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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

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.

The classic "3 R's" of learning are, of course, Reading, 'Riting, and 'Rithmetic.  For the 21st century, we need to add a fourth R--and it will help inspire the other three:  Algorithm.  

Now in the 21st century, we need a similar expanded push towards the literacy that defines our era, computational literacy.    Algorithms are as basic to the way the 21st century digital age works as reading, writing, and arithmetic were to the late 18th century Industrial era.

Here's some of what the fourth "R" of "algorithms" adds to the standard syllabus of 21st century learning.  I'm sure others can add more: Algorithms and algorithmic thinking give kids of the 21st century the ability to write software and change programs to suit themselves, their own creativity, and their desire to self-publish their own multimedia work.