As the former numeracy facilitator for our board I had the unique opportunity and privilege of being part of three brand new ministry initiatives right from the beginning. As a result of my participation within these professional learning opportunities: CIL-M, EOSDN Math Project and Small & Northern Boards Spatial Reasoning … More Preciseness Will Impact Student Achievement! »
How often do we make assumptions about students’ mathematical understanding in the younger grades because they are able to compute equations such as 5+7 or 12-7? In a Gr 2-3 class we asked the students to independently solve the following question: 8 + 4 = _ + 5 Just … More What does = mean? »
Recently a primary teacher asked me for suggestions for hands-on activities for balance and equality. As I mentioned in a previous post we have a tendency to focus more on patterning and less on algebra, but here is a Grade 1 teacher understanding the importance of moving beyond. In … More Understanding Equality Using Pattern Blocks »
Observing people of all ages enthusiastically engaging in mathematical tasks is what fuels my passion for the work I do. I had such an experience recently at a K-8 elementary school on a PA Day. Last year I had been involved in a Ministry of Education Spatial Reasoning Inquiry and … More A Spatial Reasoning Task Using Pentominoes »
With the best of intentions we implement something e.g., a model or graphic organizer and think that this will be the solution to difficulties we are experiencing in the math classroom. In an earlier post I wrote that a challenge with writing is that something “three-dimensional” can often appear … More Be a Problem Solving Detective! »
“The purpose of assessment is not to rate, rank and sort students, but to provide meaningful feedback that leads to high performance for all students.” (Mariano & Heflebower) It is imperative that educators understand the power of the relationship between big ideas, learning goals and feedback. To impact student thinking … More Big Ideas, Learning Goals and Feedback »
As a result of my numerous opportunities to be in junior classrooms I have noticed that many students are able to create, identify and extend patterns. The challenge that I have observed over and over again is the difficulty these students have making future predictions based on the identified pattern. … More Solving for “x” but “y”? »
Please comment and share your ideas! Planning for mathematics can seem like a daunting task, so I thought I would talk a bit about a few things I did as a classroom teacher. I began my planning by looking at the whole year and plugging in special times that happen … More Math Can Be Everywhere! »
“It’s fine to work on any problem, so long as it generates interesting mathematics along the way – even if you don’t solve it at the end of the day. (Andre Wiles) This quote reminds me of a couple of key ideas that I have encountered through my work as … More Let’s Focus on the Math! »
