I listen to a podcast called, Making Math Moments That Matter, by two math educators, Kyle Pearce and John Orr. It is an excellent podcast full of tips, strategies, and interview with other math educators/innovators to help you make your math class into something that students are excited about and remember.
They always start their interviews by asking their guests about a memorable math moment they had as a teacher or a student. Sometimes it’s a negative one, sometimes it’s a positive one. Until yesterday, if I were a guest on their podcast, I would’ve shared a negative one about something my 8th grade algebra teacher did when he handed back quizzes and tests.
But now, I have a positive one that I would share, and it’s mostly because of the way that they ask their listeners to interact with problems with their students.
I put up this problem (from our Math in Focus textbook) for my 6th grade class.
Then, I sat back and let them get started. I was amazed by what I saw/heard:
- Genuine collaboration (students were walking across the room to talk to students in different groups)
- Multiple mathematical representations
- Aha moments
- Students teaching each other
- Excitement
- Engagement
- Mathematical language
- Checking their own work
We spent almost 30 minutes on this problem, and it was worth every minute.
Hopefully this is a math moment that mattered to them, too.
Teaching With Mrs. Clark 