Author Archives: Fawn

How I Use “Between Two Numbers”

By Fawn | Published: January 28, 2018

I’m overwhelmed by the number of teachers who have asked how I use Between 2 Numbers (B2N) in my class. So this post is for all three of them and for anyone else who might be interested. It has become one of our regular warm-up routines. (We do visual patterns and math talks, too. Duh.) Before […]

Posted in General | Tagged Between 2 Numbers, calculator, estimation, large numbers, scientific notation, warm-ups | 3 Responses

Send Doughnuts

By Fawn | Published: December 15, 2017

I had a wonderful time working with a roomful of teachers over two days at my Grassroots Workshops last week. During a morning break, I talked with a teacher who was concerned about not being able to reach all her kids, that there was a handful of students who were failing the course, and that she’d […]

Posted in Teaching | Tagged administrative support, Grassroots Workshops, parenting, teacher support | 4 Responses

Green Olives

By Fawn | Published: November 13, 2017

My 7th graders are working on “percentages of” problems currently, and late last night, I saw this problem on one of Don Steward’s handouts. There are 75 olives, 40% of which are green. I eat some of the green olives until 10% of the olives that remain are green. How many green olives did I […]

Posted in Algebra, Course 2 (7th Grade Math) | Tagged Don Steward, percent of, percent of a number, rectangles | 10 Responses

Global Math Week Starts on October 10, 2017

By Fawn | Published: September 27, 2017

It was the summer of 2012 when I talked my colleagues, Erin and Melissa, into signing up for a week-long training in Palo Alto, California, to start a new Math Teachers’ Circle (MTC) program in our area. It was there that I first learned about Exploding Dots from Diana White, an associate professor from the […]

Posted in General, Problem Solving | Tagged exploding dots, global math movement, Global Math Project, Global Math Week, James Tanton, Raj Shah | 2 Responses

Upcoming Grassroots Workshop in December

By Fawn | Published: September 19, 2017

I’m super excited to announce my upcoming Grassroots Workshops event being held on Friday, December 8 and Saturday, December 9. It’s the first time that I get to spend TWO FULL DAYS sharing math teaching, math learning, and math awesomeness with teachers. So, if you teach mathematics (grades 6-12), please-please consider signing up! Registration does not […]

Posted in General, Teaching | Tagged Grassroots Workshops, PD, professional development | 3 Responses

Between 2 Numbers

By Fawn | Published: September 10, 2017

I created a new site, it’s called Between 2 Numbers. From the About/Contact page: The inspiration for this site came from John Allen Paulos’ book Innumeracy. I read the book back in 2008, but reading it again this past summer reignited the inspiration and turned it into fruition. In my lesson plan spreadsheet, I started a […]

Posted in General | Tagged comparing numbers, converting units, estimation, guestimation, Innumeracy, new site, proportional reasoning, proportions, ratios | 5 Responses

All I Got on Classroom Management

By Fawn | Published: August 11, 2017

Not enough people write about classroom management in a practical and realistic way. But this does! Helpful tips. https://t.co/oXXwOU6xDK — Michael Pershan (@mpershan) August 9, 2017 Classroom management is hard, and what’s “practical and realistic” for one person could be entirely impractical and unrealistic for someone else to follow. Take a math lesson taught successfully […]

Posted in Teaching | Tagged respect, tolerance | 13 Responses

Long Live the #MTBoS!

By Fawn | Published: July 27, 2017

Dan Meyer is calling for the retirement of the hashtag #MTBoS. He’s suggesting and going with #iteachmath or #iteachmaths instead. I get it. I get it that #iteachmath means I TEACH MATH. I get it that #MTBoS could mean anything. I get it that Dan’s intention is no more than to simply make the math community […]

Posted in Teaching | Tagged #MTBoS #community | 32 Responses

Euclid’s Algorithm

By Fawn | Published: May 15, 2017

I show my 6th graders this image, pointing out that this picture represents the two numbers 1 and 1 that I’d entered at the top. I then ask them to give me two new numbers — any two positive integers [that are 10 or less, for now] — and the computer will draw a new […]

Posted in Course 1 (6th Grade Math), Math 8, Problem Solving | Tagged conjectures, Euclid's algorithm, GCF, great common factor, I Notice I Wonder, problem solving, rectangles, square numbers, squares | 10 Responses

Community Circle

By Fawn | Published: May 7, 2017

We have Core time with our homeroom students — mine are 8th graders — for 3o minutes at the end of each day. Core is our SSR time, but ELD students are in ELD during this time. Once a month, however, we use this Core time to do a Community Circle (CC). We’re in our first […]