Unit Construction
Gleanings From the Tree of Life
August is the month when educators return to work. Many of you have spent days preparing for the start of school and are now in full swing in your classrooms. It’s almost like we never had a vacation right? While I work year round, I am still feeling the excitement of the start of school… Continue Reading
Lesson From Mexico: Pan De Mujer
Every day on the way to our work site in Mexico, we passed a small sign on the side of a similarly small building that said, “Pan de Mujer, 5 pesos.” I speak Spanish but I was still a little unsure what this meant. I knew the words, but “woman’s bread” didn’t make sense, so… 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
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
Prioritizing Reflection for Me and My Students
One of the best experiences as a teacher for me is when you see a child have an “ah-ha” moment. The look on their face, their body language, their emotion. These moments bring me so much joy. I have seen so many of these moments working with 1st graders over the last few years. I… Continue Reading
What’s That in My Reflection?
Most of us, when hear the word reflection, think about what we see when we look in a mirror, but it can also mean to think back on an event. For example, if I asked you to reflect on the food choices you made today, you would have to think back on the meals that… Continue Reading
Building Understanding in Mathematics
This week I’m writing from Mexico. Every year, my church travels down to build houses for families in need. We work with local churches to supply building materials and manpower to build simple homes. The work could not occur without the help of local pastors, who help by identifying the families and local contacts we… Continue Reading
New Adventure
In my role as a Research Associate here at the AIMS Center, I have been asked many times how I would have changed my instruction in the classroom if I knew then what I know now. This is a question that I have asked myself as well. After teaching for over 11 years I know… Continue Reading
