The Math Learning Center Blog

The start of a new school year is the perfect time for teachers to get to know their students as mathematicians. Exploring students' math identities means paying attention to their beliefs about what it means to be “good at math” and their perceptions of their own ability to do mathematics. We want to share some of the possibilities within the Bridges curriculum that will help teachers know their...

In this series of blog posts, we highlight educators in the field who are using remote learning resources intentionally to build classroom community, collaboration, and student sense-making. With the shift in 2020–21 to hybrid and remote environments, collecting authentic formative and summative assessment data presents a challenge. NCTM describes the role assessments play for student learning in...

Editor's note: In this series of blog posts, we highlight educators in the field who are using remote learning resources intentionally to build classroom community, collaboration, and student sense-making. Educators share with us that one of the aspects of the Bridges classroom they miss the most this year is their turn-and-talk routine. Teachers wish they could hear the voices of their students...

In a remote environment, how can Bridges educators provide appropriate scaffolds and be responsive to student thinking? Sharing MLC apps with students can be a powerful approach, particularly when working with students in an asynchronous setting. What does it mean to share with an MLC app? Put simply, Bridges educators can build a “saved state” task that they share with their students by way of an...

Physical manipulatives are locked away in classrooms, so teachers, students, and families are turning to The Math Learning Center apps to support understanding of visual mathematics in a remote learning environment. Usage of these free virtual manipulatives and models has tripled over the last six weeks. On Friday, May 1, more than 500 educators attended an MLC webinar on how the apps can be used...

Bridges has a new feature! The Weekly Wonder can be found on the Bridges Educator Site. The initial Weekly Wonder demonstrates how technology — the Number Rack app — can unlock the mathematical power of three little beads. Bridges sessions are often structured so that the teacher acts as the facilitator and the students essentially teach themselves and others; this is how I presented the Weekly...

Learning List , a K-12 instructional materials evaluation service, recently released independent alignment reports and an editorial review of Bridges in Mathematics second edition. Each grade level K-5 was found to address 100% of the Common Core State Standards. Number Corner second edition was also reviewed. Grades K-5 were found to address on average 95% of the Common Core State Standards...

Bridges students learn more than one way to solve multi-digit multiplication expressions. This enables them to select the strategy that is most efficient for any given problem. In addition to the standard algorithm that many of us were taught, fifth graders also investigate: Area model & four partial products Doubling & halving Ratio table Using quarters Over strategy While my students use the new...

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.

Art is an essential element of our human experience, offering aesthetic pleasure as well as a method for expressing and contemplating meaning. But what if art could also be used as a vehicle for building critical thinking and communications skills? That is the premise and promise behind Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS), an educational program developed more than 20 years ago by Philip Yenawine and...