The Math Learning Center Blog

Preview our newest app as we continue to develop it. Partial Product Finder allows multiplication combinations to be represented as a rectangle, or array, with dimensions that match the combination. This helps students develop the flexibility and conceptual understanding required to build fluency with basic facts and strategies for multiplication of larger numbers. Educators can create their own...

Meaningful Distributed Practice (MDP), is a technique incorporating big ideas of a grade level via short instructional tasks. Research from the University of Iowa has shown that implementing MDP increased students' conceptual understanding and skill development. These brief tasks improve classroom discourse because they provide students time to think and share their ideas in large and small group...

The Math Learning Center recognizes that the context for intervention is very different from the regular classroom setting. To enable educators to configure the Bridges Intervention materials to fit their local needs, schools and districts can now buy additional materials without teachers guides. Program components—game boards, spinners, and card decks—can be purchased by box for each of the...

In collaboration with the Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators (AMTE), The Math Learning Center is offering an Elementary Mathematics Specialist Scholarship. This scholarship provides financial assistance for educators seeking to become elementary math specialists, teacher leaders, or instructional coaches. Three $2,000 scholarships are awarded each year to current elementary educators...

I assume that you teach math to elementary school students or are very interested in this aspect of schooling. Here is a pop quiz. Name some people who have made major, lasting contributions to the discipline of math education, and say what they contributed. (Think about this a little before going on to the next paragraph.) If I asked this question about the discipline of science, you might think...

The Learning to Think Mathematically series, written by Dr. Jeff Frykholm, is now available free from The Math Learning Center. These insightful books provide families and educators with innovative resources and novel strategies to help young learners develop powerful mathematical insights and problem-solving strategies. The premise underlying the Learning to Think Mathematically series is that...

Last year we added Math and the Mind’s Eye to our collection of free resources. Math and the Mind’s Eye is a supplemental program based on visual models that can be taught in sequence or used as individual lessons. The 14 units that make up this program cover math concepts typically taught in middle school but extend into upper and lower grade levels as well. To round out our secondary offerings...

You may have noticed some changes to our website recently. These changes were made in an effort to simplify the content and improve navigation. The biggest change by far is to our collection of free, downloadable materials. Not only did we move these materials from our online catalog, but we also expanded the collection. Most notably, we added two programs, Visual Mathematics and Algebra Through...

The second edition of Bridges and Number Corner launched in 2013, and since then The Math Learning Center has continued to offer materials and support for first edition users. We will continue to produce kits upon request through December 31, 2018, after which we will consider the product line retired. Consumable student books will also be discontinued at that time. Note that we currently offer...

I was recently at a workshop where the leader brought up the base-ten area pieces on the document camera. She asked the teachers seated in the audience, “What do you notice?” Area models and the place value number system Once you notice one thing, notice something else. Keep going. What’s the pattern? What will the next-larger one look like? What will the next-smaller one look like? Take a moment...