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"Inside Mathematics provides a resource for educators around the world who struggle to provide the best mathematics instruction they can for their students. Too often, teachers who excel at reaching students have few ways of sharing these strong practices with others - and teachers who struggle, struggle alone. Our classroom doors have remained closed too often and for too long. Inside Mathematics opens those doors: to tested demonstration lessons presented to children and groups of observing teachers; to guided tours of reflective mathematics practice, identifying what makes teaching, learning, and improving instruction in mathematics a difficult enterprise and providing resources for teachers to improve their practice; to mathematics teaching and learning tools and resources to support classroom teachers', math coaches', and administrators' daily practices; and to a professional learning community in which you are invited to open your own classroom door and engage in conversation about your own mathematics teaching and learning. This initiative grew out of the Noyce Foundation's Silicon Valley Mathematics Initiative. SVMI is based on high performance expectations, ongoing professional development, examining student work, and improved math instruction. The initiative includes a formative and summative performance assessment system, pedagogical content coaching, and leadership training and networks. Coaches in SVMI learn strategies of re-engagement with students around mathematics assessments, and demonstration lessons on re-engagement are featured here."

"Welcome to Inside Mathematics, a professional resource for educators passionate about improving students' mathematics learning and performance. This site features classroom examples of innovative teaching methods and insights into student learning, tools for mathematics instruction that teachers can use immediately, and video tours of the ideas and materials on the site. We are glad you're here and look forward to learning with you! News - Inside Mathematics is aligning its resources with the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics."

"Heather MacKinlay's work as an engineer has taken her from the civility of Surrey to the wild west of Australian mining towns and multibillion pound projects in the Algerian desert. And along the way she has also become a successful painter. Heather tells Plus that engineering and painting are just different ways of looking at the world, and how her work as a cost engineer is all about understanding the big picture."

In some sense, all of maths should come under the label "logic", but mathematical logic has shown that mathematics isn't entirely logical. Makes sense? If not, then this teacher package may help.

"Group work in mathematics is a tricky one. At times students can see it as a "sit-off" and chaos without any real learning can ensue. However, when it is successful, group work is an extremely powerful learning tool"

"Calculation Nation® uses the power of the Web to let students challenge opponents from anywhere in the world. At the same time, students are able to challenge themselves by investigating significant mathematical content and practicing fundamental skills. The element of competition adds an extra layer of excitement."

"ScienceDaily (Mar. 28, 2011) - By combining sophisticated mathematical techniques more commonly used by spies instead of scientists with the power and versatility of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a Penn neurologist has developed a new approach for studying the inner workings of the brain. A hidden pattern is encoded in the seemingly random order of things presented to a human subject, which the brain reveals when observed with fMRI. The research is published in the journal NeuroImage."

"The New York State Mathematics Test is administered to eighth grade students in early May. Seventh grade students being considered for placement in an accelerated high school program may also be tested. The purpose of this test is to find out which concepts have been mastered in grades 5-8 and which need further development. This is a timed test that is to be administered under standard conditions. The test will be given on two consecutive days and includes multiple choice questions, short response, and extended response questions. "

A new online resource will help teachers identify areas they may choose to focus on as they become familiar with the Australian Curriculum for English, mathematics, science and history. This advisory support resource provides an overview of each Australian Curriculum area and makes clear the key differences between the K-10 Syllabus and the content (descriptions) of the new curriculum.

These activities are free and cover a range of topics including how Australians use water, what sports are popular, and which countries did Australians who were not born here come from. You can view all the activities as webpages or download rich text files (RTF) and modify them to suit your needs. You can find more mathematic activities on the CensusAtSchool pages.

"Students often forget geometric language they learned in earlier grades The meaning - precise or vague - of words such as parallelogram, rhombus, angle bisector, acute angle, escape them. They have not learned to talk "geometry". But the language is only a small part of the issue. Much harder is that their teacher is almost certainly thinking about geometry in ways they cannot imagine: they cannot know what they do not know."

Raymond Smullyan, a Mathematician, Philosopher and author of several outstanding books of logical puzzles, tells, in one of his books, a revealing story. A friend invited him for dinner. He told Smullyan that his teenage son was crazy about Smullyan's boo

Division of Fractions e-book

Several teachers, in the US and Australia, have asked us for assistance in teaching division of fractions.

My colleague Catherine Pearn (University of Melbourne) and I have written a short account of division of  fractions, aimed at teachers. Version 1.0  is freely available here:   Division_of_Fractions_Davis_&_Pearn

"Math And Logic Problems to develop logical reasoning and creative thinking "

"In a digital world where we can easily "find an app for that" to help solve many problems, rarely do teachers have a one stop shopping place for all their classroom digital needs. There are many individual tools that can aid a teacher in retrieving student's digital work, polling/quizzing students or assigning work, but each of these tools usually requires a separate account. However, there is one, free, Web 2.0 app that brings everything together that you need for your classroom, including a social learning environment. The app that does all of this is called Edmodo. Here are just a few features that make Edmodo so great for teachers and students:"

"I got this game off of the ilovemath,org wiki but I had to change some of the problems since we hadn't done all of that yet. It's a review game based on the 'win a fish' carnival game. "

"Wolfram talks about how computers should be used to advance the understanding of math the way it's really used in the real world. Kalman talks about using computers to deliver traditional math instruction and gold stars. Kalman reinforces the "teaching" paradigm; Wolfram blows it up and insists we look critically at what's being taught. Both these talks are about "improving education with technology" - but they couldn't be further apart in world view. But the TED audience applauds them both. This is why conversations about reforming education are difficult."

A great post and comments on two diverse approaches to the use of computers in maths education. Contrary or Complimentary?