The Build Math Minds Podcast

Rounding numbers should be way more than just a procedure where we ask students to look to see if the number behind is a 5 or higher.  Helping elementary students round should be based upon their number sense.  In this last episode of the Rounding Numbers series, I'm giving you an acronym to remember to help your students with rounding numbers: ABR.  To see this episode instead of just listen, go...

Rounding numbers should be way more than just a procedure where we ask students to look to see if the number behind is a 5 or higher.  Helping elementary students round should be based upon their number sense.  In this 2nd episode of the Rounding Numbers series, I'm giving my 2nd tip on how to help your students round with understanding.  To see this episode instead of just listen, go to https://w...

Rounding numbers should be way more than just a procedure where we ask students to look to see if the number behind is a 5 or higher.  Helping elementary students round should be based upon their number sense.  In this first episode of the Rounding Numbers series, I'm giving my first tip on how to help your students round with understanding.  To see this episode instead of just listen, go to https...

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 e...

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...

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 talk...

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 epis...

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 vide...

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 it...

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...

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 Ope...

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...

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 measuremen...

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...

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...

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 works...

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...

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...

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 men...

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.

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/reg...

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 you...

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 & meas...

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 b...