With chapters like “Out of Shape,” “You Can’t Count on It,” and “Probably Wrong,” stand-up comic and former math teacher Matt Parker serves up Humble Pi for math educators and nearly everyone else to enjoy. Michelle Russell can’t wait to share his insights with students.
This is not a casual, read-in-an-afternoon book. It is more like a math master class filled with ways to deepen students’ understanding through a problem-solving approach. Veteran math teacher Michael Hernandez highly recommends its tools and models from start to finish.
Meaningful Math / Productive Struggle
by Michelle Russell · Published 03/02/2020 · Last modified 10/19/2022
Michelle Russell realized her students were falling into a rut. They expected her to provide the steps and jump in to help instead of figuring some things out for themselves. Learn what she did to increase engagement and deepen thinking during a challenging unit.
Students need structure, but that doesn’t mean monotony. For her math classes Michelle Russell recently spent a planning day collecting activities to start the New Year. As they returned, she introduced them to a math-friendly Simon Says, some Desmos routines, and fresh card sorts.
After detailing the processes and skills needed for math, the authors discuss how the Student Enrichment Model may be implemented in a wide variety of environments, writes educator Michael Hernandez. New to SEM, he finds lots to use in his math and algebra classes.
Educators and parents alike will find How Many? A Counting Book a beautiful adventure in learning about how children can grapple with the complexities of mathematical reasoning in relatively simple terms using everyday objects, says history (?!) teacher Michael DiClemente.
Meaningful Math / Prior Knowledge
by Michelle Russell · Published 09/30/2019 · Last modified 11/26/2019
How do teachers’ assumptions about what students know impede the learning process? Michelle Russell is realizing the “obvious” is sometimes not so obvious to kids in her math classes. Her two big problem areas: basic rules of behavior and prior knowledge of operations.
Follow along as Nicki Newton and Janet Nuzzie join educators in “mathematizing” their Texas district – developing math lovers and a common math language at the district, staff, campus, classroom and student level. Middle school teacher Dena Hause found lots of resources!
It’s not enough to set classroom norms and post them on the wall, says author and instructional coach Geoff Krall. We have to teach them and live by them. Here are some of his strategies for teaching and reflecting on norms in ways that really support student learning.
Math educator and consultant Jerry Burkhart is back with more playful ideas for the mathematics classroom! Diagrams that show relationships between operations and numbers create engaging and meaningful opportunities for students to have fun exploring mathematical concepts. He offers lots of examples to get you and your students started.
