Unit Coordination
How much knowledge is enough knowledge?
The semester has started and I am confronted with the same question the AIMS Center is currently wrestling with: How much knowledge is enough for a teacher to know to make effective decisions with students? We read research by researchers who have been spending years if not decades studying how students come to learn to… Continue Reading
What’s in a Word?
“Yartle!” Have you ever been in a situation where someone uses a word that’s not in your vocabulary? Then they use it again. What do you do? Because you are my closest confidants, I’m going to give you the lowdown on what I do in this situation: I don’t want to look like an ignorant,… Continue Reading
Where Are You?
As an instructional coach, I would travel from school to school working with different teachers every week. While I would visit the same sites repeatedly, I would use my navigation system to find them initially. After a couple of months though, I noticed that I still needed directions to get to some of the same… Continue Reading
Shaking Up Calendar Time
If you have been reading my blog posts you may know that I have started working in a kindergarten classroom. If you are just joining my journey, read my previous two blogs here: (New Adventure and Introducing Stef the Moose). My work in the classroom has brought up many questions regarding why teachers do the… Continue Reading
Christian – Part 2
In my previous blog I introduced Christian. He had a prescribed method for solving addition tasks, but many times his answers were not accurate. In our second session with Christian our primary goal was for him to use a counting strategy when adding two numbers. We began by presenting cards to him with the numerals… Continue Reading
Empowering Students to see the Mathematics Around Them
My great adventure in the classroom has been going on a little over a week. I have absolutely loved doing math with 1st graders. In my last blog, I wrote about how important reflection is in learning, and how I would need to prioritize time for reflection. Teaching has reminded me of the amazing amount… Continue Reading
What I learned about Teaching Mathematics from the Great British Baking Show
During the past month I indulged in watching one of my favorite shows, The Great British Baking Show on PBS. The drama, the flour, the sugar and oh, how I love those British accents. For those of you unfamiliar with the show, it is a contest that begins with twelve bakers and at the end… Continue Reading
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
Reflections from the New Guy
A few short weeks ago I was in my 8th grade math classroom asking students to put away their fidget spinners, managing the controlled chaos that is a junior high classroom, and encouraging groups of students to argue in a productive way about math problems from the curriculum. Coming to AIMS has put me in… Continue Reading
