The Stenhouse Blog

The following is excerpted from the Introduction of the new book by Robert Kaplinsky, Open Middle Math: Problems That Unlock Student Thinking, Grades 6–12. Find out what your classroom can look like by incorporating the ideas from this book into your math instruction.

It’s almost time for the National Council for Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) regional conference in Boston, MA. Here is a rundown of what our Stenhouse math authors will be up to. Be sure to catch their sessions!

In case you missed it, here is the recap of last night's #StenhouseMath Twitter Chat with Elham Kazemi and Allison Hintz on their book, Intentional Talk: How to Structure and Lead Productive Mathematical Discussions.

Teachers and math enthusiasts from all over the country joined in to chat about how to use the strategies in this book to explore deeper math discussions in the classroom. There are a lot of great ideas shared, so read to get some tips!

"Open Middle Math celebrates that the journey we bring students on in our classroom matters more than the destination.” –Sara Van Der Werf, VanDerWerf Educational Consulting

Recently, we sat down with Robert Kaplinsky to talk about his new book, Open Middle Math: Problems That Unlock Student Thinking, Grades 6–12. Find out how Open Middle math problems can transform your middle and high school math class.

Below is a guest blog from author and math expert, Marian Small. Her new book, Understanding the Math We Teach and How to Teach It is now available for preorder.

Lots of elementary teachers were not privileged to receive math instruction that built their confidence in math. As a consequence, many of these teachers feel discomfort and stress as they try to teach math in a more meaningful way to their students. They worry! What if they say the wrong thing? What if the students ask them to explain something and they can’t? What if the students say something, and they’re not sure if they are right or wrong? If you are one of the people with those feelings, you are not alone. For so long, math was taught by many as a set of rules without any attempt to make those rules make sense, and many of our teachers are products of that system.

If you are familiar with Choral Counting & Counting Collections by Megan L. Franke, Elham Kazemi, and Angela Chan Turrou, then you know that Choral Counting is a fun, engaging instructional activity designed to leverage children’s mathematical thinking as they work together to count and dig into a variety of number sequences. Did you know, however, there is a Choral Counting Tool to help you plan out your counts?

Hanging inspirational posters on the wall is not enough to take care of the emotional baggage about mathematics our students bring. In Chapter 3 of Necessary Conditions, author Geoff Krall goes beyond platitudes, digging deep into the root causes of students' accumulated feelings about mathematics and themselves: mindset, race, gender, identity, social pressures, tracking, academic status, and past math experiences. Drawing on real examples from his case-study schools, Krall gives teachers and departments specific, practical steps for change, so we can create academically safe classroom cultures in which our adolescent students can thrive.