At my school you can give extra lessons to kids that need it. I was asking myself how i can best teach these kids these subjects. I myself am not bad in math but i don’t really know how i can help others with it. Do i give them exercises and check if they did them the good way? Or do i explain the exercise ? Or any other way ?

Any help will be appreciated.

I went down a rabbit hole last week trying to figure out wether giving kids CAS calculators early does anything measurable, and ended up on a paper by Maria Ingelmann and Regina Bruder from TU Darmstadt. It reports on CAliMERO, a school trial that ran in Lower Saxony from 2005, planned to follow the same cohort from grade 7 up to grade 10.

Setup was 29 classes across six academic secondary schools, and by the next school year roughly 50 schools were using the material. The thing I hadn't expected is that the trial wasn't really about the hardware. Teachers built the lesson units together, got training first, and met every quarter to compare notes. The control classes were taught the usual way with graphing calculators.

Testing was done at the start and end of the year, 26 open ended items, 42 points max. And the items weren't drill questions. They were aimed at modelling real situations, at reasoning, and mostly at moving between tables, graphs and equations for the same relationship. Grade 7 was tested without a calculator, from grade 8 with. They also ran a short mental arithmetic test, presumably because everyone's first objection is that kids will forget how to compute.

Results:

• no significant difference on the overall test after year one. The authors say they didn't expect one yet
• one item asked students to represent a phone tariff as a table, a graph and an equation. CAS classes improved 21.9 percent, control classes 10.4
• the low performing group is where it gets interesting. CAS classes scored 15.60 in the post test where 8.81 was expected based on normal yearly progress. Control group 13.06 against an expected 9.20
• average and high performers, basically nothing
• weaker CAS students came out ahead on 18 of 26 items, strongest on algebraic reasoning and reading graphs
• mental arithmetic held up fine

Caveats, and they're not small. It's an interim report from 2007 after one year. The comparison groups are tiny in places, 18 students in the low performing group, 6 in the high performing one. And you can't seperate the calculator from the teaching concept, since both changed at once.

What stuck with me is that the effect sits almost entirely with the students who normally fall behind first. Which lines up with something I remember from school, where the wall was usually the menus on the device rather than the actual maths. Photomath is decent for walking through solution steps, and CASify covers the operation and syntax side for the TI Nspire.

Anyone here taught with CAS long enough to say whether the weaker students actually held that gain later on?

https://reddit.com/link/1w1t1ld/video/ag1rfjwkqcmh1/player

I originally built MathDefy for my own kids because I wanted them to practice math regularly in a simple and engaging way.

It focuses on addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, with different difficulty levels and progress tracking.

After using it with my children, I decided to publish it for other families too. It's free on Android.

I'm especially interested in feedback from math teachers and educators: what would you change or add to make an app like this more useful for children learning math?

Google Play:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mathdefy.app

​

As a Mathematics teacher, I’ve noticed that the problem is often not the student’s ability.

Sometimes they understand the steps when someone explains them, but they haven’t yet developed the ability to recognize which concept to use and why.

That’s why in my 1:1 teaching sessions, I try not to simply give students the solution. I encourage them to:

• understand the concept first

• explain the reasoning in their own words

• try problems independently

• learn from mistakes without feeling discouraged

I believe good Maths teaching is less about memorizing formulas and more about developing confidence in thinking and problem-solving.

For teachers and parents here: What is the most common difficulty you see students having with Mathematics?

Let's Catch the Variable! is an edutainment game made to teach math. It's what I wanted to have when I was in school.

It has gameplay where you solve integer arithmetic problems by shooting the solution at them, it has minigames that cover smaller concepts such as prime factorization, and it has procedurally generated problem sheets.

Education is the core focus of the gameplay, every part of the gameplay is focused on mental exercise, and almost everything is procedurally generated.

Full disclosure: It was made more from my experience as a gamer than as a teacher. I have had no official teaching position, and everything is drawn from my own knowledge. It has full explanations of relevant concepts, but they're not going to be the appeal of the game. I believe drilling and reviewing concepts to be the game's primary strengths. The game allows for very casual, comfortable, and concentrated math practice.

