Mistakes are OK

 I hated math when I was in school mostly because you either had the right answer or the wrong answer. It was such a black and white process. I know there are a lot of criticisms about how math is being taught now and believe me, I have them too, but I do love how mistakes are OK.

We were discussing the 4 times tables. A students drew an array to show the answer, but miscounted and wrote "31" A mistake lead to a discussion on how 31 could not be an answer because 4 and 8 were even numbers and that the answer had to be an even number.

 Another thing that I continue to love is how math nowadays stresses how there are multiple ways to find the solution to a question. I always tell the students to "find a way that makes it easy for yourself to understand"

 I only let them come up to the board to share if they have a way that hasn't already been shared, so sometimes they come up with really creative ways to do it! I love how in this way, you are able to individualize math!