Happy Back to School! This September is a new beginning for me as I’m not only back (part time) to my position at Cedar Hill Middle School but I’m also a new PhD student at UVic so I’m back to TWO schools. I absolutely loved my post graduate certificate program in ethnomathematics and felt at …
Using Collaborative Learning Teams

Decimals and Place Value Mats

I was invited to come into Karen Fallan’s grade 4/5 classroom to kick off their decimal exploration, so I spent about an hour with this lovely bunch of students (and teachers) on Monday morning. Karen’s teaching partner, James, came to observe as he had some remedy time (I love it when teachers have the chance …
Diagnostic Assessments: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

I’ve received some emails recently from teachers asking about Diagnostic Assessments, so I’m going to dedicate this blog to my experiences and thoughts on these, what I have tried, the issues I have had and what has worked well. I have also included links to download pre-assessments and answer keys for Whole Numbers for grades …
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Different Levels of Students in Your Class? How Math Manipulatives Can Help You Reach Them All

Most of us struggle with the wide ability ranges in our classes and are scrambling to find worksheets and textbooks for all of the varying levels of students, which quickly turns into a logistical nightmare! Many teachers think that manipulatives are used for remedial students, or those struggling with the abstract concepts, however, when used …
Mathematical Mindsets Pro-D with Cathy Williams (and Jo Boaler)

Any of you who know me or have attended my workshops in the past few years know that I’m a huge fan of Jo Boaler. She is my math ‘guru’. I’ve read all of her books, papers, website articles, etc. I’ve used her tasks on www.youcubed.org and recommended her book Mathematical Mindsets to every …
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