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Ever wonder what math looks like in an one-to-one environment?

As a math teacher, what made you turn to Project Based Learning in your own teaching?

Why do many math teachers initially resist integrating Project Based Learning into their classes?

So we assume having students practicing problems twenty-five times is the only way to learn math. This is a difficult mindset to break. Practice makes perfect is the old adage, but what many math teachers don’t realize is that creating a Project Based Learning environment in a math class doesn’t require students to be “perfect.” Having students solve complex, real-life problems is actually asking students to complete open-ended tasks. These problems may not have one right answer, unlike the practice problems in a textbook. This can be a scary leap for math teachers to take and many students may be hesitant to take this leap as well.

One of the difficulties in teaching order of  operations to students is that one of the most often used shortcuts actually causes student confusion.  Most students know that they should use PEMDAS when deciding what math operation to do first.  The problem with PEMDAS is that often students think that multiplication has to come before division and addition before subtraction. Instead, teach students to think of the operations as "levels." Just like on an elevator, you have to do one level before you can get to the next.  Be sure to start at the bottom - just like the first floor of a building. 

In this article, I make a case for student blogs as a tool that can support and extend students’ mathematics proficiency through the Standards for Mathematical Practice.

Teachers who use math journals can easily convert that process to a digital one through blogging.

1. Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them

 The site includes really well done lessons, activities, practice pages (online), study aids, glossary, and word problems.  Algebra Lab is like a free, living textbook.

Tips: If you have a one-to-one setting, students can practice directly on the website for immediate feedback.  Very helpful!

A couple of years ago I stopped into a McDonald's restaurant to grab a quick snack. At the counter there was a sign advertising two apple pies for 99 cents. It sounded like a good deal until I looked up at the big menu board and noticed that the price for one apple pie was only 49 cents. I wish I had taken a picture of the two signs. When I shared this story on Twitter, Danny Nicholson replied with a link to his Bad Maths Flickr group. The Bad Maths Flickr group contains lots of examples of bad math stopped in stores and other public places.

Media 4 Math has a nice regular feature called Math in the News. Math in the News offers ideas for short mathematics lessons based on current news stories. The current lesson that grabbed my attention is Will There Be an NBA Season? The lesson focuses on using revenue and expense reports to determine profitability.