/r/matheducation
/r/matheducation is for discussions of math teaching and pedagogy.
r/matheducation is focused on mathematics pedagogy (the teaching of). Please avoid posts that are related to homework or other "How do I solve this?" type questions. There should be an emphasis on usefulness (such as good internet resources or ideas for how to teach a concept).
Note: This is not a subreddit to self-promote your blog, website, or YouTube channel, but rather to point out resources you've found that you could actually see bringing something useful to the art of math teaching.
Just explaining a single math concept isn't a good fit here, but something that explains an innovative way to teach a concept to others is fine.
The guiding principle for content here should be: is this something related to the teaching of mathematical concepts?
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/r/matheducation
Hi all - I am an IXL ambassador and I have free 90 day trials of IXL to share. This link will work until December 15th, after which point the 90 days free won't work anymore.
You can share this link with as many teachers as you want - there is no limit for people to use it! 90 Days IXL Free
I have a 4th and 5th grader currently at a charter school that follows common core standards for math. They both do very well with the work they're assigned. They will be moving to a new school next year (2024-25 school year) that teaches Singapore. I actually homeschooled them during the pandemic (their 1st and 2nd grade years, respectively), so I am familiar with Singapore but I opted to do something else with them (regretting that now). In preparation, over the next 9 months or so I would like to get them up to speed before they begin (so at least through levels 4B and 5B, respectively). It's difficult to tell exactly how far back I should go because on the placement tests, it seems like they can do some stuff through what their current level would be, but they're also missing a lot of the concepts that Singapore teaches a lot earlier.
I was thinking about getting levels 3A-5B, and just working through everything they haven't learned yet, and skipping what they do know. Is this the most efficient way to do this? Should I go back any farther than 3A for a 4th grader who is pretty good at common core math? Has anyone worked with a tutor on Singapore math that they recommend? Any other tips on transitioning to Singapore?
He got differentiation pretty easily but struggled to wrap his head around the fundamental concept/mechanism/“why it works” of integration. So I explained to him while I drew this explanation on my iPad and ngl I’m pretty proud of the end result!
I've been an elementary teacher for 8 years, but I'm looking to specialize into elementary mathematics education. What are some resources I can use to find an online program that suits me for an Elementary Mathematics Specialist program, either at the certificate level or a full masters. I do have a masters already, but my university doesn't offer an elementary mathematics track.
So far, I've just been haphazardly googling things without a good sense of what to look for or where to look, so I'd appreciate anybody who could point me in the right direction.
Anyone interested in trying IXL? I have a referral code for a 90 day trial of the program which includes ELA, math, science, and social studies for grades prek-8. The program goes up to high school for ELA and math.
Hello, Im new to teaching math. The head of math department gave me the task to prepare a poster about the expansion of the number range from N to R for the open house at our school. Since it's for the parents I want to prepare it with information about the age group in which it's introduced, some context with which they are introduced, and the mathematical questions behind the introduction.
Are there some other ideas that should be included?
Hello educators, my district is currently searching for a new secondary math curriculum. This curriculum will be for 6-12. We currently use SpringBoard. If you have ever used it, you know how insanely bad it is.
Some info I’m about our district. We are well below state standards in most state tests. I teach Math 8 and Algebra 1 and I had the highest percentage of students pass the state test at 19%. Last year, our high school only had 9% pass the SBA exam. As a whole, most of my kids are below average in reading and math.
I have done some research and Open Up seems to be my favorite so far. If you have any recommendations on math curriculum, please let me know.
I have my first ever homeroom and want any puzzles or fun activities I can do with the kids for the 30 minutes I have them every morning. Any help would be awesome.
Hello - I am taking the math 5165 praxis in 3 weeks. I ordered the Mometrix book and took the practice test online and am basically re-teaching myself precalculus using Khan Academy! When I took the practice test I was super clear on about half the test questions questions (algebra + algebra 2 + probability) and a little hazy on the other areas. So as not to be repetitive/redundant since I know there are alot of other threads - my question is what should I focus on in these areas of precalc, stat, calculus geometry? How much of the actual test is going to be on integrals, derivatives?
Also, the online graphing calculator is not available on the practice test. Can anyone advise what kind of graphing calculator the on screen test gives you? I want to make sure I practice with the correct one. I am currently practicing with a TI-84 that I have at school and the Desmos graphing calculator but I imagine their system will be different. I don't want to get stuck on not knowing how to use the tool. Thanks for any help!
I'm in high school and I don't know what to do with my life. It's like I'm passionate about everything I've tried out so far and I improve at everything relatively quickly and even enjoy it. My grandpa has a Ph.D. in math and he wanted me to go the same route. He was the only one in my family who supported me when I said I wanted to study abroad so I want to make him happy too. But I have no idea what mathematicians do or what the journey of becoming a mathematician looks like. So mathematicians out there please share your experience of pursuing degrees and your day to day life.
