Mathsational

  This post is part of an ongoing book study series on Nix the Tricks by Tina Cardone. Each week, a group of math teachers meets to reflect on one chapter of the book and discuss how we can move away from shortcuts and toward true mathematical understanding. You can find our reflections from earlier chapters in previous posts and follow along as we continue exploring. Chapter 5, “Number Systems,” pushed us to think deeply about how students build meaning around integers, rational numbers, and exponents, and how quickly shortcuts can derail that sense-making. While earlier chapters focused on specific tricks, this one made us reflect on the foundation of number itself and how our instruction shapes students’ long-term understanding. Rethinking Our Past Practices As we reflected on our own teaching, a few themes came up repeatedly, especially around integer multiplication and rational exponents. Most of us admitted that at some point in our careers, we’ve leaned on oversimplified rul...

  This post is part of an ongoing book study series on Nix the Tricks by Tina Cardone. Each week, a group of math teachers meets to reflect on one chapter of the book and discuss how we can move away from shortcuts and toward true mathematical understanding. You can find our reflections from prior chapters in previous posts, and follow along as we continue through the book. Chapter 4, “Geometry and Measurement,” took us into one of the most visual and language-rich areas of mathematics. For many of us, geometry is where we first learned to “see” math, but it’s also a place where shortcuts and memorized formulas can overshadow the reasoning behind them. Our discussion this week revolved around three major themes: definitions, sense-making, and vocabulary. Rethinking Tricks and Formulas When reflecting on the “tricks” in this chapter, several teachers admitted they’ve used them in the past, especially when teaching CP (College Prep) Geometry classes. It’s easy to fall back on formul...