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 →
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 →
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 →
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 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 →
This session reviewed research and strategies addressing memory and problem solving among students with IEPs. Presentation Slide Deck Vocabulary Activity for spaced practice
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
I love those rich conversations with colleagues when they express a thought and you feel like you agree completely, but you’ve never been able to express it that clearly. That’s how Routines for Reasoning makes me feel – the book explores strategies teachers can employ to help develop students’ reasoning and problem-solving abilities. Each of the strategies does such a… Read more →
Region 4 Educational Service Center hosted their annual Math Conference, and they usually offer a handful of sessions addressing students with special needs (EL students, students with IEPs, struggling learners, and more). This year, I attended a fantastic session by a new presenter, Leximar Irizarry. The heart of Ms. Irizarry’s session was a cluster of five stations that attempted to replicate… Read more →
Meet Taco, my trained snail. I give him signals, and he walks up and down a tree in my backyard. If you’ve worked with integer tiles, you can see some quick connections. The yellow commands look like positive integer tiles, and the red commands look like negative integer tiles. After students experiment with Taco the snail, they are ready to… Read more →