That’s What I’m Talkin’ About / Global Math Department

That's What I'm Talkin' About

Edited By Brian Bushart @bstockus

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Online Professional Development Sessions

Getting Students Talking … Open Questions in the Math Classroom
Presented by Mishaal Surti (@MrSurti)

“Focusing on Argumentation” – It sounds great in principle, but what does it really look like in the classroom?

In this session we will explore a number of questioning strategies that can be used to provoke student thinking as students dive deeper into their mathematical conceptual understanding. In particular, we will explore how to build math communication and inspire classroom discourse by integrating open questions in our classrooms. More than just focusing on a Standard for Mathematical Practice, come explore questioning prompts that will ensure our classroom tasks are accessible to all students, while continuing to push their thinking.

To join the meeting when it starts at 9pm Eastern (or RSVP if it’s before 9pm), click here.

Have you missed one of the great Global Math Department sessions that already happened this school year? Click here to watch one of our past sessions.

It Came From the #MTBoS

Knitting – a Math Teacher Superpower?!?

This article was shared with me by a friend on Facebook – that friend being Scott Delahunt, aka @MorganBallantin. It’s a fascinating read about how math teachers have greatly facilitated the visualization of highly complex shapes by using their knitting needles. An interesting bit of history – Richard Feynman seems to have been the first to notice how knitting can be used to teach math! The article has plenty of links if you want to drill deeper, including this one about an afghan, knit by Pat Ashforth and Steve Plummer, that teaches the multiplication tables – so it’s not just the hyperbolic planes or the Möbius bands that can be rendered with needles. I used to know how to crochet…maybe it’s time to dust those needles off!

Written by Audrey McLaren (@a_mcsquared)

The Secret of the Desmos Activity Builder Guide

If you’ve been nervous about exploring the capabilities of the Desmos Activity Builder, now is the time to jump in. The Activity Builder is a wonderful platform that provides teachers with enormous flexibility, and it can be used from elementary math (plotting fractions on a number line) to calculus (derivatives of a unicycle’s motion).

To help you get started, Dan Meyer has written a guide to creating great digital activities. Secretly, though, it’s just a great guide for creating activities of any sort. Imagine this post as a summary of Dan’s advice and philosophy over the past 5 years or so. Dan hasn’t given a TED talk in a while, but this post could probably act as his outline.

Written by Kent Haines (@KentHaines)

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