September EMT Institute Meeting

Our EMT-Institute teachers met on September 7th and spent the day learning about Number Talks. We started the day reflecting in Google Classroom about our implementation of Growth Mindset Norms in the Classroom.  Teachers revealed how implementation of the norms has contributed to a classroom culture where students are free to take risks, learn from mistakes, and collaborate effectively.

We always want to start the day off engaging in a math investigative task.  We solved the problem "Wooden Legs", and discussed our strategies in a Math Congress.  We found this to be a rich problem with various entry points/strategies that may be utilized.

Number Talks

We discussed the purpose and importance of number talks, and read a recent article, "Number Strings: Daily Computational Fluency" (Teaching Children Mathematics, September 2017) to expand our knowledge. Teachers shared their new learning by participating in a debrief circle.

We explored the guiding principals behind number talks, procedures, and engagement strategies. We realized that number talks are connected to all eight of the Mathematics Teaching Practices, reinforcing what a powerful practice they are!


Each teacher studied a number talk strategy from the book, "Making Number Talks Matter" and presented it to the group.

Number Talk Rotations

Teachers met in grade level groups and each modeled a number talk for the group. The main focus was to practice representing student thinking with a variety of types of number talks. The rotations provided everyone an opportunity to apply what we had learned.

 We had a great day learning together!