I think we’ve all heard and know about Emotional Eating, but have you ever felt like you’ve done Emotional TEACHING? Not sure it’s a thing, but it kind of feels like it should be. Listen in to my random thoughts and then let me know in the comments over on the YouTube video or the show notes page if you’ve ever done Emotional Teaching? I give an example of Teaching Emotionally in math, but your example could be from any content area.
Sep 29, 2024•6 min•Ep. 172
Jun 02, 2024•9 min•Ep. 171
My kids and I play a lot. Sports, card games, board games, but they all have a preset goal…to win. According to a book I’m reading, true play does NOT have a preset goal. So it got me wondering how much true play my kids, and I, actually do. I’m making it a goal to include more opportunities for us to truly play. In this episode I’m sharing my ideas on what I will be doing this summer to play (and getting my kids to join in) plus I give you the Seven Principles of Self-Active Play they lay out i...
May 26, 2024•8 min•Ep. 170
If you’ve struggled with how to help your elementary students build their math fluency, there is one thing I encourage you to do: Help your students build their flexibility with numbers. Textbooks try to directly teach strategies to students thinking that is how they will build flexibility, but you spend months doing that and then later in the year they act like they have no idea what you are talking about. That’s when we revert back to just making kids memorize. In this episode we take a look a...
May 19, 2024•8 min•Ep. 169
When I first started teaching I don’t think I ONCE used a math manipulative with my students. It was all about learning and memorizing procedures and I didn’t know they needed to actually understand the math. Now, I’m a Recovering Traditionalist and I know that kids need to understand the math, not just DO it, and to help them understand they need to work with math manipulatives. In this episode, I’m sharing 3 key things to watch out for when working with math manipulatives. We need to be using ...
May 12, 2024•8 min•Ep. 168
Growing up I thought doing Mental Math meant doing the algorithm in my head. Times have changed and now many educators have kids solve math in different ways but during Mental Math it’s still only having kids to do math in their head. That’s not exactly what Mental Math should be about. In this episode we explore what doing Mental Math really should be like. Get any links mentioned in this video at BuildMathMinds.com/167
May 05, 2024•8 min•Ep. 167
If you’ve ever watched a child during a counting collection and thought “Ugh! Why are you grouping the items like that?!?” Well, there’s probably a reason. There is a progression kids go through when organizing items they are counting. Now even though this information comes from a book about Early Childhood Education, it still applies to those of you in 3rd-5th as you work to help them group items in ways that lead to multiplicative thinking. Watch this week’s video about The Progression of Grou...
Apr 28, 2024•7 min•Ep. 166
It is commonly thought that Geometry in the early grades is just about getting kids to name and identify shapes. There are actually 4 big ideas talked about in the Navigating Through Geometry book. One of which is the work around two- and three-dimensional shapes but it is so much more than just naming & identifying shapes. In this episode we take a look at what knowledge kids in PreK-2 should be developing around shapes and the types of experiences you can provide to help them develop it. G...
Apr 14, 2024•11 min•Ep. 165
There are 4 main strategies children tend to use to solve addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division problems. These math strategies are not tricks. Their foundations are built on number relationships and properties of operations. In the Math Strategy Sessions we have already explored 3 of the strategies and our next session is focused on helping kids use and understand the Inverse Operation Strategy ( https://buildmathminds.com/strategy-sessions to register). This is more than just hel...
Apr 07, 2024•12 min•Ep. 164
There are lots of Problems of Teaching when you are helping young kids learn mathematics. One of the hardest ones is helping your students to be successful learners, constantly trying to manage a large classroom of students who often are not very productive. In the book Teaching Problems and the Problems of Teaching by Dr. Magdalene Lampert, there was a line in the chapter Teaching Students to Be People Who Study in School, that still has me thinking: “...if we view students’ productive or unpro...
Mar 31, 2024•14 min•Ep. 163
In this video I’m sharing a part of a book that made me go “Hmm, I’ve never really thought about that!” It has to do with just how precise we can actually be when measuring items. One of the Standards of Mathematical Practice is “Attend to Precision” which is about being precise in all mathematical vocabulary and content, but just how precise should we make students be when it comes to measurement? Get any links mentioned in this video at BuildMathMinds.com/162...
