The Build Math Minds Podcast

Number Sense Kickstart Day #4 - Listening to Student Thinking

This is Day 4 of the Number Sense Kickstart and we are exploring the profound impact of active listening in the classroom. Did you know that in the typical classroom, teachers do 89% of the talking, while students ask only 11 questions a day, primarily procedural ones? It's time to change this narrative and shift the balance toward student engagement. We draw inspiration from educator Steven C. Reinhart’s article “Never Say Anything a Kid Can Say For You.” We explore his five techniques that are...

Number Sense Kickstart Day #3 - Having a record of what your students understand

Most textbooks are focused on answer-getting so their assessments are also focused on just answer-getting. That doesn’t tell you anything about what your students understand, only what they can do. To ensure you are building your students’ understanding of numbers, you need some way to keep track of what they are understanding. It’s Day 3 of the Number Sense Kickstart and today is all about recording what your students understand about the 8 number sense concepts. If you have taken The Flexibili...

Number Sense Kickstart Day #2 - What understanding do your students need?

Mathematics is so much more than just getting the answers. Answers are important, but that really doesn’t tell you what your students UNDERSTAND about math, it only tells you what they can DO. If you want to see what your students understand there are 8 number sense concepts that are the root of understanding numbers. It’s Day 2 of our Number Sense Kickstart and in today’s episode Christina Tondevold is detailing each of those 8 number sense concepts. This is the longest video of our Kickstart a...

Number Sense Kickstart - Day 1

Do you have students struggling with their number sense and fluency in elementary mathematics? You aren’t the only one! Over the last few years we’ve seen gaps in students’ understanding get bigger and bigger. So many elementary students are not fluent with math and the underlying issue is their lack of number sense. Textbooks often jump straight into having kids operate with numbers but they have no number sense to be able to understand why the procedures even work. That’s why we’ve created the...

Episode 148 - Why Is Understanding Fractions So Hard?

Episode 147 - Practice Makes Permanent

Here in the United States, it is the end of the school year and teachers are contemplating what work they should send home with students for them to do over the summer. In today's podcast, I get into why I'm not a big fan of general problem packets over the summer and how the phrase "practice makes perfect" is a little inaccurate.

Episode 146 - Standard Algorithms Compared to Computational Strategies

I've been on a kick about math fluency lately and how a lot of textbooks have their teaching of fluency wrong. Growing up, fluency to me meant being good at the algorithm. Being able to follow the steps that the teacher laid out for students was the sign of being fluent. But, as textbooks have started teaching new strategies, students and parents are left feeling confused. In today’s episode I wanted to share this chart I found in an article by Randall Charles because it highlights the importanc...

Episode 145 - Math Textbooks Have the Teaching of Fluency All Wrong

In the last episode of the podcast, I shared the three ideas that make up computational fluency. Flexibility is often the piece that is missing in our fluency instruction, but recently textbooks have tried to incorporate more of it, but in the wrong way. In this week’s podcast, I go over some of the shortcomings in the ways textbook’s teach fluency and what we should really be focusing on when we’re teaching fluency.

Episode 144 - What is Computational Fluency?

The Flexibility Formula courses that I offer have a huge focus on how we can help kids develop number sense, but the main reason to focus on number sense is really to help your students become flexible thinkers; to build their flexibility in mathematics. In episode 144, I talk about how my courses started and the research that inspired them. Come take a listen as I discuss the concepts that make up computational fluency.

Episode 143 - Summer Reading List for Elementary Math Teachers 2022

Each of you listening to this podcast have different goals for your professional development. You have different things you are wanting to read about to help your students next year have an even better math experience in your classroom. So I’ve compiled a bunch of different lists on Amazon so you can choose from books for specific areas you want to focus on. Come check out Episode #143 where I share my summer reading lists for elementary math teachers for 2022.

Episode 142 - Nothing Lasts Forever

Have you ever felt like the thing you’re going through will never end? There is no doubt that hard times can wear us out and make us feel helpless. Then, it can seem like the good times don't last long enough. Whether it's good or bad times, it's important to remember that nothing lasts forever. In this week’s episode, we are talking about how to think about going through the hard times, and the good times by remembering that Nothing Lasts Forever.

