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I am finishing out the #FractionsFebruary blog tour put on by Math Solutions .  I had the privilege of interviewing Julie McNamara, author of Beyond Pizzas & Pies  and Beyond Invert & Multiply .  I love reading about teaching fractions and always feel like there is more I can learn.  I read both of these books about a year and a half ago and they brought great changes to my teaching practice, especially the idea of using cuisenaire rods in my fraction lessons.  Beyond Pizzas and Pies is great for grades 3-5 and Beyond Invert and Multiply is great for grades 4-6.  If you teach 4th or 5th grade, I highly recommend you read both of these books!  What is the most exciting piece of research on teaching fractions that has come out over the last 10 years? Siegler, Thompson, and Schneider’s (2011) work highlighting the importance of students’ understanding of fraction magnitude provides much needed insight into the importance of the number line. They...

Welcome to week 2 of our Mathematical Mindsets book study ! Last week , we looked at the latest in brain research and talked about the importance of mistakes and struggle.   Chapter 3: The Creativity and Beauty in Mathematics Big Ideas - Math gets treated differently than other subjects.  It is much more of a performance subject than any other. -There is a big gap between real world mathematics and school mathematics - Students (and the public in general) see math as calculations, rules and procedures rather than creative and beautiful.   Impact in the Classroom Fibonacci Numbers and the Golden Ratio One of the examples given in this chapter was about taking a look at the Fibonacci numbers and the golden ratio with kids.  I have always loved this series of numbers and many years ago was given a copy of Fascinating Fibonaccis  which I have now used many times to talk with kids about Fibonacci numbers.  I also love the picture book Rabbits Rabbits Everywhere ...

Welcome to week 1 of our book study of Mathematical Mindsets .  Chapter 1: The Brain and Mathematics Learning Big Ideas -Folks who have a fixed mindset can develop a growth mindset.  Their learning approach can become much more positive and successful. -The students who show the highest achievement in mathematics around the world have a growth mindset.  This can put them a full year ahead of other students.  -Folks with a growth mindset are more likely to do something perceived as hard. They see mistakes as a way to grow their brain and motivation to keep going. -Fixed mindsets can develop as a result of praise given by parents and teachers Impact in the Classroom Teach kids about brain research.   Research about the brain and growth mindset has come a long way over the last few years.  I have found Jo Boaler's Week of Insiprational Math  to be a fantastic (and free!) way to show kids about how the brain works and get them excited about math.  We...

First Grade Number Puzzles Book Study Update Our new book study is getting a great response!  We will be discussing Mathematical Mindsets by Jo Boaler.  This book has the potential to make a great impact in  your classroom regardless of what grade you teach.  It is also super affordable and ships for free if you have Amazon Prime . Get all the book study details here .   A Sale Also in the news this morning, Teachers Pay Teachers site wide sale starts tomorrow!  You can save 28% off all of my resources with the code LoveTPT.  I have been window shopping already and currently have 18 items in my cart.  There is nothing like a good sale! I have been so inspired by my K/1 math group over the last month and have been super busy creating resources to use with them.  I have quite the range of abilities in this group and routinely need to create stuff that spans the K-2 spectrum for these guys.  I am loving teaching math in a multi-age setti...

What does a student's past experience have to do with how they learn math today?  My past experiences certainly shaped me and changed my mindset several times. My  Math Story I was told from a young age that I was gifted in math.  I learned math easily and was always ahead of my peers.  I can not ever remember struggling with a math problem until I was in fifth grade.  When I was a fifth grader, my teacher allowed me and another student to work on our own, starting at the back of the textbook and working our way to the front.  As a teacher, this sounds like a terrible idea in retrospect but it did lead me to develop some perseverance that had seriously been lacking. After that, I continued into middle school and high school continuing to do well in math.  I had a great memory and was really good at remembering procedures, formulas and rules.  Now I know I was getting by on this and not on a deep conceptual understanding of math.   I knew...