Exploring math in a visual, exciting way is much more intuitive and user friendly with the online graphing calculator Desmos. 

I encourage all teachers to explore the classroom activities.  My favorite is the marble slides. 

I recently spent the afternoon learning from John Romeo at Southeastern about the ways he uses technology to teach math classes using Zoom and other tech tools.

Growing up I was taught math in the traditional way.  The teacher gave me some symbolic notation such as 1/2 * 1/4 and then gave me a step-by-step process to follow to the solve the problem, and then we moved on to the next thing with more notation and procedure.  At ANI they present how that should be just one of three approaches.  We need to add in visual models and real world situations and experiment with starting in one of those modes instead.

Attached is a worksheet "Operations with Fractions" that asks the student to make pictures out of fraction problems.  Take a look, give it a try and reflect on how it goes.

Not having enough materials/resources is a common complaint among teachers.  I love following how a young teacher in rural Oklahoma, Sarah Hagan, is finding a way to thrive without using textbooks. Back in March NPR did a feature story about Sarah titled " The Teacher Who Believes Math = Love."

Since hearing that story, I have been a regular follower of her blog Math = Love.  If you ever need tips on how to make the classroom interactive or how to help students create their own textbooks, then look no further.  She updates her blog almost daily (where she finds the time, I have no idea) and she is truly passionate about her students and how she can help them learn.

I was lucky enough to spend two days doing math as if I were a student.  All of the teachers at the workshop were given some data that we care about -- HiSET testing data for all the states that use the HiSET test.

Our task was to tell a story.  Think about that.  We had pages and pages of numbers to look at and it all looked official and concrete and factual.  We had two stories to tell, actually.  The first was to use the data to say how Iowa was doing really well and deserved continued monetary support.  The other story we had to tell was how Iowa is actually struggling and needs money to help bring it up to par.  Below are a few examples of what we created and presented.

This week I'm spending two days in Des Moines for the Adult Numeracy Institute.  The focus is on number sense (fractions, decimals and percents) and Data, Statistics, and graphs.  I enjoyed the first warm-up activity that was a match up.  This activity could be tailored to any level of math learner.   The directions are as follows:

Beforehand, the facilitator creates pairs of cards with equivalent values (for example 1/4 and .25 would be paired cards or 1/8 on one card and a picture of 8 connected bars with one bar shaded in on its match).  You can make the task more difficult by using pairs of more complicated numbers or concepts such as having the golden ratio on one card and 1.61803398875 on another.

1. When you get to class, hand out one card to each student
2. Students then find the person in the room that has the equivalent card
3. Once they find their partner, they go to the board and place their cards on a number line
4. Facilitate a discussion about how they know the cards are equal
5. Since this activity has an anonymous factor it's safe to discuss whether cards are placed correctly and then move them if needed

While I have done similar projects to this one, on a more limited scale, it's nice to see HiSET do some of the heavy lifting.  Below you will find a new resource from HiSET copied from their website.

Khan Academy Math Videos
In collaboration with Khan Academy, the HiSET® program has identified videos and exercises that can assist you in preparing for the HiSET Math test. These training videos can improve the fundamental skills in Numbers and Operations, Geometry, Data Analysis and Algebra that you need to be successful on the HiSET Math test. See the Khan Academy Instructional Support Videos and Exercises (PDF) for more information.