Focus on Early Childhood

In a recent blog post I discussed 3 websites which can (should ?) be used by parents to engage their children in mathematical activities. I suggested that classroom teachers urge parents of their students to use these websites to build their own confidence and reduce their reluctance to help their own children. Parents, without formal …

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Four aspects of culturally relevant teaching

I ended my last blog post with the following line - “It is through the principles of growth mindset that we can begin to shift our discipline from a place laden with anxiety and trauma to a place of nourishing and growth”. My plan was to write a blog post about mathematics anxiety and trauma …

Parents as Allies

Young children are mathematically inquisitive; they want to know who's taller, who has more toys, who has the bigger room, etc. Early math, then, is not centered around calculation but is about nurturing their mathematical inquisitiveness; calculation and numerical fluency will follow. As teachers we've been 'trained' to do this, but what do we tell …

Mathematical Mindsets continued

The development of mathematical proficiency can emerge from teachers’ efforts to establish sociomathematical norms. - Signe E. Kastberg When I taught the Mathematics Content for Teachers course to university sophomores last fall, I had them complete a mathematical mindset survey (found in the last blog post I wrote) the first day I met them, and …

Mathematical mindsets

The difference between successful and unsuccessful students is LESS about the CONTENT they learn and MORE about their MINDSETS. - Jo Boaler Hello and welcome to our blog! This is Aleks. George and I will alternate writing the posts and for this week you are stuck with me and I would like to start with …