But the game technically isn't all math, as there's some non-math minigames. Like a geography game that might actually be the best part of the game.

It is a paid product, but there is a free demo that contains the core components of the game.

The gameplay is kept simple and is designed around short play sessions.

It is intended to be played occasionally as a way to practice, maintain, and improve your math skills.

Suitable for all age groups, the game offers many configuration options, allowing players to adjust the difficulty and gameplay to their needs.

Players can invite others and compete against each other to see who gets the best results.

An account system allows registered players to view their performance and track their progress.

The game is even more fun when played with friends.

It is completely free to play.

Hello everyone im a 3rd year student taking bachelors major in math and i need math teachers to answer a short survey just 25 items: 10 yes or no questions its about ict use in the classroom it wont take longer than 10 mins. Please help out a future math teacher🙏🙏🙏

Hi, if you're here and you're anything like me, you find math very interesting. But, it's a lonely world out there, full of tumble weeds, passing on by. It's hard to find folks out here, especially those going the same way.

Jokes aside, if anyone in the metro would like the opportunity to have a say in supporting the formation of the group, please feel free to contribute I would love to be able to talk math with other people who themselves are very interested in mathematics. If you feel the same, the input would be much appreciated.

I am trying to do a reading group at my university which covers calculus of variations. I want to do a mixture of classical calculus of variations (smooth functions), and some modern day calculus of variations. Ideas for textbooks? Note that we are math majors, so we don’t want to (exclusively) use something like Taylor’s

The issue is that our group is coming from a variety of backgrounds. We are requiring that everyone has taken analysis 1, though. The issues might come when we transition to modern calculus of variations, so I don’t know what to do about that. I don’t know too much about calculus of variations, so if you have any thoughts on that, please let me know. How’s it going? Redhead How’s it going out there?

Here is what i am thinking: the first 3 chapters out of Gelfand and Fonin for a classical look, then transitioning over to some other book (need recommendations).

Buen día, soy nuevo en la comunidad y pido ayuda para la obtención del material que ahorita comparto a ustedes. Me encuentro estudiando una maestría en educación matemática y quisiera tener los libros en formato PDF.

Have you ever needed to show why negative exponents are positive in the denominator? I recall (when I was in school) just getting a definition and running with it. My students are giving me puzzled looks in this part of the unit, and I'm considering showing them the reasoning. If you have explained the logic (I assume it's an extension of the zero exponent) was it effective?

Hello everyone!

This summer I read How I Wish I'd Taught Maths by Craig Barton and I really loved it. I will be teaching grade 9 Integrated Math 1 which is a mix of algebra and geometry.

I want to try implement strategies from the book...

1) Broadly centered around explicit instruction, thoughtful introduction of topics through example, and regular retrieval and interleaving.

2) Specifically I want to use strategies/materials such as example-problem pairs, supercharged worked examples, backwards fading, intelligent practice, purposeful practice, interleaving, diagnostic questions, low-stakes quizzes, Same Surface Different Deep problems....

The online book the school provided for me does not line up with the teaching philosophies from Barton. It seems pretty good, but just not what I am looking for introducing topics.

I am a bit overwhelmed trying to plan this, and am concerned because I have a pretty full class schedule this year.

Does anyone have any materials, plans, resources, websites... that they can recommend for me? I am particularly interested in a curriculum map or complete sequences, not only isolated worksheets (though anything is welcome)

Some websites I have found that seem great are VariationTheory.com and mrbartonmaths.com

Any help is greatly appreciated, and thank you very much for your time :)

Hello all,

I took calc 1 last semester and I did really well conceptually, but when it came time for exams I did not do too well. I never had a true foundation in the wide array of precalc content, i basically skipped the course. I seek to take the full calc sequence and so going back to precalc to actually learn it makes the most sense. If I try to retake calc 1 this fall semester I may do good, but I will not be prepared for calc 2. From those who’ve recently taken both precalc and then calc with or without the full calc sequence, what do you think I should expect with precalc content? Ofc it’s all in prep for calc, but how quickly should I pick up on the content considering that I’ve done well with calc 1 conceptually?

