The Math Learning Center Blog

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Humanizing Intervention: Opening Problem Solving and Ending Timed Activities

At the Math Learning Center, we believe that all students can make sense of mathematics. Some students just need more time, more opportunities, and more support than others. Our approach emphasizes problem solving, the use of faithful visual models, and a focus on developing fluency. In March 2021, the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) and the What Works Clearinghouse released a new version of...
Nicole Rigelman, Chief Academic Officer

Spring Into Math with MLC Math Apps

It’s spring! The sun is shining, plants are growing, and frogs and bugs abound. At The Math Learning Center, we’ve created some fun activities with springtime themes to help get your math blooming! Like February’s popular Share the Math Love celebration, each of the following activities includes the Share Your Work feature. You can send students a link or code to access the activity, and students...
Kim Markworth, Director of Content Development

Share the Math Love with MLC's Pattern Shapes App

At MLC, we’ve put our hearts into supporting teachers in various ways throughout this school year. One of our most popular offerings, for Bridges and non-Bridges educators, is our collection of Free Math Apps , based on the visual models featured in Bridges in Mathematics. In December 2020, the number of visits to MLC’s Math Apps were more than ten times higher than visits in December 2019. If...
Kim Markworth, Director of Content Development

Welcome, One Hundred!

The 100th day of school is nigh! This point in the school year is significant for its place value importance, but it also indicates that the school year is more than half over. It is an exciting milestone for children, sometimes a relief for teachers, and a reason to celebrate for all. At MLC, the past few months have given us our own reason to celebrate the growing popularity of our free math...
Kim Markworth, Director of Content Development

Exploring Patterns with the Math Learning Center’s New Number Chart App

The hundreds chart is an amazing tool for counting, skip counting, adding, subtracting, multiplying, exploring patterns, investigating place value, problem solving, and more. The standard hundreds chart – with 10 rows of 10 and starting with 1 in the upper left corner – has been used in elementary classrooms for decades to allow for these very opportunities. In more recent years, charts of...
Patrick Vennebush, Chief Learning Officer
Kim Markworth, Director of Content Development

Introducing Bridges Breakout: Number Rack

The number rack helps build the bridge from counting to computational fluency by inviting students to think about numbers in groups of 2, 5, and 10. Its 2 rows of 5 red and 5 white movable beads allow students to see and slide beads in groups rather than 1 by 1. Just as we want students to move from sounding out words letter by letter to reading morphemes and whole words, we want students to move...
Shelly Scheafer

Introducing Bridges to Families in Your Community

Now more than ever, families are looking for ways to support their students’ mathematics education. They may not know where to start—the Bridges in Mathematics approach might appear a bit different from the way they were taught math. How can Bridges educators offer families a chance to see what a Bridges classroom looks like? How can they offer ideas and options for fostering their students’ math...
Mike Wallus, Vice President for Educator Support

Introducing App Activities!

Now that all MLC Math Apps have sharing capabilities, we’ve launched an App Activities page on the newly redesigned MLC website. There, teachers can find a repository of app-based problem-solving tasks to engage and challenge students. You can search by keyword or filter by grade level, topic, or app to find an appropriate problem-solving task for your students. While I encourage you to explore...
Kim Markworth, Director of Content Development

Number Corner Aligns

Learning List , a K-12 instructional materials evaluation service, recently released independent alignment reports and an editorial review of Number Corner second edition. Grades K-5 were found to address on average 95% of the Common Core State Standards. Correlations to the Texas state standards (TEKS) are also available from MLC and Learning List. "The objective third-party reviews offered by...
Jami Smith

The Pattern Shapes App

The Pattern Shapes App is now available for download from The Math Learning Center. Here's a quick tutorial on how to use this new free math app. Jami is a media specialist for MLC.
Jami Smith