Topic: Math

Today on the Heinemann podcast: how do we create strong learning communities where students can feel confident in their mathematical abilities? In their new book Thinking Together: 9 Beliefs for Building a Mathematical Community, Rozlynn Dance and Tessa Kaplan celebrate student-centered strategies that empower students to take risks, ask questions, and grow as learners.

Once students are comfortable with the idea that mistakes are great, it is important that they begin to notice them on their own. As with self-correcting while reading, we want our students to notice when they are making a mistake and make attempts to remedy it.

To allow all learners to engage in argumentation, we as teachers need to develop our confidence in planning for the wide range of learners in our classrooms. How can argumentation be a goal and an expectation for all students?

At the beginning of the school year, one of the most important things we do as teachers is get to know our children. It is during this “get to know you” time that we can easily learn about our students’ confidence levels.

One of the most important factors in successful student-centered instruction and learning is perseverance. If we let our students give up after the first try or get overly frustrated when they make a mistake, we are doing them a great disservice.

To help build a community of mathematical growth in every classroom, we've created a set of posters based on the nine key beliefs outlined in Thinking Together.

We use mathematical notation because it strips away all the extraneous information and helps us communicate as directly as we can about mathematical ideas. We couldn’t live in a world where all quantities were represented with dots or hash marks. We need abstract representations of numbers.

In order for students to learn and understand mathematical concepts, they must live in classrooms that support cooperative learning and mathematical discourse. Students develop an understanding of mathematics when in an atmosphere where they feel safe to learn, take risks, make mistakes, and grow.

Teaching questioning skills is not an easy process. It involves patience, scaffolding, and focused instruction. Asking a question is not something that a lot of our students know how to do innately, especially at the primary level.

it’s a sad but common belief among teachers and students that math manipulatives are a crutch to be outgrown and an intervention to be used only when necessary.

I recently received this question about coaching on my website: Is it the coach's responsibility to report the teachers' flaws to the principal?

Contexts for Learning Math: Hear Cathy Fosnot speak near you

But what really mattered was watching how these math visuals worked in my own classroom with my own students. So, don’t take my word for it . . .

Confronting Shame In The Math Classroom

Fostering Belongingness to Support Student Participation

Today on the podcast Ilana Seidel Horn talks about her new book Motivated

The 5 Features of a Motivated Classroom

How Do I Use Math In Practice With Other Math Programs?