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Math has always been easy for me but it wasn't until I started taking classes to get my teaching certificate that I came to truly love math. Both my mom and dad loved to play card and board games. They taught my sister and I many mathematical concepts while playing these games without even realizing it. Puzzles and patterns, statistics and probability were daily conversations. Then came school. Math was nothing but numbers written on paper. Easy to do but very boring and seemingly unrelated to life. Breezing through each worksheet, page of math problem and even finishing the 7th grade math book mid-year, math became a hated subject to be put aside as quickly as possible. I vowed that the day I graduated from high school would be the last day I ever took a math class. I succeeded in that goal all through college but when I wanted to get my Elementary Teaching Certificate the state of Vermont had other ideas. So I signed up for a summer class in teaching math.

My name is Patrick Honner. I teach mathematics at Brooklyn Technical High School, a large, public, specialized high school in Brooklyn, New York. As a NYC public school teacher I have taught everything from Introductory Algebra to Multivariable Calculus.  I mentor student research in mathematics, and I am actively involved in extracurricular mathematics programs both in my school and around New York City. Math research is an instructional focus of mine. Independent, investigative, mathematical research projects can be crafted by and for students at all levels of knowledge, in all areas of interest. A primary objective of MrHonner.com is to exhibit the math all around us in order to stimulate question-posing and hypothesizing, the first steps in structuring a good research project. I am a two-time recipient of Math For America's Master Teacher Fellowship, and I am active in MfA's professional community.

"I began my personal journey into the world of Cubing when I was attending Regis University in Denver, Colorado in 2009. My senior thesis project involved devising a cryptosystem using the Rubik's Cube to encode and decode messages. Although my involvement with the Rubik's Cube waned post-graduation, it was rekindled shortly after I became a secondary teacher of mathematics in 2014. I had several Rubik's Cubes in my possession from my college days and these decorated the shelves in my classroom. I recall these puzzles catching the eyes of many curious pupils. After months of traditional curriculum presentation, I determined that my students were in need of a novel lesson, one that would ignite a passion for problem-solving. This lesson would involve the colourful and alluring hexahedron puzzle on my desk: the Rubik's Cube."

I really like this article because of how relatable it is. I want my students to ask questions but getting them to ask them is the tricky part. Encouraging them constantly that they can do it and to ask questions can be exhausting but that's what I want so that they will become confident and improve. I also love the end of the article were she talks about giving credit for showing work even if the answer is wrong. I do this in my classroom as well because if I see that the student is trying then I can hopefully help them in he future move toward the correct answer.

This is a great article. I run into adults today who when I say I am going to teach math they say "ooh why? Math was alway so hard." And I can admit at times my response it "but it's so easy." Which obviously isn't the greatest response to that. However, they react the same way the article describes, by claiming they aren't "math people" and didn't get it. But every one can learn math (can learn anything for that matter).

matematicas

"I often sit on a Thursday evening about 2000hrs and watch the ukedchat hashtag. This week it was about physical education. Although this is not one of my strong subjects in teaching (or even in real life) I was interested in the first question which asked how physical education could be related to literacy and/or mathematics. Just like a GSCE multiple choice essay question I chose to answer how it could be related to mathematics. You can see the full tweet chat conversation here - but I thought I would expand my response in this week's waffle."

"I love patterns, diagrams and pictures. Ask me to record information and it gets plastered over a page in bubbles, a mind map or random boxes. I'm not particularly artistic but I find I like to store information in this way. Even with telephone numbers - I remember the pattern the digits make, not the number itself."

The objective of this site is to show examples of thinking in math, whether it is original solutions from students of problems, or ways to include an inquiry based approach in mathematics education. The idea for the project came from Chris Hunter as a comment on a blog post. I, David Wees, think it is such a terrific idea that I am working on implementing it. I welcome ideas and input from anyone who is interested and would like to help support student thinking in mathematics. Please send an email with your example of original mathematical thinking by a student, or an example of a project students can do to support inquiry in mathematics

I'm rubbish at Maths' are words that regularly come out of mouth during my adult life. This fixed mindset is deep rooted. When faced with a Maths challenge I have immediate flashbacks to those bottom set Maths lessons where everyone else were given more complicated problems with bigger numbers to solve. I may have a fixed mindset in terms of my own capabilities, but I believe every child has the capacity to be a fantastic Mathematician, if they are given the opportunity and are encouraged to have the belief in the 'power of yet'.

