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…
curriculum… A Tale of Two Division Contexts 17 Apr 202417 Apr 2024 A few minutes after publishing my last blog post, "A Third Grade Dilemma: Dividing by Zero," I received an e-mail about it from my father. (We are the cutest family.…
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…
in the classroom The Desmos Art Project 29 Jun 202313 Feb 2024 In the last week of two of school, the 8th graders worked on Desmos art projects. It is a glorious capstone to their K-8 math experience at our school. The…
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.…
in the classroom Peas and Carrots… and Beans 9 Feb 20238 Feb 2023 Last year, our first grade team had the opportunity to work with Investigations authors from TERC -- the inimitable Karen Economopolous, with Megan Murray in absentia. To prepare for our…
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…
curriculum… 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…
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.…
curriculum… 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.…
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…
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…
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… 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…
Jenna Laib 