Build Math Confidence: June 2017

Build Math Confidence June 2017 Volume 97

Upcoming Math Confidence Events

Friday June 23rd NYCDOE Professional Development Workshop, Brooklyn, NY
Wednesday July 6 Summer Institute Prof Development Workshop Northern NJ
Monday July 17 Engineering Your Future Manhattan College PreEngineering

Becoming the Math Teacher You Wish You'd Had

Author Tracy Zager is a teacher educator extraordinaire and a former 4th grade teacher who has many learning ideas and strategies for all grade levels. The foreword by Elham Kazemi includes "Readers, be warned: you are about to fall in love. Tracy writes, "Good math teaching begins with us." ...This book turns on its head the common misconception of mathematics as a black-and-white discipline and of being good at math as entailing ease, speed, and correctness." The book closes with "Our Math classes can be full of curiosity and questions, perplexity and joy, seriousness and passion because that's what it means to do Math".
There is a great 30 page Study Guide for reading groups and the companion website has supporting content including Math Autobiographies.

Tracy Zager's web site Tracy Zager Twitter

#becomingmath Twitter Becoming Math Facebook page

The New York Times on Math

Math has been featured often in The New York Times this spring!
Pediatrician Perri Klass wrote two Math related articles: Fending Off Math Anxiety in April, followed up by No Such Thing as a Math Person in May.
Richard Friedman's Sunday Opinion piece The World's Most Beautiful Mathematical Equation starts with "I was doing KenKen, a math puzzle, on a plane recently when a fellow passenger asked why I bothered. I said I did it for the beauty."

How to Prepare for an Automated Future in early May emphasized adaptability and learning how to learn as keys to success in the age of the robot. So, why learn Math? Math can teach people how to become a better learner. It's not so much content as it is about the ability to learn.

Habit Tracking Apps

I have been using the Android app Loop since New Year's Day 2017 to track daily and weekly habits including writing, organizing my desk and keeping in touch with friends and family. Productive is a similar app for iphone that gives feedback on each goal.
The Weekly Rhythm Register is a paper-based habit tracking system. .

Brain Puzzler

Adam, Brian, Cathy, Doug and Eve are at a round table for five when they realize that they are in age order around the table. What are the odds of that?"

Answer to May's Brain Puzzler: 45

Click here for the solution to May's Brain Puzzle

Thanks, Robin the Math Lady Schwartz

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