Some Mathy Goodness for Your Home Classroom

 

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I know a lot of people out there are hating on math. I have heard from parents, students, even some teachers, that they just don't want to do math, teach math, think about math.....

This makes me really sad. Math is actually really beautiful. Math is often there in the background and you just don't see it. I have been spending time studying quilting because I so desperately want to be making quilts all the time. And you know what? There is a ton of math involved. And if you stop and think about anything that we do, there really is math some where in there.

So math is everywhere, but no one wants to talk about it or teach it or think about the mathy goodness that is part of everything. Maybe that is because we have been looking at math all wrong.

So what's my point in all of this? Well, I want to start to share some different ways of incorporating math into your life. Maybe you homeschool, maybe you have a child that hates math, maybe you hate math. Let's try and work on this and help you find the beauty that is in math. And in finding the beauty and purpose in math, maybe we can build math skills and math sense.

To get you started, I want to share a website with you. (This doesn't cost anything. I won't bring you through a thousand screens and say that it is about to give you the answer to all your life long questions.... It is not some scary scheme to make money or anything like that.) This website was started by Dan Meyer and it includes lots of "Three Act" math lessons that really get you excited and interested in learning the math topic that it is about. And for those of you doing homeschooling or teaching in a classroom, the Common Core standards that are associated with each lesson are listed right on the website with links to each lesson as well.

I have to warn you though. These are not your standard math lessons. Be ready to think, discuss, question and sometimes even laugh. These will really get you asking deep questions, creating plans of action for solving, and (wait for it....) DOing Math!!!

If you happen to like these, I also encourage you to check out Dan Meyer's 101 questions.

Please note: I am in no way affliated with Dan Meyer. I chose to share this with you because I find it interesting. I try to post on things that I love and feel passionate about. This is one of them. :)