One of the best ways we can help our children learn mathematics (or anything else) is to always be learning ourselves.
Here are a few stories to enjoy with your Monday morning coffee:
“When you’re working every day, you’re not thinking, ‘What impact is this going to have on the world?’ You’re thinking, ‘I’ve got to get this right.’”
—Gladys West
quoted in Dr. Gladys West: The Black Woman Behind GPS Technology
- Jenna Laib discusses how learning the non-European roots of mathematics can enrich children’s understanding of math in The Story of Fibonacci, and the Math Ethnic Studies Framework.
- You may also enjoy Simon Gregg’s thoughts on Fibonacci.
- I like to keep a quick game in reserve for spare time in my homeschool co-op class. Kent Haines explains Sprouts and suggests ways to launch math discussions.
- Did you get lost in high school math? Ben Orlin offers a brief introduction to The Four Words at the Heart of Calculus.
- Rupesh Gesota shares how his students think their way through a challenging algebra problem in Re-learning and Enjoying Polynomial Division with students and Part 2.
“I don’t get irritated by these mistakes. I desperately wait for such mistakes. Yes! Because I think it is a golden opportunity for the teacher to spot a student thinking this way. It presents just the right context and time for driving an enriching mathematical conversation in the whole class.”
—Rupesh Gesota
Part-2: Re-learning and Enjoying Polynomial Division with students
- Rachel Chou encourages us to think more deeply about the things our students memorize in Teaching the Distributive Property.
“To teach students SSS congruence without pointing out why this is so interesting is harmful for two reasons. First of all, this is an amazing result. It is the our job to point out amazing results! Triangles are rigid figures in a way that other polygons are not.”
—Rachel Chou
Teaching the Distributive Property
CREDITS: Feature photo (top) by Kira auf der Heide via Unsplash. “Morning Coffee” post format inspired by Nate Hoffelder at The Digital Reader.
Denise Gaskins' Let's Play Math 