Johnny Math Teacher

Previewing "Untapped Potential"

Previewing “Untapped Potential”

In an earlier post, I announced my forthcoming book. It’s a resource for secondary teachers who work with math students who receive special education services. I had the opportunity to write an informative preview in NCTM’s journal, Mathematics Teacher: Learning and Teaching PK-12. If you’re an NCTM member, it’s in the July 2023 issue. I get to tell the story… Read more →

My book debuts soon!

My book debuts soon!

I’m excited the announce that I have a book releasing next month. It’s intended as a tool for teachers who support math students with IEPs. I believe general education and special education teachers can benefit from the information, strategies, and stories I’ve included. Special education teachers have so much information about what’s going on inside students’ heads. There’s a chapter… Read more →

Accommodations for Working Memory

Accommodations for Working Memory

Working memory (sometimes referred to as “short-term memory”) helps math students as they hold information temporarily in their mind. It’s essential for mental math. With limited working memory, students may need tools or supports to successfully perform calculations or make sense of a mathematical task. When it comes to math text passages, teachers can adjust the passage to help students… Read more →

CAMT 2022 - Desmos & New STAAR Item Types

CAMT 2022 – Desmos & New STAAR Item Types

Desmos + New STAAR Item Types = Deeper Discourse STAAR has introduced new item types that go beyond multiple choice and griddable items. This session explored how to use Desmos to model these new items types, capture student thinking, and elicit more student discourse The goal of this session was to model new item types in Desmos, then show how… Read more →

CAMT 2022 - IEPs and MTPs

CAMT 2022 – IEPs and MTPs

IEPs and MTPs – Adapting the Math Teaching Practices for Diverse Learners NCTM’s Effective Math Teaching Practices help provide rich learning opportunities for all students. These practices benefit students who receive special education services as well. This session describes how teachers can adapt the MTPs to meet the needs of students with EIPs and invite all students to rich, student-centered… Read more →

NCTM Virtual 2021 - Scaffolding & Desmos

NCTM Virtual 2021 – Scaffolding & Desmos

NCTM Virtual Conference – Scaffolding Instruction for All Learners with Desmos Activity Builder Desmos provides free technology tools that build students’ math understanding through experimentation, discourse, and guided questioning. The Desmos Activity Builder allows teachers to modify tasks to support students with diverse needs. This session explores sample Desmos activities with specific strategies for differentiating interactive tasks. This session was… Read more →

Desmos Fellowship Weekend

Desmos Fellowship Weekend

This past weekend, I was honored to join 40 other new Desmos Fellows in San Francisco for a weekend to talk about access & equity, classroom practice, instructional coaching, math history, the future of math education, lesson study & we even squeezed in time to talk desmos.com and their online platform for visualizing math concepts! The welcoming crew at Desmos… Read more →

CAMT 2019 - Differentiation for Special Education Students with Desmos Activity Builder

CAMT 2019 – Differentiation for Special Education Students with Desmos Activity Builder

This session provided a short introduction to the Desmos Activity Builder, then explored strategies for scaffolding activities to meet the needs of struggling learners. Session Slide Deck Desmos Activity Builder: Differentiation Demonstration Desmos Activity Builder: Scaffolded Questions