in the classroom… Digging in the Closet: The Return of the Museum of Rarely Used Math Manipulatives (MoRUMM) 18 Nov 202112 Dec 2021 My officemate and I have an embarrassment of riches -- in the form of math materials. In the first district where I taught, manipulatives were hard to come by. My…
curriculum… Making Space to Listen and Observe 29 Sep 2021 My school recently adopted TERC's Investigations in Number, Time, and Space. The cornerstone of this curriculum is listening to, centering, amplifying, and leveraging student ideas. Many of the embedded assessments…
five practices… “Look! I showed my work!” 8 Sep 20218 Sep 2021 It's surreal to be back at my school, in person, after 18 months away. I feel a tremendous sense of vertigo when I look around at this place that is…
curriculum… Reducing Bias with Desmos Dashboard 17 Aug 202123 Oct 2024 When I am teaching in person, I circulate around the room. When I first started teaching, I would circulate in similar patterns, winding my way through the desks and rows…
education… How Much Is Enough: Using Student Feedback to Reflect on Practice 28 Jun 202112 Jul 2021 Do students need to finish every problem? When I have asked this of colleagues, everyone has responding with a resounding no! Definitely not!Not every student needs that much practice.It's okay…
in the classroom… Notice, Feel, Wonder, and Act: How Can Data Inspire Us to Help? 7 Dec 20203 Apr 2021 "Is this another sad graph?" Serafina wrote to me in the zoom chat. We had just started our Slow Reveal Graph routine. At this point, students could only see a…
education… Using Screenshots & Photos to Reflect on Practice 28 Nov 20203 Apr 2021 Back in the Before Times, I took hundreds of photos of student work. "What do you do with all of those photos?" students would ask. I am a student of…
education… How Are Students Representing Their Ideas During Remote Learning? 27 Nov 20203 Apr 2021 I come from the Marilyn Burns School of Student Work Samples -- which is to say I prize student work that fills a large, blank page. (#TeamBlankSpace) Marilyn Burns, one…
games… Johnny Upgrade 29 Sep 20203 Apr 2021 If you've never played Johnny Upgrade before, you should know that it begins with music. Epic music. Like anthemic, sweeping, about to vanquish the villain at the 11th hour music.…
five practices… Which Shape Covers More: Orchestrating a Sixth Grade Math Debate 27 Sep 202022 Jun 2021 First, we must mourn for the loss of the Way We Used to Teach. I love my work. If I let you scroll through the photos on my phone, you'd…
in the classroom Debate in Kindergarten: Building Appreciation for Ten Frames 20 Jan 202020 Jan 2020 If we want students to harness the power of visual representations -- to own them -- students need to understand why that representation is important. Visual representations can be elegant…
curriculum… Problem Based Lesson #3: Learning From One Another in Grade 4 9 Jan 202026 Jun 2020 This is a post in a series about problem based instruction in fourth grade -- centering on a series of lessons classroom teacher Claire* and I taught about symmetry. This…
education… Problem Based Lesson #2: Making Connections with Symmetry in Grade 4 8 Jan 20205 Feb 2022 This is a post in a series about problem based instruction in fourth grade -- centering on a series of lessons classroom teacher Claire* and I taught about symmetry. This…
curriculum… Problem Based Lesson #1: Launching Symmetry in Grade 4 7 Jan 202026 Jun 2020 This is a post in a series about problem based instruction in fourth grade -- centering on a series of lessons classroom teacher Claire* and I taught about symmetry. Part…
curriculum… Getting Started with Problem Based Learning in Grade 4 6 Jan 202026 Jun 2020 What are the conditions that inspire teachers to take on problem based instruction? This isn't a story about how you can determine when a teacher -- novice or experienced --…
curriculum… Using Diagrams to Build and Extend Student Understanding 16 Dec 20196 Feb 2022 Co-authored by Kristin Gray (@MathMinds) Originally published on the Illustrative Mathematics Blog (November 25, 2019) Take a moment to think about the value of each expression below. $latex \frac{1}{4}\times \frac{1}{3}$…
curriculum… Using Instructional Routines to Inspire Deep Thinking 21 Oct 20195 Feb 2022 Originally published on the Illustrative Mathematics blog (October 13, 2019). We want students to think about math deeply. Creatively. Analytically. Instead, what often happens is that students race towards quick solutions. So…
education… The Story of Fibonacci, and the Math Ethnic Studies Framework 17 Oct 201917 Oct 2019 In the late 12th century, a young Leonardo Bonacci -- better known as Fibonacci -- traveled with his merchant father from their home in Italy to Algeria (North Africa). They…
assessment… Choosing a Story to Tell: Examining a Lesson Close in 1st Grade 28 Aug 20196 Feb 2022 I had planned to spend my first time in Room 12 observing the classroom teacher and getting to know her students. Instead, the teacher texted me the day before to…
in the classroom Listening to Early Understandings of Division: “12 ÷ 5 is either -3 or 0” 20 Aug 20195 Oct 2022 This blogpost is a part of the (2019) HUMANIZING MATHEMATICS CONVENTION: Virtual Conference on Humanizing Mathematics hosted by Sam Shah and Hema Khodai___ I love, love listening to early understandings…
Jenna Laib 