Jenna Laib // Blog

@jennalaib

Embrace the Challenge

I am a math specialist near Boston, MA. Find me on twitter @JennaLaib. For the last few years, this blog has served as a way for me to process and reflect on my work. Scroll down to check out my latest posts, or use the menu to browse by category.…Continue reading “Embrace the Challenge”

I Don’t Speak Russian, But…

My mother-in-law speaks three languages fluently -- and none of them are English. Her speech dances between Arabic and French and Algerian, and I do my best mental gymnastics to…

“What Are You Hoping For?”: Facilitating the Number Boxes Game to Develop Reasoning – Learning with Teachers

8 Dec 20223 Feb 2023

Number Boxes is one of my favorite games to play. The set up looks similar to an Open Middle problem, with empty boxes that you will place digits into. Open…

#tmwyk

Would You Believe Me? #tmwyk

Today -- an objectively beautiful day in Boston -- we took a walk along the river behind our house. It is late November; the trees have mostly shed their leaves,…

How do we measure change in data?

This blog post was originally published on SlowRevealGraphs.com How do we measure change over time? The y-axis can be so deceptive. Change the scale a little, and a small change looks…

Turtle Time Trials & Leveraging Creativity To Deepen Mathematical Understanding

13 Nov 202212 Nov 2022

What if...? In a lot of tasks that we give students, there's an intended answer. Okay, sure, yes, I guess you could interpret the problem in this divergent way, but…

in the classroom

Seventeen Pumpkins

There were seventeen pumpkins, all in a row. I walked into the kindergarten room a few minutes into the math block, and I tried to get my bearings quickly. I…

in the classroom

Five Little Pumpkins: Kindergarten Conjectures

31 Oct 202231 Oct 2022

It's Halloween! This morning, the kindergartners were reciting and acting out "Five Little Pumpkins." Five little pumpkins, sitting on a gateThe first one said, "oh, my, it's getting late."The second…

Restless Teachers

13 Oct 202213 Oct 2022

My favorite educators are restless. They have that itch. Nothing is ever completely satisfying. If you chat with them after a lesson, they'll tell you three things they would change.…

#tmwyk

Rush Hour Conversations

8 Aug 20227 Aug 2022

The highway was crowded. All four lanes crawled slowly northward, each car taking its turn to move a few precious feet before slowing and stopping. Idling. I must have read…

Chelsea

25 Jul 202225 Jul 2022

If you walked past my classroom, you could smell it from the doorway. In fact, you could smell it from slightly down the hall, past my students' cubbies, almost to…

100 Posts

20 Jul 202220 Jul 2022

This post is the 100th on my blog! 🎉 With all due respect to any of you beautiful and talented people reading this, I write this blog, first and foremost,…

formative assessment…

Secret Squares and Stop Signs

I wrote a deeply sad post today. As I went to publish it, I hesitated. Yesterday was my last day of school, and instead of ending with sadness, I'd like…

How Many Birds: Mathematizing “Two Many Birds” In First Grade, Part 2

28 Apr 202227 Apr 2022

I have been reading Allison Hintz and Antony Smith’s Mathematizing Children’s Literature (Stenhouse, 2022), and it has disrupted how I think about the use of children's literature in math class. In my…

in the classroom

The Bossy Owl: Mathematizing “Two Many Birds” in First Grade, Part 1

27 Apr 202227 Apr 2022

In my last blog post, I described three ways in which Allison Hintz and Antony Smith’s Mathematizing Children’s Literature (Stenhouse, 2022) has disrupted how I think about the use of children's literature…

Changing How I “Mathematize Children’s Literature”

26 Apr 202227 Apr 2022

I enjoy teaching math through children's literature. Typically, I'll read the book aloud to a class, stopping briefly when inspired to ask a question or a student raises their hand.…

The Learning that Led to Today

19 Apr 202219 Apr 2022

"You aren't these kids' first teacher, and you won't be the last."-Jennifer N. When I was an early career teacher, teaching 4th grade, I wanted to teach my students everything.…

#tmwyk

The Ramadan Calendar

Friday, April 1st, marked the first night of Ramadan. On Saturday, April 2nd, we began our daily fasting ritual that will last for the entire month. Beyond fasting, Ramadan is…

formative assessment…

What Will Help Plan for Tomorrow?

What do I need to know about student thinking today before I teach tomorrow? Towards the end of a math lesson, this refrain plays in my head. ______ In third…

Jeni

https://twitter.com/ddmeyer/status/1492240147693326336?s=20&t=U7ocVNde45CfduzletMjjw Dan Meyer tweeted about professional influences. There are any number of people in my life deserving of public tribute -- dozens if not hundreds of amazing educators to which…

formative assessment…

Understanding Negative Numbers: In Praise of Tiny Games

1 Feb 202217 Jun 2022

"Is this right?" Inaya asked me, pointing to the equation she'd recorded on her paper: 5 + (-8) = -13 We are one week into our 7th grade unit on…