Mathsational

  As a high school math teacher, I’ve lost track of how many times students follow a procedure perfectly one day and then forget it the next. They can imitate steps, plug in numbers into formulas, and produce answers, but when faced with a new type of problem, they hesitate. This disconnect isn’t because they’re “bad at math.” It’s because too often, math instruction relies on memorization rather than genuine thinking.  The Problem with Mimicking In too many classrooms, students depend solely on recall, using the same strategy for all problems regardless of its appropriateness. While memorization has its role, it shouldn't be the final goal. Without deeper engagement, students miss out on the flexible and creative aspects of mathematics that help them solve real-world problems and face new challenges with confidence. Three Levels of Questioning The solution? If we want students to genuinely understand and remember mathematical concepts, we must be deliberate about the types of...

With #MTBoSBlaugust happening right now, it was very easy to find some new blogs to read.   Here  is a list of the participating blogs if you are looking for new sources of inspiration too.  When I started looking, I was searching for great ideas that I could use in my classroom.  Here is what I found. 1)   Socrative 101 - Making "Digital Task Cards" :  I recently wrote about how I'd like to use technology at the direct station for formative assessment more often.  One thing that has been holding me back is the difficulty that exists in writing mathematical symbols on these sites.  Rock Star Math Teacher posted directions on how to use powerpoint to make this process easier.    Here  are some of the of the socrative quizzes that she has already made.  Powerpoint has an easy to use equation editor and then you just save each slide as an image.  I'm excited to try this to digitize some of my current whiteboard p...