Episode 141 - Get The Most Out of Math Games

Games are one of my favorite ways to have kids practice. They can do 50 problems in 5 minutes and not even realize it. But, one of the biggest complaints I hear about using games in the classroom is that teachers don’t know what the kids are actually doing while playing the game. Are they doing the math or just goofing around?? Come listen to episode 141 where we're talking about getting the most out of math games and go through some recommendations.

Episode 140 - Alternatives to Math Tests

As many of you are currently in the thick of standardized testing, it reminds you that testing shouldn’t be like this….but if not this, then what? This week, while sitting in my car waiting for one of the hundred, or so, practices my kids had to finish, I opened up the recent issue of the NCTM journal Mathematics Teacher: Learning & Teaching PK-12 . The very first article is about using word problems as a way to assess in mathematics. In episode 140, I go through some of this issue to give y...

Episode 139 - Should We Stop Giving Tests in Math?

Should we stop giving tests in math class? This question was recently tweeted by Chris Luzniak and I found the comments under it very thought provoking. So, I thought I'd share some of them with you in today's podcast. Tell me what you think about them in the comments over at buildmathminds/139.

Episode 138 - More Than a Test

Testing season is upon us and as always, it is stressful. I wish there were easy tips or tricks I could give you to help make it awesome but unfortunately, that doesn’t exist. In episode 138, I give some simple reminders on what to focus on as your student’s go through testing. But the biggest reminder is that your work of helping these kids be mathematicians is more than a test.

Episode 137 - Math in Children's Literature

This week I finally got a chance to crack open the book Mathematizing Children’s Literature: Sparking Connections, Joy, and Wonder Through Read-Alouds and Discussion by Allison Hintz and Anthony T. Smith. I haven’t even read the whole thing yet because a paragraph from the first page struck me so deeply that I knew I had to share it with you all. In this week’s episode, I share a snippet from that book and get into my own shortcomings using children’s books as learning tools.

Episode 136 - Problem Solving In Math

Have you ever dove right into something you had no idea how to do? As hard as we try not to, we often ask our students to do just that. When I first started my Recovering Traditionalist journey and implementing more student focused experiences, I thought it would be great but there were definitely some growing pains. In today’s podcast, I’m talking about how the book Introduction to Problem Solving by Susan O’Connell helped me learn how to encourage kids to start problem solving on their own. Co...

Episode 135 - The Tip of the Iceberg

In today’s podcast, I’m sharing an article that presents a visual image I once saw that plays a huge role in how I think about building our understandings of mathematics. I really think about it all the time so I thought it was time to share it with you. That image is the tip of the iceberg. Come take a listen as I get into how the visual representation of the iceberg can help us think about the things underneath the surface that we don’t often consider when we say a kid is struggling to do some...

Episode 134 - Pencil or Pen?

Pencil or pen? So many educators are adamant that kids MUST use pencils in math class so they can erase their errors. In today’s episode I’m wondering if pens could actually be better. Perhaps there is value in keeping mistakes on the page as our student’s work to get to answers.

Episode 132 - The Connecting Pillar with Stacey Ellis, Matt Halpern, & Dawn Dibley

I’ve been doing a series of episodes sharing some summit sessions that address each of The Flexibility Formula. Episode 130 we took a look at Understanding, episode 131 we dove into Observing, and today’s episode we are going to look at the Connecting pillar with Virtual Math Summit presenters Stacey Ellis, Matt Halpern, and Dawn Dibley. Each of them gives us strategies to connect with our students in unique ways that you may not have thought of before. Come take a listen!

Episode 131 - Observing Math Understanding with Michelle Chu & Kristen Emmel

The free 2022 Virtual Math Summit is just around the corner on February 26th & 27th. Each session addresses one of the five pillars of the Flexibility Formula. In today's episode, we're going to focus on the Observing pillar by looking at session snippets from Michelle Chu and Kristen Emmel. Michelle talks about making instructional decisions in the moment based on what you're seeing in real time and Kristen talks about using number sense routines to assess students.