Hello all,
Main Point: I am highly interested in one day in the future becoming a tutor and/or running workshops teaching math and math study skills for students who struggled in math, mostly adults who were disadvantaged as youths, with particular focus on homeschool alumni ideally. I am not prepared in multiple ways to do that yet, but I would love some advice on how to get there.
Context: I myself was homeschooled for high school, in a state that basically has zero regulations and will give you a legal & valid high school diploma if all your parents say is, "Yes I pinky promise my child did all the work" without providing any sort of proof. The most advanced math I took was Geometry. I remember I struggled harshly in Algebra I, loved Geometry, but my parents decided to only give me "financial literacy" classes after that (which seemed to be a lot of just shouting "no debt" at me rather than doing any math).
Anyways, I tried to fill in gaps best I could in my early twenties to at least grasp some basic algebra that I couldn't understand as a teen, then finally went to community college in my mid twenties where I took what seemed like the lowest-level and "easiest" math classes that still counted for credit - a general math course that had a bunch of topics smooshed in (LOVED the set theory and logic bits, hated the finance bits) and algebra-based statistics (probably my most favorite class I've taken in my life). I ended up transferring to a T40 school where I got my B.S. in an interdiscplinary program that contained business, research methods, social science, biology, and physical science classes.
All during this time, I have been a part of multiple homeschool alumni groups and organizations. One that I volunteered with for a few months was recently featured on an episode by John Oliver. Experiences of homeschool alumni are wide ranging, from highly excellent to abysmally abusive. In my personal observation, the spectrum tends to skew lower towards educationally abusive more often rather than towards excellence. Some of the vents are heartbreaking. Adults who never learned anything past basic arithmetic. Late 20-somethings who are afraid to even apply as cashiers because they are not confident counting money. People who can clearly write well and articulate their thoughts, so they aren't dumb, but something like algebra seems way too far beyond their grasp, and they give up on ever enrolling in community college, because even though they've thought about it, they ultimately decided they are too stupid and too behind to ever catch up and successfully complete a class. While there are similar stories of other subjects, math in particular is by far the homeschool alum's kryptonite.
I just think it would be really powerful if someone who has experience being homeschooled and also struggled with and was deliberately cut off from math access could show them that you can still relearn math as an adult, become proficient in it, and succeed in the outside world. I want to be that person, because honestly, I intend to level up my math skills regardless. I will be using udemy, and other free resources, to go all the way back to pre-algebra and my intention is to work up to precalculus. For calculus, I would reach out to my FIL (an engineer and fantastic teacher - he really missed his calling there haha) to tutor me privately while utilizing other online resources. I will continue climbing if I'm still enjoying it, and I'll stop if I feel like it. But I want to at least get to Calculus I.
Summary: All this being said, what would be a good credential and/or other types of learning I should do if I want to eventually tutor and/or give workshops on math and math study skills to homeschool alumni and perhaps other unconfident adults to prepare them to enter community college? God knows us homeschool alumni are some of the most in-awe of educators who have studied actual pedagogy, so I know simply studying math as it is isn't enough to be a good tutor. But what do you study when you don't necessarily want to be a K-12 educator or get licensed? Also, I feel like I should get a credential of some sort since my plan right now is self-study. I once thought about doing a professional development certificate in math, but the school's I was looking at had disappeared. My community college doesn't have a certificate in anything math, only an A.S. degree. Should I just go back and do that?
Any suggestions or advice is highly welcomed and appreciated!
Thank you!
Hi! I’m a math major, and will have fulfilled all my math requirements (and every serious math course at my school) by my sophomore year. I’m on a full ride and am staying to finish another major. I plan to pursue graduate mathematics. So just due to the nature of my school’s lack of courses in math, I’m not really looking for courses that I can take and then transfer credit, but rather courses that I can take to learn new material and also be able to show a potential graduate school that I took said courses. First I guess I should ask if this is a reasonable thing to do, although it strikes me as very reasonable. If yes, the followup would be how to go about it. Can I actually just try and apply to take one or two summer courses at a college near me?
Title says it all really.
I am planning on studying an accelerated biomedical science course (transferring into doctor of medicine after), and a mathematics degree (goes into real and complex analysis, topology if I want), and essentially I am just looking to get some opinions of how fucked I could maybe be. Regardless of answer I will still push forward, but I just want to set my sights straight so I don't end up disappointed
with scraping by. Also, the maths degree is just for fun and for learning, not meant to improve career outlook or anything.
Cheers.
Hi all,
I'm a high school geometry teacher, teaching primarily honors freshmen. This is an unusual year in that I have a massive gap - some students who shouldn't be in honors as well as some extremely high level students who are consistently bored. I want to introduce more challenging (optional) problems to increase engagement, but the default response to more math, even from students who are good at it, is a sound 'no thank you.'
