This Week at the Global Math Department / Global Math Department

Edited By Chase Orton @mathgeek76

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Online Professional Development Sessions

Engagement: Just 3 Acts Away
Presented by Felicia Casto

What do a majority of math classes lack? Engagement! Come join us for conversations on how to incorporate real world 3 Act Tasks and feel like a true mathematician. Hear from teachers and students how 3 Act Tasks bring joy and excitement to math classes. We will also discuss how to create these engaging three act tasks that are accessible to all learners.

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

Did you miss last week’s webinar? Click here to watch “How to Expose It: Contemporary Mathematics at the High School Level.”

The #MTBoS Never Sleeps

Is It Harmful or Helptul?

#MTBoS is a community that is filled with diverse knowledge, skills, and resources. Among the resources are rich tasks, the most celebrated being those that involve real world application and mathematical reasoning.

To add to the archive of tasks, recently Robert Kaplinksy posted:

The image of Nelly in a math task was strange on my feed, so I paused to read the tweet, only to feel confused about why we might need to #SaveNelly. I didn’t think much of it, so I scrolled on. Until Hema Khodai replied:

With a single tweet, Hema challenged #mtbos to consider and oppose stereotypes in the tasks we create. While these stereotypes may be subtle, Hema reminds us that we have a responsibility to be critical of the images and notions we normalize in our classrooms of communities that have been historically marginalized.

Christelle Rocha (@Maestra_Rocha)

Rethinking Grading

I work with some wonderful math teachers all over California, and I admire their perseverance and courage. One of the things that I think gets in our way of our good teaching is our attachment to traditional assessments of learning as the primary driving force behind assigning students grades.

I sent out this Tweet to see what folks had to say.

Check out the thread for full details, but here’s what I loved most about my journey down this worm hole of learning.

Rhonda Hewer recommended Aleda Klassen‘s blog “Pedagogical Patterning.” It’s an insightful resource for many reasons and you should check it out. In particular, I dig this post about how we can better listen to our students. She builds upon Max Rey-Riek‘s Ignite Talk from a few years ago title “2 > 4.”

Dave Martin writes about his experience removing grades from his high school calculus class in this blog post. He made this stand a few years ago: “I will only assess in a way that increases learning; if my assessment isn’t increasing learning then the assessment needs to change.” Read the post to find out more.

Sunil Singh offers this post on Medium making an argument for how abolishing our traditional notion of grading is the first step to better assessment in mathematics.

If you want to get your academic groove on, Anna Blinstein offers this insightful research article entitled “Teaching More by Grading Less (or Differently).

Geoff Krall gave a brilliant ShadowCon talk about this topic not long ago. Give it a watch and let us know what you think.

Again, check out the thread to see what everyone else said. Thank you to those who helped us further our thinking.

Stay nerdy my friends!

Chase Orton
@mathgeek76

[Editors Note: Please forgive me for a thin newsletter this week. As an editor, I missed my own reminders to my writers. My apologies to them.]

GMD is Looking for Presenters!

Do you know someone who you think should lead a GMD Webinar?

Did you see something amazing at a recent conference that needs to be shared?

At Global Math we are proud of our Webinars! We appreciate all of our presenters and look forward to bringing you the best “PD Iin Your Pajamas” on the internet. We’re always on the lookout for fresh faces and new ideas.

Please use this recommendation form to let us know who/what should be shared next! We will take your recommendations and reach out to try to make it happen!

Stay nerdy my friends! Got something you think should go into the GMD Newsletter, hit me up on Twitter at @mathgeek76.