Armstrong Elementary ProD

Building Thinking Classrooms - Apr 25/16

Session Handout

We want students to engage in problems worth solving - problems that encourage thinking, perseverance, collaboration, and risk-taking. We want them to have the experience of working at vertical, non-permanent surfaces, on rich tasks, and in collaboration with others - a few of the necessary elements for building a thinking classroom.

Facing the Facts - Nov 27/15

Math memorized is neither math understood
nor math remembered.

Knowing several ways to find 7 x 8 will stay
with students, even if they forget the original fact.

We need opportunities to come to
remember facts rather than memorize.

Fluency is a byproduct of students’ experiences and flexibility with numbers and operations.
If fluency is treated as the primary directive,
things will go badly very quickly.

It will emerge with patience - let it happen.