It’s a familiar pattern for anyone who’s ever taught spelling. On Friday, your students are acing it – rattling off complex vocab from the week’s word lists without so much as a stutter. But by Monday an entire week’s worth of spelling progress has
“We’ve done this before, remember?” Cue thirty brows furrowing in confused silence. Learning can evaporate over the holidays, weekend, or even in the transition from topic to topic. It might be that it never took root in student minds, or it wasn’t exercised enough.
There are multiple steps to follow, and new numbers being generated while others are crossed out – what’s going on? Teaching the concept of regrouping can quickly become confusing – for you as well as your students. But if you start by using manipulatives,
The internet is overflowing with math teaching tips, tricks, and activities. And most of them work fine when you’re looking for fast lesson ideas. But as classroom math teachers, we’re still left with one big, glaring question: What are the best instructional strategies for
Put yourself in the shoes of one of your less able students during an ordinary lesson. You’re desperately trying to make sense of what’s being said, but – honestly – you still don’t get what was introduced last week. And now you’re dreading the
You’ve spent weeks unpacking symbolism and sparking creative fires. You’ve pushed students to embrace new perspectives and mine the rich depths of meaning in a powerful text. And now that the work has been turned in – you’ve been sent crashing back to earth.
Addition is the first big mathematical step after early learners build basic number sense. And like all first steps, it can be tough to take (and equally tough to teach). But it doesn’t have to be. Here’s a 7-step process for teaching addition that
Which number do I carry over? Where does it go again? I don’t get it! That’s the chorus you often hear when trying to teach subtraction with regrouping. But there’s an easier way to help students understand. This step-by-step activity for teaching regrouping uses
Too often, our students only realize the importance of math in the real world after they’ve left school. Five years down the line, when they’re sorting personal finances or putting together IKEA furniture with increasing impatience, they finally get the importance of what we
Prepping to teach multiplication can leave you more confused than your students. But teaching multiplication doesn’t have to be difficult. It just requires you to break it down step by step. Here’s a five-step method for teaching multiplication that will give your students confidence,
STEM projects show learners that math isn’t confined to paper. It’s part of a rich network of disciplines that help us understand the physical world. Luckily, you don’t need complex tools or technical prowess to create a rich STEM project. All it requires is
Give your kids’ math skills a boost with these hands-on, at-home activities. You won’t need math teaching expertise, or handmade resources either. All these learning experiences can easily become part of the activities you and your kids already do at home! Cooking by numbers
You might have assumed that classroom management is important purely because it keeps students in line. But after you’ve been teaching for more than a few months, you begin to realize it has an importance beyond discipline and crowd control. Instead, it has a
Mathematics can leave some students feeling helpless. And when we see them with their head in their hands or staring blankly at yet another activity that just doesn’t make sense, teachers can start to feel helpless, too. How do we get through to them?
Teaching mathematical whiz-kids can be both rewarding and exhausting. Fast finishers and budding geniuses need challenging enrichment activities, and these aren’t always easy to come up with. By having effective enrichment activities up your sleeve, you can deepen the learning of your high achievers
