Thoughtful Thursday: Conundrums
by During distance learning Astra school created a series of one to two minute Conundrum videos that describe a scenario and presents different choices that could …
Category: Teaching Math
Thoughtful Thursdays – What Makes it Unique?
Thoughtful Thursdays currently consist of two activities: “What makes it Unique?” and “Conundrums”. Both of these activities are designed to help students stimulate and grow …
Team Building Tuesday
Team Building Tuesday Introduction Team Building Tuesday basically consists of an activity that takes place during the first 5 to 10 minutes of class every …
ASSESSING FOR GROWTH IS FAR MORE IMPORTANT THAN RANKING
We have a formative assessment every Friday. One week it’s a team test and the next it’s an individual test. The team tests consist of …
PUTTING AN i IN TEAM
All of my students are in randomly selected teams all of the time with the exception of individual assessments. This allows the students to productively struggle together and move forward together. Unfortunately, our “survival of the fittest” educational system has developed a student culture that in order for one student to move forward they have to be better than the other students….
Building Math Teams
When math teams are working amazing math gets done. There are times where it almost seems like I’ve gone down the rabbit hole into some magical math land. All of my kids are up at their boards making charts, drawing graphs, sketching models and debating math.
The fight for Mathematical Justice
Over 97% of my 11th and 12th graders have been failed by our “Survival of the Fittest” math education system.
Becoming Super
When I first started teaching as a 20 something living on a tropical island I was decidedly not a super teacher. I learned how to …
Gamification of Math Teams
Last year I was lucky enough to work on a research project with an amazing teacher Karen Kurcz. We developed a system that greatly encouraged …