Math Chat

Send us Fan Mail In my 3rd year of teaching, I taught first and second grade. There were so many behavior problems such as kids rolling on the carpet, having fits, peeing their pants, asking to get water or go to the bathroom just to get out of the classroom, yelling out, refusing to do their work…. NO ONE was having fun, myself included, and they were barely learning. What I know now… I’d do almo...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Part 2 of my interview with Peter Liljedahl. If you missed Part 1 go listen to Episode 93 , all about breaking down the 2 ways to consolidate.  In this episode, Peter and I talk about concepts that will likely come up in your consolidating. This episode is jam packed with goodness!  In this episode we will chat about:  thick understanding moving from simple understandin...

Send us Fan Mail We work tirelessly to ensure our students feel safe to take risks in our math classroom communities. But to achieve that safety, our students need to be fully seen for who they truly are. By using the words of Black Mathematicians and other diverse math leaders we can empower and inspire our students to feel like they belong in our math classrooms. I n this episode we'll chat...

Send us Fan Mail Are you ready to start 2024 as the year to bring THINKING and sense making to your math classroom? Building a community is essential for building thinking classrooms. Let’s discuss the 3 mistakes I want you to avoid in 2024 as you build your thinking classroom. I n this episode we'll chat about: who we are teaching listening to student conversations doing the “get to know you...

Send us Fan Mail Are you building a thinking classroom? I know many teachers are thinking about sense making and helping their students think about math. Peter Liljedahl talks all about this in his book "Building Thinking Classrooms". You won't want to miss my chat with Peter! In this episode we will chat about:  consolidation being a curator learn with your students About our guest...

Send us Fan Mail Purposeful techniques are the key to getting every student describing their math thinking and learning from each other.  Dr. Sztajn is the author of 📘 Activating Math Talk 11 Purposeful Techniques and the Dean of the College of Education at North Carolina State University.   She has published over 90 papers, an edited book with Teachers College Press in addition to the book she ...

Send us Fan Mail Building Math Thinking in 2024-- let's quickly get prepared for a new year, before winter break!  Today is all about planning for the new year in your math classroom. I n this episode we'll chat about: establishing a classroom community that allows students to problem solve structures and routines to make the community feel predictable and safe, AND allow for deep thinki...

Send us Fan Mail What is your relationship with math? Math Trauma is real.   When I walked into my first ever classroom I brought with me a lot of math baggage I didn’t even know I had. I had been avoiding math for almost 2 decades at that point. As far back as I can remember I never enjoyed math...what I had was Math Trauma. Join me today as I explain what Math Trauma is and what you can do to he...

Send us Fan Mail December...is...a...lot! ✏️ Make your life easier by... Click ing HERE for FREE Winter Math Warm Ups You are the expert of your classroom and community. You know what will get  your students excited and engaged. I encourage you to use this season of wild winter break build up to insert some play and fun because in the end it will infuse JOY and building your community with JOY is...

Send us Fan Mail Math is about more than filling in worksheets. Math is about finding patterns, reasoning, justifying your reasoning and making sense of the world with math.  Join me today as I discuss Quick Math Warm Ups and how to use them in your math classroom. In this episode we'll chat about: set your intention for math warm ups hold a quick debrief after the math warm up use math warm...

Send us Fan Mail Were not just making kids better at math, were making sure our kids can tackle ANY problem… we’re making better people. Am I right? Problem Solving is the key to integrating SEL into our math lessons. Problem solving gives our students the opportunity to practice the skills like- decision making, self awareness & self management while also interacting with peers through collab...

Send us Fan Mail Are you using tasks with your students to promote mathematical thinking, but it often feels like something is missing? Let's delve into what might be happening and find ways to enhance the effectiveness of your mathematical teaching methods! In this episode we'll chat about: defining math tasks  getting students to think  mistakes to avoid when debriefing  Mentioned in t...