"This is a really good way of testing out practical measuring skills in Maths lessons. I always teach 'measuring' by incorporating a Harry Potter themed Potions lesson. Pupils follow potion recipes to create potions from the Harry Potter universe, e.g. Polyjuice Potion or Skele-gro. I have a mixture of powders (cornflour), plants (herbs) and potions (water with food colouring). I then have pipettes, a range of different containers with different scales for measuring liquids, scales for measuring the plants and powders, in addition to gloves for handling the 'poisonous' plants, a pestle and mortar for the plants and stopwatches for timing."

"Ah, listening, the neglected literacy skill. I know when I was a high school English teacher this was not necessarily a primary focus; I was too busy honing the more measurable literacy skills -- reading, writing, and speaking. But when we think about career and college readiness, listening skills are just as important. This is evidenced by the listening standards found in the Common Core and also the integral role listening plays in collaboration and communication, two of the four Cs of 21st century learning. "

I wish we could add tags to other people's items without overwriting their authorship!

Steven, you shared a link and I wanted to add a tag to it. However, Diigo does not have a separate "add tag" function. The only way to add a new tag is to share the same link to the group, again. However, it overrides the author - now the link says "Shared by Maria Droujkova" even though you linked it first. I hope it makes sense. We discussed it with Darren when I first started to use Diigo Groups: http://groups.diigo.com/group/math-links/content/can-you-add-tags-to-other-people-s-bookmarks-959243

Hi Maria, thank you for the clarification. I now understand your first comment.

This is a compilation of Karl's Transparent Algebra posts. He does such an incredible job of making his thinking visible for all of us in how he is planning his course for the upcoming year. I share it because I think it's a valuable example of a reflective practitioner and worth sharing. If you have any teachers who might benefit from reading some of his reasoning, I encourage you to send them to his blog!

"In previous posts, I have summed up my position on Khan Academy as follows: Khan Academy teaches only one part of mathematics-procedures-and that isn't the most important part. Writing about mathematics, developing a disposition for mathematical thinking, demonstrating a conceptual understanding of mathematical topics are all more important than procedures. That said, procedures are still important, and Khan Academy provides one venue where students can learn them. In the end, I think every young person should have an account there. Even if only one in a thousand or ten thousand benefit, that would be a terrific outcome. "

"I have two children. One is a boy born on a Tuesday. What is the probability I have two boys?" The solution is delightful!

Each day of the school year I present my students with an estimation challenge. I love helping my students improve both their number sense and problem solving skills. I'd like to share the estimation challenges with you and your students. Here's a handout for your students. Happy Estimating!

LOGIN Wednesday February 15 at 3pm Eastern US time: http://tinyurl.com/math20event During the event, Dr. Keith Still of SaferCrowds.com will introduce his Crowd Sciences work and explain the relevance of mathematics in it: "If you don't do the maths, you could end up in court on a manslaughter charge!" All events in the Math Future weekly series: http://mathfuture.wikispaces.com/events The recording will be at http://mathfuture.wikispaces.com/CrowdSciences Pose questions and comments for Keith before the event Math Future wiki: http://mathfuture.wikispaces.com/message/list/CrowdSciences LinkedIn group: http://www.linkedin.com/groupItem?view=&gid=33207&type=member&item=94871153&qid=b29a6dbc-6474-425f-865a-b319bd33dcb9 Email group: http://groups.google.com/group/mathfuture/browse_thread/thread/931328aab6d87b03 How to join Follow this link at the time of the event: http://tinyurl.com/math20event Wednesday, February 15 2012 we will meet online at noon Pacific, 3 pm Eastern time. WorldClock for your time zone. Click "OK" and "Accept" several times as your browser installs the software. When you see Session Log-In, enter your name and click the "Login" button If this is your first time, come a few minutes earlier to check out the technology. Crowd Modelling + Crowd Monitoring + Crowd Management = Safer Crowds Crowd Modelling is the scientific approach to the development of safe, robust, crowd management plans. This can be achieved without the need for expensive, complex, time consuming computer simulations. In simple terms Crowd Modelling is understanding how, where, when and why crowds arrive, move around and leave an events/venues. The majority of this can be accomplished using tried, tested and simple to apply methodologies. "Keith Still is what I term an intuitive mathematician. He is one of the most creative and original thinkers that I know. He adds drive and determination, as well as considerable intellectual power to any group of which h

U.S. Department of Education report including research that "tested the impact of offering an online Algebra I course on students' algebra achievement at the end of grade 8 and their subsequent likelihood of participating in an advanced mathematics course sequence in high school."