For math to be accessible to students, math vocabulary must be taught! Let's talk about teaching math vocabulary in a way that sticks! Let’s see how important math vocabulary is to understanding and solving this problem. Could you solve this problem? I covered up a vital piece of information needed to solve this problem to emulate what a student might experience without knowing ...
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5 Statistics Activities for Middle School
Data and statistics is such a fun topic to teach in middle school math! The relevance and hands-on nature of analyzing and displaying data made it engaging for my students and myself! Data and statistics usually fell to the very last unit in my scope and sequence which meant I was tired, and the amount of creative energy I had to put into my lessons was waning. Just me? So I thought I ...
Email Organization for Teachers
Does your email inbox make you feel overwhelmed? Every year around the new year, I attempt to get my inbox under control. Here are some email organization tips that I found to be practical and doable. This month we are tackling everything organization and time management! If you didn't read last week's post, check it out: Time Saving Tips for Your Planning Period and be sure to check ...
Strategies for Teaching Math Concepts
Let's discuss strategies for teaching math concepts using the CRA framework. Remember that the CRA framework has proven to help students grasp difficult math concepts. If you are scratching your head asking yourself, “What is the CRA framework?” be sure to go back and read this post. What is the CRA? I like this definition best. “The CRA is a three-stage learning process where ...
Concrete Representational Abstract Sequence
The CRA framework is an instructional strategy that stands for concrete, representational, and abstract; it is critical to helping students move through their learning of math concepts. To fully understand the idea behind CRA, or concrete representational abstract, think about a small child learning to count. They may learn counting to 10 by memorizing a song. Then, these ...
Higher Level Thinking with Bloom’s Taxonomy
Higher level thinking is a goal for many teachers. Students retain knowledge when they have thought deeply about it. And in order to get our students to think at a deeper level, we have to be asking questions that require them to access those parts of the brain. Encouraging higher level thinking is so interconnected to your classroom culture, the rigor of your content, and then ...
Turn Worksheets into Easy Math Activities
Easy math activities - is this an oxymoron? It doesn't have to be. You don’t have to be a teacher long to see that a worksheet full of problems does not incite the excitement and enthusiasm of many of your students. However, try any of these easy math activities, and you will experience unprecedented levels of excitement from your class. Now that I am a parent, I see this ...
4 Test Review Tips for Teachers
The end of the semester is upon us. Let’s talk about some best practices for test review. First and foremost, I support best teaching practices, which involve monitoring your students throughout the year, consistently spiraling skills, and striving for high mastery. USE DATA TO REVIEW STRATEGICALLY Look at collective student data and determine the weak spots. What ...
Essential Math Manipulatives
Math manipulatives are some of the best ways to introduce a new mathematical concept and are the foundation of the C-R-A. They help to form a solid mathematical foundation as students move from concrete understanding to representational to abstract. By providing the opportunity to concretely work with the manipulatives, students are able to develop a conceptual understanding rather ...
Should Teachers Assign Homework?
Should teachers assign homework? Should you assign homework to your students? The answer to that question is dependent on a variety of factors, so let’s dive in. LISTEN ON: APPLE PODCAST | SPOTIFY What is the purpose of homework? What is your purpose behind assigning homework? Here is a quick brainstorm of how you might answer this question: The next question to ask ...