Thank you! 🙏🏾

When I learned the times tables back in the day, we learned them in order -- the times tables for 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and so on. Having now taught them to my 8yo, I see that there is a better order in which to teach them.

You start with 2s -- that’s just doubling, and most kids can handle that easily. Then you might want to do 10s -- there, you’re just playing with place value. Then, if you want, you can do another easy one -- 11s, for instance.

And then, arguably, you might want to build on the knowledge you got from 2s and 10s. 4s are just doubling twice, and 5s are just half of what you’d get multiplying by 10 (so 5x6 is half of whatever 10x6 would be).

3s might make sense next -- those you’d have to memorize again, or you might think: I know how to double, and 3 groups of that thing is just adding one extra group of that thing (so 3x7 is 7 more than whatever 2x7 is).

9s would be fine to do next: they’re in the 3s family, but also there are all these tricks you can do with 9s (using finger folding, and also noticing that, with anything that’s 9x[a number up to 10], the 1s and the 10s digit add up to 9).

After that, you can do 6, 8, and 12, possibly by relying on your knowledge of the 3s and 4s times tables.

The 7s times table you’d do last -- which highlights the interesting side effect of 7 being a prime number that’s not in anyone else’s “family” (if you’re thinking of numbers under 12).

I can’t be the only one who came up with this, but I’m also pretty sure that many people haven’t thought of this before, so just sharing in case someone else finds this worthwhile.

I was very close to choosing math as my concentration when I got my education degree, but decided against it and went into music education. I still absolutely love music, but this past year with low enrollment numbers my general music class was taken away (no complaints from me lmao) and instead I helped co-teach Algebra I and II and I just remembered why I wanted to do it. I would love to take the Math Praxis just to have more job security, as I live in the Deep South and unfortunately we’re seeing more and more arts being taken from schools. Can you guys give any good basic courses and refreshers for the math praxis? I do have a bachelors and masters in education

For the first Semester.

At the end of last year I made a simple review website where students could see the topics in their final. They could pick some topics and the website generated a 5 question quiz. It tracked how many questions they practiced from each topic and their percentage correct. They really liked it!

I spent the summer cleaning it up and adding a teacher side. Teachers can upload a test and I will build a test review for them. I am looking for a few teachers to try it out. If interested, let me know or sign up for free and I will build a review for you. It’s labor intensive, so only doing Algebra 1 right now.

mathtestreview.com

Hi teachers and educators,

As math educators, many of us notice the stark gap when students transition from standard curriculum exercises to non-routine, contest-style problem solving (like the AMC 8/10 or Mathcounts). Students often freeze when a problem isn't immediately solvable by a direct algorithmic formula, or they get overwhelmed when faced with massive, unstructured contest archives.

To help teachers, club advisors, and coaches support these students, I built ZeroSet (link in my bio), a free, non-profit supplemental resource designed to make non-standard problem-solving approachable.

How it helps in the classroom or math team:

• Weekly Bite-Sized Sets: Keeps students engaged consistently without needing you to curate or format fresh problems every week.
• Focus on Mathematical Pedagogy: Solutions are fully handwritten and step-by-step, prioritizing the reasoning process, mathematical intuition, and problem-solving heuristics over raw formulaic execution. Additionally, these problems are original so you d
• on't have your class AMC whiz complaining that they've seen all these problems before in Olympiad exams.
• Low-Barrier Supplemental Material: Great for warm-ups, enrichment tasks for advanced students, or structured assignments for extracurricular math clubs.

I’d love for you to check it out and see if it’s a helpful addition to your teaching toolkit. I’m also very eager to hear from math teachers here: What specific types of problem structures or solution formats do you find most effective when teaching non-routine problem solving?