Category: Math
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Real World Math Tasks
Maria Montessori challenged us to engage children with real work. While we often think about what this means in terms of practical life exercises, it is just as applicable to our work with mathematics. How do we get children to go beyond solving equations or even word problems but actually get them to engage in…
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Managing Student Work
Everyone you talk to has their own system for keeping track of student work. I know teachers who have students use one large binder, one binder for each subject, a notebook for each subject, a notebook plus a folder for each subject, loose leaf paper… the choices can quickly become overwhelming. For me, the biggest…
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The Montessori Event
I am honored to present at The Montessori Event for 2023. Many moons ago, when I was still teaching in a traditional public school, I became drawn to inquiry-based mathematics lessons. I knew I wanted students to go deep and find the answers for themselves. At Mount Holyoke College’s Master of Arts in Mathematics Teaching…
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Modeling the Multiplication of Integers
In middle school, my friend Paul used to remember the rules for multiplying integers like this: As fun as this mnemonic is, as a teacher, I have to ask myself: How do we do better than this? How do we ensure that kids do not simply memorize the rule but actually understand why it works?…
The Willow Room 