Send us Fan Mail Math problem solving is John SanGiovanni's thing... let's just say he is THE expert. On this interview we cover it all: tinkering, getting dirty, and balance... in MATH CLASS! You're going to love this fun chat with John SanGiovanni all about math problem solving. In this episode we will chat about:  problem solving  many challenges in teaching math getting through...

Send us Fan Mail Productive Struggle is a hot topic in lots of math teacher circles. Do you use it with your students? In this episode we'll cover what research says about productive struggle- why it is important to building confident problem solvers & deep mathematical thinkers! In this episode we'll chat about: how research defines productive struggle  our role in productive strugg...

Send us Fan Mail Shifting pedagogy is one way you can achieve the ever present pressures of math achievement. Have you noticed your students are required to not only know the math, but think critically about it, problem solve, and possess a deeper understanding of the concepts? Our eve changing is demanding a shift in pedagogy. One where we depart from traditional, teacher-centered approaches and...

Send us Fan Mail Have you heard this from parents (or even your friends), "Why are they teaching this 'new math'?" To be honest, it's frustrating because it feels like a loose- loose situation. Like, what can I say that will convince you that it's not actually "new math".  In this episode we will go into why people say this and a few ideas for how to respond...

Send us Fan Mail Do your math discussions sometimes feel like too much work to make it really WORTH IT? Join us in this episode as we unlock the secrets to making math discussions both engaging and effective. With a simple routine you can transform your classroom discussions and boost your students' math understanding. In this episode: Explore why math discussions are a game-changer in educat...

Send us Fan Mail Ambitious Teacher herself, Margaret "Peg" S. Smith, joins us today to reveal what ambitious teaching can look like in your classroom. Inside this conversation with Peg we're breaking down the elements of an equitable, inclusive, and ambitious mathematics class. It was a complete honor to have this conversation with Peg where I felt like I was not only talking to the...

Send us Fan Mail Have you considered anticipating student strategies when planning for math? In this episode I'm going to convince you that it is WELL worth your time! In this episode we'll chat about:  How anticipating can help you steer the ship while students row!  Where anticipating fits into our math planning process  Anticipating as a way to assess and understand your students even...

Send us Fan Mail Math Differentiate: Open tasks really can naturally differentiate. I know differentiation seems like there's a lot required of you-- planning, color coded copies, small groups... but what if I told you that one task can be differentiated easily by implementing these 4 steps! In this episode we'll chat about:  What math differentiate is  4 steps to differentiate math task...

Send us Fan Mail You want to build community & students confidence, but there just ⏰ is NOT time for all that. In this episode I'll show you how to build community & student confidence with a simple lesson plan straight from my favorite research based instructional practice... Word Problem Workshop ! In this episode we'll chat about:  What is a math community & why it matter...

Send us Fan Mail Do you know what Beyonce's Birthday & being good at math have in common?? While it migh tbe Beyonce's birthday, it's also my brithday AND my friends Juliana & Kristen's Birthday too!  So, we're getting together to chat about our favorite thing... helping students be GREAT at math!  In this episode we'll chat about:  What does it mean to be goo...

Send us Fan Mail Proactive classroom management means you have a plan and you're ready to take action when those inevidable behaviors occur. In order to create a strong math community, you'll need some proactive classroom management strategies.  Today we'll chat about:  4 agreements we need to make about proactive classroom management  general guidelines for classroom management in...

Send us Fan Mail Do you experience homework stress? Maybe with giving? grading? helping your own kids? Today I might ruffle some feathers with my opinion about homework, but I hope you stick with me because...  Today we'll chat about:  why we give homework  why students don't do homework  what might happen if we just stop giving homework this year.  It's okay if we disagree, I would...

Send us Fan Mail You are busy planning and deciding on what to do in the first week, aren't you? You want the best first week activities for math class. Let me add these 3 BEST of the BEST first week activities.  Today we'll chat about:  how to make the most of the activites in the first week  how to build relationships in the first week that will carry you through the school year how ge...