Jennifer Van Blair is a current third grade teacher. She has taught 3 - 5 grade for 13 years, and has experience with combination based classrooms. She has a Master's in Educational Leadership and a background in natural sciences and outdoor education.
Conducting research to help close gaps in student performance, I read a great deal of research on how to best teach word problems with my students. The research showed that explicitly teaching word problem types and the drawings that accompany them, in addition to teaching reading skills with story problems are better at increasing student performance on word problems than teaching keyword identification. These numberless word problems focus your students on the task of identifying the various
Wanting to increase math discussion in your classroom? Whether working in whole group, small group, or individually, asking challenging questions that encourage our students to struggle and explain their thinking will improve their math reasoning skills and competency in math discourse. These 28 cards can be used as you facilitate discussion, either from you or by distributing the cards to students so they can ask questions of their peers about their work. You can also hand them out to small gr
Jennifer Van Blair is a current third grade teacher. She has taught 3 - 5 grade for 13 years, and has experience with combination based classrooms. She has a Master's in Educational Leadership and a background in natural sciences and outdoor education.
Teaching style
She enjoys using hands-on learning with regular use of manipulatives, visual learning, models, and student-led exploration. She is inspired by the work of Peter Liljedahl, Jo Boaler, and Carol Dweck.
Awards & shining teacher moments
Contributor to Byrdseed TV creating lessons for GATE classrooms.
My own education history
UC Santa Cruz - Environmental Science and Education
San Jose State - Elementary Education Credential
Upper Iowa University - Masters in Teacher Leadership