https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2zrEjzXQ8RMmDHRp9rF9cw

Starting today, Thursday, March 19, I will livestream some foundational math lessons and activities. I’ll live stream Eastern Standard Time, Monday through Friday via YouTube and I really hope it works! I will do a back-up recording just in case and post it if the live stream doesn’t work.
9:00 for Kindergarteners and First Graders
10:00 for Second and Third Graders
The intent is to do some math together with the foundational skills of math and to give Caregivers some tips on how to bring joy and wonder into math at home. I’m possibly doing some groundbreaking on YouTube! Please do not expect perfection–I am learning too!
I will continue offering lessons because, as I see it, it’s good practice for me, I might be able to help a bunch of kids and caregivers out there figure out how to do the math thing together.
Caregivers, you have an amazing opportunity here: to get to know your child’s math mind! This is something that I get to do every day as a math interventionist. I get to celebrate the little milestones and the huge cognitive shifts with your child. Every day I go to work thinking of your child and what settings and activities I can do with them to help them move along in their thinking.
What I’m going to help you do is figure out where your child is in their range of numbers for counting forward, counting backward, and numeral identification. I’m going to introduce you to some activities that can be adapted to any number. We are going to start slow and build on what we know.
We are going to explore the Structure of Numbers. What that means is that we are going to notice and wonder about numbers and what chunks we see inside them. How can we use what we know to help us build new knowledge?
I am going to model questioning. I will offer advice and give resources when I can, but I certainly don’t want to overwhelm people!
For the Kindergarten sessions, it is recommended that the caregiver is sitting side-by-side with the child to help with the materials-making and number writing. When we are studying numbers, it’s important that the student is working with a good model, so the adult should write the numerals when the student is too young to produce correct numeral formation independently. Here is a great video for Numeral Writing practice–there are lots out there–I like the Numeral Song. It helps some kids to “talk to the hand” and say the words or sing the song to what they need to remember about number formation (same goes for letter formation).
Students should be encouraged to do as much as they can independently. We can increase independence by encouraging self-checking and I will give ideas on how to make that happen.
Why am I doing this?
I’m a parent of two kids myself, a 9 ½ and 12 year old (he’ll be 13 on May 26!). I got the idea from watching what my kids watch on YouTube. Sometimes my daughter watches another girl playing with dolls to get ideas. I thought, “I think I can do better than that!” I’ve actually been mulling this idea over in my head for quite sometime and this situation is speeding up the process. I chose YouTube as a platform because I think it engages a lot of kids who now have a lot of time at home.
It’s difficult navigating my kids’ schooling with my professional goals and need to connect with students, along with being together 24/7. We’ve got a schedule going and that really helps. Since we’re home together, we’re working on taking care of common spaces together. We’re working on being patient with each other, giving each other space, and developing our relationships.
For years, my daughter wouldn’t talk to me about her math thinking, but she’s finally let me in! She still shuts me down when she’s had enough, but we get to have some cool conversations about her math thinking. Hopefully you’ll get to witness some of that.
One thing that helps us and our relationship around math is that I am truly interested in understanding her thinking of the mathematics. Math is about reasoning and making sense. If it doesn’t make sense, then either you’ve got to work to have it make sense for you or maybe you need to step back and work with smaller numbers, or take a break altogether.
Who am I?
I’m just a teacher, doing my thing. As you see on the internet during these times, it is inundated with cries from teachers trying to figure out how to Home School, how to create “new normals” for this time. Do I have all of the answers? No. Is the way I do it the only way? No. Heck, there are teachers out there way more talented and way more knowledgeable than I am, but I can only “do” me and possibly serve as an inspiration for others.
I’m a math teacher, a math interventionist specifically. That means that I work with kids to help them gain knowledge and skills to be an independent thinker in their grade level math class. There’s a lot involved, but perhaps most important is to have a Growth Mindset, give yourself time to think, and revise your thinking as you go.
There’s more about me on my website www.whosevoiceinmathclass.com . I started this Website about a year ago and haven’t added much because I haven’t had time. Now I do have the time to commit to it! I have to say that jumping in with both feet is risky, but I’m hopeful that I will learn a lot. I am going to be putting myself out there and feel vulnerable, yet feel all of the support of my family and friends around me.
I will need feedback about how the sessions are going and how I can improve them. It will definitely be low-tech at first!