September

I love September for many reasons, but one very important one is I love the part of the year that is focused on the establishing of community, friendships, and exploring how we will learn together. After being a math coach at my school for several years, I returned to a classroom position this year as a…

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Boxes and Marbles

From the Marina Pics Photostream on Flickr Sometimes the best teaching, learning and play happens at unexpected moments, in unplanned ways. I've developed the habit of collecting interesting odds and ends (or, as my husband refers to it, junk!) that I think might be interesting for my students to use or play with. Last year I began to…

Play-Debrief-Replay

My kindergarten colleague, Lauren, brought up an important issue in her comment on my last post, Explore: "In the first few weeks of school we use a lot of explore time in kindergarten with Unifix cubes, pattern blocks, and other manipulatives. What kinds of questions can we ask during discussion to create meaningful reflection and what…

Explore!

Time for mathematical play and exploration is critical to the development of problem-solving skills, creativity, and persistence. And yet, play is something that is increasingly getting set aside as outside pressures in the education world distract from real learning.  When I was having trouble finding time for mathematical play (or any play at all, really)…