Dear Erin

What follows is an email I sent back to Erin, a teacher who read the book and this blog and rightfully had some questions. I (and John) are thrilled that Classroom Chef has opened us to have these conversations more often.   Hi, Erin. I’ve been sitting on...

Conflicting Values

Dear Claire, I drafted this post, but never published it last week. This was a week of transitions, one in which I was very thankful for this blog, twitter, and my wife as a sounding board. On Monday, the air-conditioning in room 908 still wasn’t fixed, and the...

Appetizers Take A Long Time

Dear Claire, For the last three weeks, we’ve started class each day with an Appetizer; something quick and accessible to every student to get the math juices flowing. Last week’s Visual Pattern was a textbook example of how I hope Appetizers get students...

Back To School Night – 2016

Dear Claire, Wow, that last post came out much darker than the week felt. There was plenty of good stuff, even some times where I was laughing out loud while students were learning. One of the highlights from Week Two was: Back to School Night I found your old...

Visual Patterns – Week 2

Dear Claire, I stumbled (re-stumbled?) upon Fawn’s post about the first two days. Sprinkled with her usual wit and ornery charm, the visual pattern process struck me, especially since we’re hitting that hard next week as we “create equations and...