The Online Math Teacher Community & Resources

Also known by the bulky acronym:

MTBoS (mathtwitterblogosphere)

My goal is not to convince you to blog or tweet. However it is to show you that there is a wealth of amazing resources at your fingertips, and if you do get involved, a zillion creatively amazing colleagues who can become your friends.

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Yes, you’ll say you don’t have time. But you don’t have to jump into the deep end. Today I’m going to show you how you can get good stuff without jumping totally in. And if you ever want to jump in, let me know.

Group Task: Think of something you’ve recently taught, but felt it was like a warm soda sitting out in the sun for too long. Lukewarm and flat.

Let’s throw those terms into the MTBoS search engine and see what pops up together!

Individual Tasks: Let’s divide up the following — so the whole department gets to explore something different. Take 7 minutes to check it out. Then we’ll each say a couple sentences on what we found (if anything)…

Ally: Watch one of the videos on this page or this page (yes, I’m trying to get you to join me!)

Amy: Go to the website for the Global Math Department, a weekly “conference” made by math teachers for math teachers. Find a topic that interests you, stick in your headphones, skip to somewhere in the middle of the recording (we only have a few minutes) and listen to a snippet!

Anne: Welcome back! First, I think you’d like my friend Kate Nowak’s blog, f(t). Check out her blog! She has been posting recently some nice work she has done with Geometry. Second, Jennifer Wilson has also been tearing it up with Geometry on her blog Easing the Hurry Syndrome — her April 29, 2015 post was especially nice!

Ashley: You’re going to be teaching Algebra II next year! Huzzah! The course can be exceedingly dull, but here are some posts I’ve gathered that might help you think differently about how to spice it up! Check ’em out. See if you’re inspired by any of them!

Brendan: Go to Geoff Krall’s problem based curricula maps and putz around. I think you’ll find some inspirational things!

Chris: You and Fawn Nguyen. Read her blog. From start to finish.

Coy and Colin: You have a choice!

(a) Go to this wonderful archival page made by my friend Tina Cardone, scroll down to the “Noticing and Wondering” section, and then read a couple posts!

(b) Check out Christopher Danielson’s post (which links to other posts) on Connected Math (CMP)

June: There are a whole slew of interesting websites that math teachers created together. Go to this page which has a bunch of these sites, click on a couple that interest you, and check ’em out! I especially think you might enjoy using stuff from “Which One Doesn’t Belong” as openers for your classes — just to get kids talking.

Karen: First, read this post by Fawn Nguyen, and then read the comments. Read more of her blog if you enjoyed the post! Also, check out Open Middle. Based on what I suspect you value in teaching, I think you will enjoy these types of questions for your kids next year.

Lou: Go to this assortment of interesting blogposts, find a couple that interest you, and check ’em out.

Maria: First, go to Math Munch and check out the posts. You’ve talked about a way to get “explore math” to your kids; this is a great site to facilitate that with no work on your part. Second, we always talk about how challenging it is to differentiate. Some ideas were culled by my friend Tina Cardone on this wonderful archival page. Scroll down to the “Differentiation” section and read a couple posts! Maybe you can figure out some secrets and help me with it!

Follow Up: Just come up with 1 or 2 sentences about what you read/saw to share with the department, and if you have any thoughts on it, feel free!

Last but not least: Clearly there is a lot of stuff out there. There is something called Global Math Department which is a weekly virtual webinar led by math teachers for math teachers, but the organizers also put together a weekly newsletter with some of their favorite content from the web curated and delivered to your inbox. It’s like the Marshall Memo, but less cruddy. This week’s is here, so we can take a gander. If you think you might want to get it in your inbox, the way to subscribe is here.