write about this question, but it's one I keep coming back to. It's a question that makes me feel somewhat vulnerable. And…

#ElemMathChat

I'm dusting off the ol' blog to share that I'll be hosting this week's #elemmathchat on Twitter this Thursday, December 11, 2014 at 9:00PM EST! I always find the #elemmathchats thoughtful, supportive and inspiring, so I hope you'll join us. The topic this week will be building mathematical communities, a topic near and dear to…

On Being a Mathematician

I've been thinking a lot about math communities, mindset, and how children define mathematics. I got the chance to write about some of these thoughts, and share some stories from a great 5th grade classroom in my blog post, "On Being a Mathematician," over at Stenhouse's Summer Blogstitute page. While you're there, check out all…

How Did You Solve That?

 Since Math Exchanges was published, many teachers have asked if there are any videos of math exchanges in action that they could check out. Readers wanted to see and hear more from teachers and students as they met in small groups. I'm so excited that I will now be able to tell teachers "YES!""How Did You…

Back to Blogging!

I have taken a very long break from blogging! I've still been here teaching and learning about math, life has just gotten in the way of blogging. And a wonderful part of that life has been the birth of my daughter, Louisa, this February! Just this week I went back to Keith Devlin's fascinating book, The…

Glimpses of Math Workshop

September and May are my favorite teaching months. September because everything and everyone is fresh and full  of hope for the school year ahead. May because it is a month full of moments in which you marvel at how much your students have learned, at the amazing people they are. There have been many of…

Bunk Bed Investigation

My kindergartners are investigating one of the big ideas of numeracy--decomposing numbers. We have been using Cathy Fosnot's Contexts for Learning unit, "Bunk Beds and Apple Boxes," which is based around a story that comes from the accompanying big book, "The Sleepover." The math investigation is based on the story of eight girls at a…

A Peak Ahead to NCTM

This week some of my wonderful kindergarten colleagues and I head to Philadelphia for the NCTM conference! I can't wait to hear some great presentations and do some thinking. Here's a peak ahead to what I'll be presenting at NCTM: "Guided Math in Kindergarten" with Lorna Cordero, Lauren Nye, and Tricia Tyskowski Thursday, April 26, 2012,…

Problem-Solving–It’s Not All About the Numbers!

Many of the problem solving situations that I recognize in the world and in my classroom with my kindergartners are numerical. We wonder how many steps it takes to get to P.E. (A lot! We're just about as far as possible from the gym in a very large school!) We wonder how to figure out…