Mar 24, 2024•9 min•Ep. 162
I love pies, Pecan Pie especially, but I don’t love them during math time. Pies, well circles in general, are an overused visual when it comes to the teaching of fractions. In this video we take a look at visual fraction models that are much better to use and will be helpful to your students as they progress into other mathematical concepts like percentages, ratios, etc. Get any links mentioned in this video at BuildMathMinds.com/161
Mar 17, 2024•14 min•Ep. 161
After the 2024 Virtual Math Summit, there was so much mention of using Sentence Stems I wanted to dig a bit deeper into them. In my research I stumbled upon an old blog post by one of my favorite Math-y people, Sara Van Der Werf. In this podcast episode I’m sharing a piece of her blog post that talks about one tweak you can make to Think/Pair/Share (or Turn & Talk) to help get your students more engaged in the math discussion. Take a listen and go to buildmathminds.com/160 for any links ment...
Mar 03, 2024•7 min•Ep. 160
Cathy Fosnot and Pam Harris are The Queens of Number Strings (or Problem Strings as Pam would call them). I’m way too excited about the fact they are teaming up to do a one-day workshop all about using Problem Strings for Automaticity, Fluency, and Beyond. If you’ve been doing number strings and want to go more in depth on how to use them in your classroom, I highly recommend going to this workshop. Go to https://buildmathminds.com/159 to get links to items mentioned in the episode....
Feb 25, 2024•6 min•Ep. 159
Before the 2024 Virtual Math Summit starts next week, enjoy this preview of a Pre-Summit Session by Rosalba Serrano on Preventing Teacher Burnout. Rosalba shares a ton of information and ideas to help you with burnout but I specifically picked this clip because one of the ideas she shared is one that my family uses a lot: Control the Controllables. Get registered so you can watch Rosalba’s full session before the summit starts: VirtualMathSummit.com/register ....
Feb 18, 2024•12 min•Ep. 158
The 2024 Virtual Math Summit is in two weeks! Here’s a preview of 3 sessions from Jenny Foreman, Loren Thorpe, and myself talking about the challenges and benefits of working on getting your students to think and not just compute during math class. To see the full list of speakers, their presentations, and to get registered go to VirtualMathSummit.com/register. To get any links mentioned in this episode, go to the show notes page at BuildMathMinds.com/157.
Feb 11, 2024•12 min•Ep. 157
The 2024 Virtual Math Summit is this month! Here’s a preview of 3 sessions from Michaela Epstein, Rosalba Serrano, and Nicole Thompson & Jessica Batinovic giving you tips, ideas, and inspiration to make our Number Routines the best they can be for your students. To see the full list of speakers, their presentations, and to get registered go to VirtualMathSummit.com/register. To get any links mentioned in this episode, go to the show notes page at BuildMathMinds.com/156.
Feb 04, 2024•13 min
The 2024 Virtual Math Summit starts in less than 1 month! Check out this preview of Dr. Jim Ewing’s keynote session about Teaching Math with Newcomers in Mind. To see the full list of speakers, their presentations, and to get registered go to VirtualMathSummit.com/register. To get any links mentioned in this episode, go to the show notes page at BuildMathMinds.com/155.
Jan 28, 2024•8 min•Ep. 155
The 2024 Virtual Math Summit is coming soon. This week’s episode gives you a preview of 4 sessions that focus on helping students build their understanding and fluency of multiplication. Check out this preview of Shannon Olson, Juli Dixon, Thuc-Khahn Park, and Brittany Hege’s sessions. To see the full list of speakers, their presentations, and to get registered go to VirtualMathSummit.com/register. To get any links mentioned in this episode, go to the show notes page at BuildMathMinds.com/154....
Jan 21, 2024•18 min•Ep. 154
The 2024 Virtual Math Summit is just around the corner. This week’s episode gives you a preview of 4 of the sessions. To see the full list of speakers, their presentations, and to get registered go to VirtualMathSummit.com/register. I’m a huge supporter of Student-Centered Classrooms and so for this episode I grabbed some clips to share with you that give you ideas for ways to create that in your math class. Tammy McMorrow, Latrenda Knighten, Ed Nolan, and Mona Iehl each have presentations at th...
