Numbers are Everywhere, and They Don’t Bite!
Posted August 20, 2018
Numbers are all around us. Let’s teach children to embrace rather than fear numbers.
Number Sense and Fluency
Posted February 27, 2018
This month’s CORE Excellence in Education Blog focuses on the importance of mathematical fluency and number sense as a critical foundation for entering mathematics in middle and high school.
Students Want Interesting Math Over Real World Math
Posted August 21, 2017
Real world math does not always equal relevant math. Relevance is a function of interest.
Clear Math Misconceptions to Make Room for New Knowledge
Posted March 26, 2017
CORE’s Excellence in Education Blog post this month is on the importance of clearing out math misconceptions in order to make room for new knowledge. See what happened during one math professional learning session when students were certain about the wrong right answer.
Clear Instruction + Engagement = Math Fun
Posted February 13, 2017
Clear Instruction + Engagement = Math Fun
(By Dean Ballard, CORE’s Director of Mathematics)
I was working in a school district near Seattle a few weeks ago, doing math professional learning in the form of lesson studies in middle school math classes. Super fun time. In one sixth grade class I was teaching a lesson on “Finding the Percent of a Number.” As with any type of lesson modeling and even more extensively with lesson study, I met beforehand with teachers to review and revise the lesson as needed and agree on the focus areas for the lesson observation. In this case we were working on three areas – student engagement, discourse, and checking for understanding. We had a team of four teachers, the math coach, and the coordinator, all of whom would watch the lesson and debrief together afterwards.