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Got to Teach!: My Favorite Math Activity! When I think of all of the teaching "tools" that I have used over the years, one always stands out as my favorite, especially in the area of math -- Math Tiles!

Got to Teach!: My Favorite Math Activity!

I really can't say enough about how effective these are in the classroom. Not only have they completely changed the way my students approach and tackle problem solving, they engage students and build confidence. I will never teach in a classroom without math tile activities, and here's why... 1. They are non-routine: Math tile activities can be solved in multiple ways and do not necessarily require a standard algorithm. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Matheminutes. Design Thinking: Synthesis 1. If your students have been deep immersing themselves in conflicting, complex ideas for some time, there will come a point when it's essential to make sense of things.

Design Thinking: Synthesis 1

One effective tool for beginning to synthesise ideas is Hexagonal Thinking. The Why In Design Thinking, and in other deep stretches of thinking, we can all get muddled by the complexity of the ideas before us. It is a difficult mental task to work out what connects to what, which ideas are more outliers on their own, and which concepts tie to the core of the challenge we're exploring. Linear thinking, where 'a' causes 'b' to happen is great for textbook writers, but isn't the way the world works. The Experiment Hexagonal Thinking is where either student or teacher writes key concepts on hexagonal cards, at the end of a period of learning, where the content behind each 'headline' is relatively clear to a team of learners. We provide teachers and students with mathematics relevant to our world today

Megan Hayes-Golding. Educational Technology and Mobile Learning. Moving Back and Forth Between Fantasy and Reality. During my keynote at Edutech a few weeks back I outlined some of the false pedagogic dichotomies that are present in education.

Moving Back and Forth Between Fantasy and Reality

In addition to these supposed tensions there are natural forces and tendencies at play such as moving between fantasy and reality. In this post I will share some of my thinking on the importance of that creative thinking. Previously I have outlined the importance of saying “I don’t know” to students, encouraging them to discover for longer – not just to start discovering, questioning and digging deeper, but to do it for longer. To stay in the question. Saying “I don’t know” opens learning up to students: to take responsibilityto ask more questions and explore furtherto remain in the state if the unknown for longerto continually ask more complex questions. Free Technology for Teachers. The best apps, games, websites, and digital curricula rated for learning. Making The Best App Choices With @Graphite. When I was beginning to roll out a Bring Your Own Device initiative in my previous district we spent a great deal of time sitting and talking with teachers.

Making The Best App Choices With @Graphite

Lisa Nielsen: The Innovative Educator. Edudemic - Education Technology Tips For Students And Teachers. Would You Rather… Subscribe to Hulu Plus for $7.99 per month Subscribe to your local cable company for $19.99 per month?

Would You Rather…

Maths Teaching Crisis - MathsClass. Wednesday, 09 July 2014 | 0 Comments Everyday in the media, maths teaching and teachers are being judged.

Maths Teaching Crisis - MathsClass

Maths teaching is in crisis. Timeghost. My Grand Challenge for Mathematics Education. In the spirit of thinking big, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) recently invited its members to suggest grand challenges for mathematics education.

My Grand Challenge for Mathematics Education

The NCTM defined a grand challenge as ambitious but feasible, positively affecting many people, and capturing the public interest. Playing with Math. Math = Love: 2014-2015 Weekly Schedule Posters. Well, I've decided on my weekly schedule for the upcoming school year.

Math = Love: 2014-2015 Weekly Schedule Posters

This past year, I had 3 special weekly tasks - Good Things Mondays, Weird and Wacky Wednesdays, and Friday Funnies. I blogged about these here. Learning and leading. Dy/dan. How we will learn. MindShift explores the future of learning in all its dimensions.

How we will learn

We examine how learning is being impacted by technology, discoveries about how the brain works, poverty and inequities, social and emotional practices, assessments, digital games, design thinking and music, among many other topics. We look at how learning is evolving in the classroom and beyond.We also revisit old ideas that have come full circle in the era of the over scheduled child, such as unschooling, tinkering, playing in the woods, mindfulness, inquiry-based learning and student motivation.

We report on shifts in how educators practice their craft as they apply innovative ideas to help students learn, while meeting the rigorous demands of their standards and curriculum. MindShift has a unique audience of educators, tinkerers, policy makers and life-long learners who engage in meaningful dialogue with one another on our sites. Contact the us by email. Edudemic - Education Technology Tips For Students And Teachers. Virtual School on a Snow Day. Should my school, which is a 1-to-1 laptop school with over 90% of the students on high speed internet connections at home, consider calling a virtual school day when the weather keeps us home?

Virtual School on a Snow Day

(Note: my school isn’t actually considering it, I’m just wondering aloud here.) I say yes but it needs to be formalized and supported with the right tools. Expectation to check class websites. This High School football coach plays “Would You Rather” Math, and so should you. Add “Would You Rather?” To your bookmarks. Phrasing math problems in terms of “Would You Rather” is simple and brilliant. Symmetry: Smart Phones, Friezes, and Fractals : Thinking Mathematics!

Trigonometric Pythagorean Identities. Last year in Precalculus, I had students start with: and derive and simply by dividing both sides of the original equation by or I did this same this year. Except later on, a few weeks ago, I saw a post on twitter talking about introducing trigonometric identities through graphs on the unit circle — and having kids come up with their own identities. Giving students a say in their homework. This is probably not new but this term I’m trialling a different way of doing homework with Year 9s. I try to make homework so it doesn’t become a workload burden for myself and my students. A lot of my students have extra-curricular activities like sport and I have had quite a few parent phone calls raising the concern between balancing their family lives and homework. I’ve also had the issue of different access to resources from home. Dear Mathalicious: Which Of These Questions Is “Real World”?

An ongoing question in this "fake world" series has been, "What is real anyway, man? " Are hexagons less real-world to an eighth-grader than health insurance, for example? Certainly most eighth graders have spent more time thinking about hexagons than they have about health insurance. On the other hand, you're more likely to encounter health insurance outside the walls of a classroom than inside them. Does that make health insurance more real? I don't know of anyone more qualified to answer these questions than our colleagues at Mathalicious who produce "real-world lessons" that are loved by educators I love.

Math + Art = A Beautiful Thing. Happy Monday! After over thirteen hours at school today, I'm happy that Monday is almost over! We had parent/teacher conferences this evening from 3:30-6:30, and we'll do the same tomorrow night. That makes for a very long day, but I guess we do get out of school on Friday to make up for it. Of course, that means my Pi Day celebration has been thrown off once again. We provide teachers and students with mathematics relevant to our world today …