Any ideas on how to build interest without just handing out extra credit left and right?
As a sample of the types of problems I'm introducing, referencing the attached image:
Given that ABCD is a square, CF bisects angle ACD, and BQ is perpendicular to CF, prove DQ = 2PE.
TIA!
I’m trying to get into math 151 or calc, what’s the best site to study and be prepared for it ? Is it multiple choice or no ?
I'm tutoring a seventh grader who races to spit out an answer for when there's anything involving adding or subtracting negative integers.
Is there an illustration or game or video you've found best to lay the groundwork for this common obstacle in algebra education? Trying to compare it to money hasn't worked. Thank you!
I have an 8th grade math class with a few advanced students. One student particular is well ahead of everyone else. He has an actual grade of 110% in my class. Last year he finished the entire math curriculum early and got through all of an Algebra I course / textbook and part of pre-calculus by himself.
He’s actually ethusiastic about the math and doing the extra work. And because I was told about him (and other similar students in the class) from the beginning I have extra work for him.
But I get that impression that while I have MORE work for him, it might be starting to bore him and his peers. I didn’t want him to jump ahead in class so I’ve been trying to add stuff that add layers to what we are already doing.
For example when we we were doing equations based in proportions and changing metric measurements, I gave him work on dimensional analysis. Now that we started slopes l, I wanted to give him work that would provide him with a soft landing into differential calculus (something he asked for). So rates of change of non-linear functions, leading into a visual explanation of limits, leading into estimating derivatives using limits visually or with a table, leading into basic derivative rules (depending on how far he got).
But trying to put all this together takes way too much time. And I wanted to have some ready set material that goes deeper into the level of math that we are in rather than jump ahead.
After looking into things like Russian School of Mathematics, Art of Problem Solving, and IB Mathematics, I’ve settled on IB Mathematics. From my experience tutoring the material, it really tackles k-12 math in a different way, introduces some things kids might not see in the usual k-12 curriculum, and is more “thinky” than algorithmic.
But I am not sure which level to start or what affordable printed curriculum / books might be best to work with. Any ideas?
Greetings,
What's a lesson you taught in which it went very well, highlighted many things you want to achieve / be as a teacher?
What's a lesson you taught in which you encountered issues / challenges and how you attempted to overcome this?
I just want to ask what are some smooth whiteboard programs that can be used to teach math online.
For context, I am a broke undergrad student tutoring my friends math in discord and have been using microsoft paint with the canvas blacked out to make the colors pop out, and it's barely fine, the lines appear jagged and kinda hard to read sometimes, but the more annoying part is that I constantly have to extend the canvas for extra space and I sometimes get accidentally flashbanged when I unintentionally use the fill tool with white color.
I'm thinking of switching to a dedicated whiteboard program that's compatible with a drawing tablet that's free and smoother to use, I wish for your guys' recommendations.
Thanks in advance
Hi, I've created a Long Division calculator that lets you go through each step. I hope you will it it useful.
If you have any thoughts, suggestions, or ideas for additions, feel free to let me know!
Hello! My daughter just turned 6 and absolutely loves Math. She is at a Grade 2/3 level. She is currently doing Beast Academy (online platform) Level 2, but she is losing interest in it. I think she would benefit of some sort of interaction. I know they offer live clases, but unfortunately they are out of my budget. I'm considering IMACs or Stanford's Math Circle. If you have any feedback on those, can you please share it with me? If not, what other enrichment online classes do you recommend?
I have to do enrichment as in school there is not much offered for her.
Thank you.
I have students (Grade 9-12) with gaping holes in their math education. They do ok in geometry or algebra but doesn't know fractions. I have some that didn't have math past 3rd grade. I need to watch someone teach the math I never thought I would be dealing with. Where do I go?
Edit: Thank you for the suggestion. I should also add I checked YouTube for some lessons, I couldn't watch them all, and the ones I did watch either (while being accurate) just giving instructions (which I can do) or less than ideal.
I'm an English major, education minor at a uni known for its prestigious math dept. In high school math was my favorite subject; I got straight As and loved figuring out the intuition behind the formulaic approaches we got in class. I've also tutored HS math for several years and am comfortable explaining the "why" in a way that students report they really benefit from.
But the higher level pure math at my uni is so challenging that I would end up getting my math cert by only going up to multi and linear algebra (also somewhat familiar with diff eq). I have seen some other posts lamenting how math teachers are undereducated.
I'm getting my English cert regardless. Reasons I want to be open to teaching math:
I can't let myself get the certification without knowing that I'm making an ethical decision. Does it matter that I'm not at the level of a full math major? I'm not asking if it could be done (it could)---should it be?
Greetings,
Going to try and land my first proper math position (middle school license) for the 24'-25' school year.
What are common questions they ask you during the interviews? (math related)
Any tips or advice?
Thanks