AIMS Center
Making a Difference in the New School Year
Welcome back to the 2017-18 school year! In early learning classrooms across the nation, thousands of 3-5 year-old children are excited to start school. There is wonderment about what this mysterious concept of “going to school” and “learning” means. Their new teachers had officially returned a week earlier, reviewed the enrollment roster, and filled a… Continue Reading
Reflecting upon Summer 2017
It seems funny to be reflecting back on this season now, but as my profession is inexorably linked to a scholastic calendar, it is accurate. Schools all over the valley are starting up, teachers are prepping their classrooms if they haven’t already begun classes, and my colleagues at AIMS and FPU are filtering back into… Continue Reading
NGSS Thoughts- Grouping Performance Expectations
For this entry I’m going to be discussing the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) Performance Expectations (PE), which state what students should be able to do in order to demonstrate that they have met the standards. I think of these expectations as “goals” for students in science and for teachers to know what to share… Continue Reading
Building the Mathematical Mind
Watching a young child’s mathematical knowledge grow is analogous to watching a house being built. When I was in my teens, my dad, along with my brother and I, BlogAugPt2 BlogAugPt1built our new home. I remember the exciting days of noticeable growth, such as when we poured the concrete slab, framed the walls, or put… Continue Reading
Christian – Part 1
The Standards for Mathematical Practice describe ways in which developing student practitioners of the discipline of mathematics increasingly ought to engage with the subject matter as they grow in mathematical maturity and expertise throughout the elementary, middle and high school years.—Common Core State Standards for Mathematics, p. 8 CSS.MP1 Make sense of problems and persevere… Continue Reading
Teaching is Listening
Last week, our Early Math Team here at the AIMS Center partnered with Fresno EOC Head Start to spend a day devoted to children’s mathematics. I had the privilege of sharing a few thoughts at the beginning of the day to help shape our time and work together over the coming year. In this keynote,… Continue Reading
What Part Does Technology Have to Play in the Future of Education? (Part III)
This blog post is the third in a series concerning technology in education stemming from the Jean Piaget Society Conference I attended in June. The theme of this year’s conference was “Technology and Human Development.” It provided a venue to discuss technology through a variety of different academic disciplines and research frames of reference all… Continue Reading
You Can and Do Make a Difference
If you were asked to describe the best professional learning experience you have ever had, what would you say? Would you say it fit your needs perfectly? Would you say you were provided with individualized considerations? Would you say you were able to take the experience and share it with your colleagues? Would you say… Continue Reading
Introducing Stef the Moose
Some of the most precious and meaningful memories I have from teaching kindergarten came from a classroom stuffed bear I called Mr. Teddy. He was part of six kindergarten classes. He would go home with a new student every Monday and return to class on Friday with a new story to tell that had been… Continue Reading
“If I Could Turn Back Time” – Part 2
In my last post I wrote about one of my first experiences teaching math to second graders. At the time (way back in 1996!), the math adoption we were using was MathLand, which was very conceptually based. I had several teacher friends that were also educators comment that they loved MathLand and felt it really… Continue Reading
