Taking Real Action to Improve Your Math Instruction--RIGHT NOW

Let's be honest.

You're an expert. You can browse Pinterest like a pro. You flip through Instagram and get all sorts of amazing ideas. There are SO many ideas out there--it's sometimes hard to sort through it all and actually take action.

Today's post is geared toward helping you do just that--TAKE ACTION.

On my blog, I am working to help teachers stop browsing and start DOING with a series of actionable posts geared toward making a real difference with math instruction in your classrooms. Sometimes I think it's harder to jump in when it feels like there is SO much to do, so I am trying to make the idea of "self professional development" easier by giving some actionable steps throughout the summer.

Improving Math Instruction

To get started, I thought I'd share with you a few ways to immediately take action in YOUR classroom to make some changes that directly impact students--and you as a busy, overworked professional. Are you in? So here's how this will work...I'll show you a brief overview of the first three blog posts (each of which is a little long--so grab a coffee and a doughnut) and give you a sneak peek of each. If you want to see more, just click the image and it will take you right there! As an added treat, each post has a FREEBIE that goes along with it to help you put the ideas into action in YOUR class.

Curriculum Planning and Decisions

$Improving math instruction with growth mindset, accountable math talk, problem solving and more. Third grade math, fourth grade math, fifth grade math, math printables, math lesson plans, math activities$

The first post in the series is all about being deliberate about our yearly planning. We may get district pacing guides or we may have a textbook series we follow, but there is so much more to it! Check out the ideas in the post and grab the yearly planning calendars and planning checklist and see if you can't start the year planned in a way like you never have been before!

Accountable Math Talk, Growth Mindset, and a Culture for Learning

The second post in the series is all about creating a climate for an amazing year of math instrution. From helpful hints about how to get students using accountable talk (and a free set of accountable talk "stems" to display if you want!) to developing a growth mindset to learning how to work in groups--there are ton of tangible steps to consider when planning for your year.

If you have followed the work of Jo Boaler (and if you haven't...please go to youcubed.org after reading these posts!), you know the importance of teaching students about the science of the brain, of the value of mistakes, and more--and this post helps give you tips and tricks to make your math class an exciting, meaningful place!

Deep Thinking about Word Problems and Problem Solving

Improving math instruction with growth mindset, accountable math talk, problem solving and more. Third grade math, fourth grade math, fifth grade math, math printables, math lesson plans, math activities

Finally, the third post in the series of the seven challenges involves getting you to rethink problem solving...and to take away a ton of ideas for getting more problem solving into your day, Learning how to incorporate a strategy boot camp, ways to differentiate with ease, and even ways to get students sharing their thinking--all a part of this challenge. Grab a problem solving rubric for free as well as a checklist to help you find ways to take action to add more problem solving into your math class.

So are you interested in doing more than just browsing cool ideas--and want to actually DO them? Check out this math series...and if you like what you see, there are four more posts coming with freebies and tips to help you make some small (or BIG!) changes in your math instruction. Coming soon will be post about assessment...creating engagement...and more!

I hope you are interested in following along and trying some of the suggestions to ramp up the level of discourse and rigor in YOUR math class. Thanks for stopping by!