Posts by Anna

If you want to start a lively debate on education – bring up standardized testing! But even as a teacher who felt that these high-stakes tests exacerbated inequities and provided little actionable instructional data, I still wanted my students to do well on the tests. In fact, I felt it would be a disservice to…

The other day I was in a 6th grade math classroom. The scene was what you might expect: students working independently or with partners, worksheets featuring a string of problems on fraction division, the teacher pausing to address occasional outbursts. But then something magical occurred: the teacher invited students to do the problems on the…

Blueprint Math Fellows facilitate Number Talks to improve students’ mental math and computational strategies. In this narrative piece, one of our Lead Fellows gives us a behind-the-scenes look at what it means to orchestrate a number talk. I write the problem on the board. It almost doesn’t matter what it is. A discussion can grow…

For the classroom educator, January is an opportunity to reset and refocus. It’s a fresh start for you and your students. What’s the best way to jump into January to take advantage of the new year? Here are a few suggestions based on my experience, as well as those of other teachers and Blueprint Math…

The past 8 years of my life, I have been lucky enough to do two great things: travel abroad & teach kids. My experiences have taken me to the Dominican Republic, to 4th & 5th grade, across the country of Ecuador, to the founding year of a community charter, to jungles in Costa Rica, &…