Mathsational

  This post is part of an ongoing book study series on Nix the Tricks, by Tina Cardone. Foe each chapter, a group of math teachers meets to reflect on the book and discuss how we can move away from shortcuts toward true mathematical understanding. You can find our reflections from the earlier chapters and follow along as we continue to explore. Chapter 7, Functions, introduced a part of the curriculum that many students find deceptively simple: input, output, mapping diagrams and function notation. Many elements seem procedural at first glance, which is why function tricks spread quickly. Additionally, as several teachers pointed out, some of these shortcuts are new, having appeared on platforms such as Pinterest and TikTok rather than in traditional textbooks. This chapter challenged us to reflect on the difference between knowing how to do something and knowing what it means. Did We Learn These Tricks Ourselves? We began by reflecting on our experiences as students. Many of us re...

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 and follow along as we continue exploring. Chapter 6, “Equations and Inequalities,” took us into one of the most common danger zones for student misconceptions. This is the chapter where many of the “classic” algebra tricks show up: move the 3 to the other side and “change the sign,” “cross off” matching terms, or use the “log circle” as a shortcut to solving exponential equations. Our discussion centered around whether the fixes offered in this chapter are realistic for our students, and how our own language and instructional habits can inadvertently cement tricks instead of understanding. Thoughts on the Fixes While many of us agreed with the fixes presented, especially the emphasi...