education… Why Do I Love This Student Work: Examining Context & Bias 22 Oct 202423 Oct 2024 When we look at student work after school, long after the students have left the building, we make inferences -- guesses -- at what students were thinking. We ascribe meaning…
education… “Yes! And!” 10 Oct 202413 Oct 2024 “Don't you love New York in the fall? It makes me want to buy school supplies. I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your…
curriculum… Estimating Products and Co-Planning in Grade 4 30 Jun 2024 How do we get students to make sense -- make genuine sense -- of numerical operations? In a Grade 4 Classroom One of the fourth grade teachers invited me into…
assessment… How Amalia Multiplies: Listening and Learning from a Fourth Grader 19 Dec 2023 It's hard not to let our own bias creep into teaching situations. For one, our decision making processes thrive on context: what thinking has this student demonstrated about this topic?…
Uncategorized “Is zero a number?”: Interviews with a Whole Class of Kindergartners 19 Sep 202319 Sep 2023 When I first became a math specialist in my district, I was assigned to work with upper elementary, middle school, and... kindergarten. I had never worked with kindergartners in an…
education… Fractions in Fractions: Sparking Creative Mathematical Thinking 9 May 2023 Third Grader Owen was ready for third grade math a while ago. I only met him recently, but I'm guessing he was ready in... second grade? First? It's unclear. Something…
curriculum… The Case of the Impossible Triangles 3 Apr 20233 Apr 2023 The first thing I noticed when I walked into Caitlin's third grade class was that every student was, with bowed head, focused on writing in their math notebooks -- even…
Uncategorized How We Listen: Astrid’s Thinking about 5 x 6 27 Mar 202327 Mar 2023 "Clinical interviews are an opportunity to listen closely," I caught myself telling a colleague recently. But... is that enough? How we frame the act of listening changes our entire experience.…
games… Facilitating Number Boxes, Part 2 – Supporting Reasoning with Representations (Learning With Students) 15 Dec 20223 Feb 2023 "Hmm.. 8 + 3. Let's put the 8 in the ten frame. If we add 3, will it be more than, less than, more equal to 10?" Kyleigh missed parts…
assessment… 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.…
formative assessment… Secret Squares and Stop Signs 28 Jun 2022 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…
formative assessment… What Will Help Plan for Tomorrow? 31 Mar 2022 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…
five practices… Stenhouse Blog Post: Using Student Work as an Anchor for Mathematical Discourse (Something to Talk About) 11 Jan 20221 Jan 2022 This blog post was published on the blog for Stenhouse Publishing, as part of a series on classroom discourse. You can read the complete post on the Stenhouse website. While…
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…
assessment… Clinical Interviews in the Virtual Space (Using Flipgrid) 2 Apr 20212 Apr 2021 One of my favorite things to do as a math specialist is clinical interviews. During a clinical interview, I sit down with a student -- one-on-one -- and ask questions…
education… Back to School PD: Sharing Participant Thinking 12 Sep 202011 Sep 2020 Last week, I facilitated a few PD sessions for elementary teachers in my district. There were some predictable -- and wildly unpredictable! -- tech hiccups. I stumbled over some words.…
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…
Jenna Laib 