Episode 130 - Building our Understanding with Dr. Ange Rogers, Duane Habecker, & Shannon McCartney

If you’ve spent a lot of time with my content or have ever taken one of my PD courses, then you’ve probably run into the Flexibility Formula. The formula is a framework that helps us avoid turning kids into calculators and every session in this year’s Virtual Math Summit addresses at least 1 of the 5 pillars. This week, we’re getting sneak peeks into sessions from Dr. Ange Rogers, Duane Habecker and Shannon McCartney that address the Understanding pillar and help kids understand large numbers....

Episode 129 - Taking it a Step Further with Fractions & Subitizing

Sometimes, it can be easy to be pretty focused on things we could do better in our classrooms. But just like we want to do with our students, let's take some time to think about how we can take what we’re already doing and take it further. In today’s episode, I dive into more Virtual Math Summit sneak peeks. This time, from Dina Mendola and me! Dina gets into how we should be thinking about fractions and I talk about one of my favorite topics: subitizing. Registration is still open for the Virtu...

Episode 128 - Doing Things Differently with Rosalba Serrano, Marian Small & Shannon Kiebler

Changing up the strategies we use in our math classrooms can be a really useful way to shake up the status quo, push kids further in their learning, and show us where we can improve as teachers. In this episode, I’m sharing sneak peeks into Virtual Math Summit sessions from Rosalba Serrano, Marian Small, and Shannon Kiebler as they encourage us to do things differently in our math classrooms. The Virtual Math Summit is free for educators so go get signed up at VirtualMathSummit.com/register ....

Episode 127 - Thinking vs Mimicking

When I was going through school, mimicking the teacher was definitely the norm. For good rule followers, that can be really easy. But is teacher mimicking really our goal as teachers? If we only want students to mimic, then we’re not giving our kids space to think independently, and solve problems in a way that works for their brain. In today’s podcast, I share some sneak peeks from Pam Harris’ and Dr. Doug Clement’s sessions from the upcoming Virtual Math Summit where they share some of their i...

Episode 126 - Powerful Moments in Math Class with Mike Flynn

In life, we naturally experience all kinds of highs and lows that stick with us, and influence the way we see the world. In today’s episode, Virtual Math Summit speaker Mike Flynn gives us a sneak peak into one of his presentations where he talks about how the “Pits and Peaks” of life influence our psychology and the way we think about our experiences. More importantly, he tells us about how we can actively use those realizations to help build better experiences for our students inside the class...

Episdoe 125 - Less Expectation, More Appreciation

When it comes to teaching in the classroom, it can be easy to get caught up in the expectations we have for our students. But have you considered the consequences of being hyper focused on expectations? If we look at students through a lens of “we expected you to have THIS and THAT, but you don’t” it starts us off on the wrong foot with how to help the kids. If instead we look at students through a lens of appreciating where they currently are, we are starting on solid ground and can work up fro...

Episode 124 - Math problems with more than one answer (Part 3)

Today, we’re going to wrap up our series on math problems with more than one answer. If you missed part 1 and 2, go check out episodes 121 and 123. Math problems with more than one answer give us the ability to really expand how we ask our students to engage with the problems themselves, and with each other. In particular, they give us an opportunity to allow students to work on Math Practice Standard #3: Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others. Today’s podcast episode ex...

Episode 123 - Math Problems with More Than One Answer (Part 2)

A couple weeks ago I talked about how 26 ÷ 6 can have multiple answers. This week, I’m back for part 2 of diving deeper into the idea that math problems can have more than one answer. Specifically, we’re going to look at “Open Middle Math Problems.” Listen in for some great examples of these problems across different grade levels.

Episode 122 - Teaching Division with Remainders Even in The Early Years

Partitive division is typically the natural way that kids think about division and the way that most textbooks start teaching kids division. However, it only gives kids a partial understanding of division. Quotative division problems give kids a deeper understanding of division and help kids focus in on understanding the remainder in the problem. Typically, we think division is only for 3rd grade and up, but division situations come up often for kids in their life and so they naturally experienc...