Math Matters

If you haven't started following the work of Jo Boaler from Stanford University, I highly recommend you do. Her groundbreaking work with students, particularly ones who feel they have no mathematical ability, is really remarkable. She has authored several books and blogs regularly. Follow her on twitter @joboaler but also take a minute to check out https://www.youcubed.org/, her site at Stanford with lots of resources. You have to create an account but its free and teachers will find many helpful resources, online courses, etc. While you are there, be sure to visit the section on Growth Mindsets which offers teaching ideas for math based on Carol Dweck's work. Playing on this idea, Jo has a new book coming out on Mathematical Mindsets. This book provides practice strategies and activities to help teachers and parents show students, even those who are convinced they are bad at math, that they can enjoy and succeed in math.

Continuing with the idea of growth mindsets in math, comes a new blog post on the productive struggle. Often we as teachers forget that the most learning comes when we persevere through the struggle to learn something new. The learning outcomes are more personal and more deeply engrained in us when we feel we have truly overcome the mountain in front of us. Read more about this productive struggle in the NCTM blog.

Recently I had an opportunity to join forces with Edusmart as part of a growing team to support math and science instruction. While leaving the position as the lead math educator (aka K-12 Math Coordinator) in my district was a hard one, I'm so excited to introduce the world to Edusmart. I actually had the privilege of working on the development of the math content as part of our state adoption process and now I can't be prouder to call Edusmart my new work home.

I believe that Edusmart is the one of the best compliments to the curriculum resources already in the classroom. Video based instruction supports teachers with content delivery using animation that engages kids, while the characters develop deep mathematics and real connections through modeling. What a great tool for not only supporting a teacher's instruction, but also as a review tool for students to hear the content in a new way and support what students learned in class. Edusmart can also be a fun and easy way for math teachers to begin flipping their classroom since the video content is already created. In addition to the video instructional components, Edusmart lessons also have lesson notes for students to keep up with learning, practice to reinforce learning, and several on and offline activities to apply learning in real contexts. All of this at an affordable campus price. If you are interested in learning more, be sure to email me or visit the website.

Math Cut Ups are the heart of what I love to do. This is because they are designed to be hands on, student friendly ways to engage students to do more math. No one wants to work problems on a boring worksheet. Math Cut Ups take the problems off the worksheet and make them interactive and more fun for students.

This month I'm featuring Process Thinking Cards. These cards are a way to promote metacognition in students and to help teachers put more higher level thinking questions in front of students to promote process thinking rather than just product thinking. The card set consists of 21 scaffolding questions students can ask them selves and others while working in a small group to prompt thinking about a concept or task. Teachers give each small group a ring of the cards. Then have students use them to help design questions that will help them to find a solution, or assign a question to each group to share out at the end of the lesson. They even make for great Exit Ticket questions. This title package includes 10 sets of cards and teacher instructions, plenty of sets for all the groups working in your classroom. There are also similar card sets available for specific concept area. See Algebraic Thinking Cards, Functional Thinking Cards, and Geometric Thinking cards. Each package is just $5 and comes ready to laminate, cut, and use!

During the month of July, you can enter the promo code SUMMER at checkout on the square market page and get 10% off your entire order.

http://mkt.com/integral-mathematics-inc/

Want to visit? I'll be attending, exhibiting, or presenting at the following conferences in the coming months. Come "cut up" with me!

K-12 Mathematics Specialist

Mathematics Enthusiast

Math Cut Ups Creator

Edusmart Mathematics Director

Email: integralmathematics@gmail.com
Website: www.mathcutups.com
Phone: 214-471-5760
Facebook: facebook.com/pages/Math-Cut-Ups
Twitter: @mathcutups