In today's episode, I'm wrapping up my series on the Flexibility Formula by looking at Virtual Math Summit sessions from Juliana Matherson, Dr. Hilary Kreisberg, Neily Boyd and Dionne Aminata that address the Experiencing and Equity & Access pillars. These session sneak peeks give us some great tools for serving our students with noteworthy classroom experiences while being sure to include everyone in the instruction regardless of their background. The Virtual Math Summit was on February 26 and 27 and you have until March 8th to watch the sessions. After that, they go into the Build Math Minds PD site for our members to have access to. So make sure you come watch and then join the PD site so you get longer access.

I’ve been doing a series of episodes sharing some summit sessions that address each of The Flexibility Formula. Episode 130 we took a look at Understanding, episode 131 we dove into Observing, and today’s episode we are going to look at the Connecting pillar with Virtual Math Summit presenters Stacey Ellis, Matt Halpern, and Dawn Dibley. Each of them gives us strategies to connect with our students in unique ways that you may not have thought of before. Come take a listen!

The free 2022 Virtual Math Summit is just around the corner on February 26th & 27th. Each session addresses one of the five pillars of the Flexibility Formula. In today's episode, we're going to focus on the Observing pillar by looking at session snippets from Michelle Chu and Kristen Emmel. Michelle talks about making instructional decisions in the moment based on what you're seeing in real time and Kristen talks about using number sense routines to assess students.

If you’ve spent a lot of time with my content or have ever taken one of my PD courses, then you’ve probably run into the Flexibility Formula. The formula is a framework that helps us avoid turning kids into calculators and every session in this year’s Virtual Math Summit addresses at least 1 of the 5 pillars. This week, we’re getting sneak peeks into sessions from Dr. Ange Rogers, Duane Habecker and Shannon McCartney that address the Understanding pillar and help kids understand large numbers.

Sometimes, it can be easy to be pretty focused on things we could do better in our classrooms. But just like we want to do with our students, let's take some time to think about how we can take what we’re already doing and take it further. In today’s episode, I dive into more Virtual Math Summit sneak peeks. This time, from Dina Mendola and me! Dina gets into how we should be thinking about fractions and I talk about one of my favorite topics: subitizing. Registration is still open for the Virtual Math Summit so go get signed up! Yes, it’s still free.

Changing up the strategies we use in our math classrooms can be a really useful way to shake up the status quo, push kids further in their learning, and show us where we can improve as teachers. In this episode, I’m sharing sneak peeks into Virtual Math Summit sessions from Rosalba Serrano, Marian Small, and Shannon Kiebler as they encourage us to do things differently in our math classrooms. The Virtual Math Summit is free for educators so go get signed up at VirtualMathSummit.com/register . 

When I was going through school, mimicking the teacher was definitely the norm. For good rule followers, that can be really easy. But is teacher mimicking really our goal as teachers? If we only want students to mimic, then we’re not giving our kids space to think independently, and solve problems in a way that works for their brain. In today’s podcast, I share some sneak peeks from Pam Harris’ and Dr. Doug Clement’s sessions from the upcoming Virtual Math Summit where they share some of their ideas on how we can help our relationships with our students be less robotic when it comes to getting the right answer.

In life, we naturally experience all kinds of highs and lows that stick with us, and influence the way we see the world. In today’s episode, Virtual Math Summit speaker Mike Flynn gives us a sneak peak into one of his presentations where he talks about how the “Pits and Peaks” of life influence our psychology and the way we think about our experiences. More importantly, he tells us about how we can actively use those realizations to  help build better experiences for our students inside the classroom.

When it comes to teaching in the classroom, it can be easy to get caught up in the expectations we have for our students. But have you considered the consequences of being hyper focused on expectations? If we look at students through a lens of “we expected you to have THIS and THAT, but you don’t” it starts us off on the wrong foot with how to help the kids.  If instead we look at students through a lens of appreciating where they currently are, we are starting on solid ground and can work up from there. Today’s episode goes into details on why focusing on appreciation in our classrooms is so important.

Today, we’re going to wrap up our series on math problems with more than one answer. If you missed part 1 and 2, go check out episodes 121 and 123. Math problems with more than one answer give us the ability to really expand how we ask our students to engage with the problems themselves, and with each other. In particular, they give us an opportunity to allow students to work on Math Practice Standard #3: Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others. Today’s podcast episode explores why that's so important and gives example problems.