Jan 14, 2024•21 min•Ep. 153
I get asked why I don’t do much training about Time & Measurement. I do have some videos, you can see them in my Playlists at the YouTube channel, but there is a real reason why I don’t talk about those concepts as much as others. So in this video you get my thoughts (based upon what other math educators & researchers have to say) about why we shouldn’t spend a bunch of time teaching time & measurement in math class.
Jan 07, 2024•5 min•Ep. 152
This essential understanding about division is something even adults struggle with: Division is defined by its inverse relationship with multiplication. Our textbooks want us to teach division as its own separate operation but a key to helping students understand and become proficient in division is to teach it in conjunction with multiplication. In this episode I’m sharing an excerpt from one book in the Putting Essential Understandings into Practice series. To get any links mentioned in this e...
Dec 17, 2023•12 min
Want a quick & easy to implement activity that will show you how much your students know about the math operations and about math story problems? I’ve got it for you in this week’s Build Math Minds podcast. This idea comes from the book Taking Action: Implementing Effective Mathematics Teaching Practices by DeAnn Huinker and Victoria Bill. You can find a link to it and any other resources mentioned at the show notes page buildmathminds.com/150
Dec 10, 2023•7 min•Ep. 150
The two ends of the spectrum when teaching math seem to be “here are the exact ways to solve this problem, follow it exactly,” and “you figure it out, I’m not telling you anything.” Neither of these tend to work. Instead it’s about finding a balance between these. We need to give some guidance, but not too much. We want them to figure out ways to solve problems on their own but we can’t let them flounder. The book 7 Steps to a Language-Rich, Interactive Classroom by John Seidlitz & Bill Perr...
Dec 03, 2023•10 min•Ep. 149
It's been an incredible journey over the past two weeks as we've explored nine key strategies to Kickstart your students' number sense. Now, as we reach the end of this Kickstart event, it's essential to understand that the foundations you're laying are seeds of number sense, and their growth will be gradual. These principles we've discussed serve as the blueprint for you to navigate through the upcoming school year: Do Number Routines and Contextual Problems with a focus on understanding. Watch...
Oct 17, 2023•10 min
The saying "Practice Makes Perfect" often implies that repetition leads to mastery. However, practicing something you do poorly, or incorrectly, doesn't make it perfect; it instead reinforces bad habits. Practice actually makes PERMANENT. Practice is crucial, but it should follow the establishment of a strong sense of numbers. Day 9’s tip is to find a new way for students to practice math. Today's audio message discusses two valuable approaches to make practice more enjoyable and connected to yo...
Oct 16, 2023•14 min
Day 8 of the Number Sense Kickstart emphasizes a simple, yet sometimes difficult, teaching strategy: Let students solve story problems, don’t give them the steps. The concept of Cognitively Guided Instruction (CGI) plays a pivotal role here. It acknowledges that students bring their innate mathematical knowledge shaped by everyday experiences with numbers to the table when solving problems. Students often solve problems in different ways than we think they should mathematically…however their str...
Oct 13, 2023•13 min
In Day 7 of our Number Sense Kickstart we are shifting from the theoretical ideas I’ve shared so far into practical classroom strategies that make it easier to do the theoretical ideas. Our first practical idea is to do a Number Routine with your students. These structured, brief activities, taking just 5-10 minutes, are a potent tool for meaningful math engagement. Number Routines help students develop the 8 number sense concepts, encouraging them to interact with numbers and share their thinki...
Oct 12, 2023•14 min
Today we're diving into the Concrete-Representational-Abstract (C-R-A) model of teaching mathematics. Typically, these stages are presented in isolation, with separate lessons for each. However, the real impact comes when all three are combined in a single lesson. This integration helps students see connections between different problem-solving methods and leads to those "A-HA" moments. The action item for Day 6 of the Number Sense Kickstart is to seek opportunities to combine C-R-A in your math...
Oct 11, 2023•12 min
It’s Day 5 of the Number Sense Kickstart and we're focusing on the power of visuals in elementary math education. Just like in reading, where creating mental images enhances comprehension, visuals are essential in math to deepen students' understanding of numbers and mathematical operations. However, sometimes the visuals that are in math textbooks and worksheets you download off the internet don’t actually help students understand the math. In today’s training we look at ensuring that visuals y...
Oct 10, 2023•11 min
