A New Way to Think About Circles in the Math Classroom As a teacher, by nature, I am a reflective individual that is continuously improving my practice. Many times, I…
The Best Classroom Stress Reducer: Restorative Justice
For many years I bought into the idea that in order to have control of the classroom, I needed to be ready to correct kids immediately, and give out consequences…
Culturally Responsive Teaching in the Math Classroom
If you are a seasoned educator, then you’ve probably heard the term “culturally responsive teaching” before. But, what exactly does this mean and how can we apply this to a…
Using Participation Checks to Promote Turn-Taking in Teams
During the 2019-2020 school year, my CPM Teacher Research Team decided to center our work around active listening and turn-taking. Most of our work ended up focusing more on turn-taking,…
Conferencing With Students About Grades
This is my 9th year of teaching math and I feel as though assessment practices and grading structures have been a struggle for me since the beginning. I want the…
Tiered Assessments
I’ve been teaching math for ten years. I have good classroom management, great relationships with the other staff in my building, and consistent communication with parents. I have learned along…
Better Whole-Class Discussion Follows Good Team Discourse
During the 2019-20 school year, my fellow TRC collaborators and I set out to support stronger whole-class discourse in our high school math classrooms. My TRC group believes supporting better…
Student Self-Reflection as an Assessment
“Ms. Webb, I know more than I thought I did.” “Oh, I have lots of evidence of learning!” These are quotes from 8th grade math students who, after engaging in…
Making The Soda Machine Problem Stickier
Students go from class to class and have a million things going on in their lives. So how do I make mathematical ideas sticky for my students? How can I…
Listening, Speaking and Culture Building, Oh My!
If you are looking for a brain break that helps build the culture in the classroom while working on students speaking and listening skills, then Categories may be what your…