When I tell people that joy is at the heart of my math classroom, they sometimes give me a puzzled look. Math and joy aren’t often words we hear in the same sentence. But when I read through my students’ reflections this semester, one word kept coming up over and over again: joy.
In my never ending quest to create a better math program that helps more kids learn more math I created the Animal Emoji system at the end of last year. Now that we have completed a quarter of the new school year I thought that it was a good time to assess how it’s going
According to Wikipedia, “Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes.” Other sources have similar definitions but I would like to pose a different perspective. I think that what most people think of
I developed the three read (self) assessment system prior to COVID and as great as it turned out to be at helping students take ownership of their learning and become awesome problem solvers it always took longer than I wanted for them to understand and truly embrace the system. This year I wanted to shorten
How to make every activity a low floor high ceiling high cognitive demand activity
Meet Rufus, a super light stuffed dog that we use to decide who reads or answers a question next. How does an inanimate stuffed dog choose students you might ask? Well, using a complex AI generated algorithm I created a… Only kidding!!! As much of a techno geek as I am, I have come to
I talk and think a lot about our art. As a scientist I also think and write a lot about data and research. I know some people think these are mutually exclusive but, in my opinion, anyone that says that doesn’t really have a good grasp of either. Last Formative Friday, the Team Test I
Mindset Monday 21st Century Job Skills Kids have learned the power of why. Clean your room. Why? Eat your vegetables. Why? Learn Math. Why? Over the years I have heard (and said) multiple answers to this question: So you can be a Scientist/get a good job/graduate/earn more money etc etc. Unfortunately, for the vast majority
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 the problem solving parts of their brains, make connections, recognize patterns and explain their reasoning. Doing Math without algebra or arithmetic. Either of these activities take place at the beginning
