I began as a high school math teacher, moved to middle school, and then to elementary school to learn about how young children make sense of math. I love thinking about how to uncover math for kids. I blog about lessons I teach at www.marilynburnsmath.com.
Marilyn Burns
I often have used chocolate bars as a context for teaching fractions, but I'm flummoxed about this one. Thoughts?
Now I'm wondering about if it's a good problem for kids and, if so, what grade.
My undergraduate advisor Robert Davis told us (& I'm paraphrasing): When the moon is full, you can see the man in the moon. Look again. Can you also see the rabbit in the moon? Then it's possible to see many more things in the moon. Keep that in mind sheet you're teaching your students.
Interesting article: time.com/article/2026...
I never heard of Tony. I love him already.
It's not a takedown!
Did you miss @jennalaib.bsky.social's Session? Watch the recording of it now!
www.terc.edu/mathequityfo...
Work from 3rd graders. The lowest answer was the winner. Both selected the correct player, but one for the wrong reason! Answers are only the starting place -- how they reason is so important.
I found this article from The New York Times really interesting and important. ou can read it for free. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/08/o...
New Blog Post:
Planning From Student Work: What? --> So What? --> Now What
In February, I gave a webinar for TERC's Forum for Equity in Elementary Mathematics. In this blog post, I share the main ideas from "Using Insights about Student Thinking to Shape Classroom Expereinces."
In February, I gave a webinar for TERC's Forum for Equity in Elementary Mathematics. I was honored to be invited to speak -- it's an impressive lineup! -- and Karen Economopoulos and I conceived of my talk as a direct follow-up to Marilyn Burns' December session, "Reasoning: The Essential Foundation for Building Students’ Understanding." Marilyn explored numeracy through the lens of clinical interviews with elementary students; my talk would take up the question of what to do once we've learned about student thinking.
