The Math Learning Center Blog

Here’s what I learned when a colleague video-recorded my class recently: we teachers miss a lot! In the video I could see myself responding in great detail to one group’s work, helping them see what they’d accomplished and leading them on to the next steps. As I walked away, the camera stayed focused on the students. Seconds went by. No more math work happened. They were lost. I think they all...

The other day I received this question from a fifth grade teacher, referring to a challenge problem in the Bridges Student Book: "I would say this is too close to call. Anything other than wading knee deep into the computation will simply yield a guess, not a prediction. What do you think?" I approached the problem myself. Sure enough, by the time I’d arrived at a sensible estimate, I basically...

After teaching the Constant Difference strategy for subtraction to at least six different groups of teachers and students in third and fourth grade over the past month, I think I finally hit on a winning tool: the Number Line app. Here’s what I did. First, I selected a plain number line, no ticks. Then, anticipating two sets of numbers, I added four blank boxes to the line. I told the class of...

This is the scene that plays out all too frequently in my house at homework time. Books, notebooks, and worksheets are spread all over the dining room table. My seventh-grade daughter is hunched over another math worksheet, pencil in hand, frustration building with each problem. I stand, whiteboard in hand, prepared to help her tackle the math she’s struggling with. Today we are engaged in ratios...

We’ve seen a ton of great activity on Twitter lately. Teachers are sharing pictures of their students having fun in Work Places, during Number Corner, and using MLC apps. I look forward to the time I set aside for Twitter each workday because I get to see students enjoying themselves while learning math. Here are some highlights from the past month. This is probably my favorite of the bunch. I...

In honor of Digital Learning Day, I want to share resources and digital tools that celebrate education innovation. I believe that when we choose the right technology we help develop active learners invested in their learning experience. When I look for digital resources, I seek out tools that offer personalized feedback in the learning moment. Since I can’t provide all students immediate feedback...

Computers, laptops, tablets, phones … I can envision these becoming standard tools of my classroom just as calculators, pencils, rulers, and markers are. For now, when students use digital devices in my class, much of their attention is devoted to the device itself instead of to mathematics. We share computers with other classes, and not all my students have access to computers outside of school...

Whenever I go to a conference, people stop by our booth to play around with our manipulatives and apps. Nearly everyone says something to the effect of, “Oh cool!” or “I’m downloading that as soon as I get home.” Many of the “Oh cool” comments are directed at our Money Value Pieces manipulative. And because this is one of our most powerful and popular manipulatives, we turned it into an app! One...

When I was going through school, I always gravitated toward mathematics (and math-based science classes). I never really thought about what math actually is, only that, well, I liked it. As long as my grades were good, I didn’t really pause to consider what the numbers stood for. I already had some idea of the various math disciplines: in geometry we worked with shapes, in algebra we solved for x...

The "Four Cs"—critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and communication—are widely recognized as the hallmark of 21st century learning. In reality, I have less than 30 minutes in my first grade teaching day that isn’t designated for the three Rs—reading, writing, and arithmetic. So how do I incorporate technology and the four Cs using my current curriculum? I think about HOW I teach. A 21st...