Math Notebook Quote

I have talked about Mathematical Mindsets several times on this blog, but it has impacted my teaching this year. After reading the book, I wanted my students to see math as a social experiences. Honestly, students never have problems being social in class, but they needed to be doing math together. 

One quote in Mathematical Mindsets that stood out to me was 

"Always give help when needed; always ask for help when you need it." 

School can be so unlike the real world sometimes. If I need help in my job, I can ask for it. If someone asks me for help, I can help them. Yet, in school, we teach kids that they have to complete tasks by themselves and aren't allowed to ask for help--the only time that is the case in my class is during a test. I encourage students to mostly talk to each other about the math they are doing and rely on each other for help. 

I started the year going over this quote, I made it into a poster, I printed it to fit inside their math notebooks. After 6 years of school, it is hard to break them of the habit of not asking their classmates for help. I still have students who are rude to each other, are afraid to ask their peers for help, etc. But this is a mindset that they need to change and it will take time. 

The other poster are 3 things I want my students to do every day in math. I also made it into a poster and printed it to fit into their math notebooks. 

You can download the poster here to use for your own classroom.

Do you have a quote that you love to share with your class?

Which One Doesn't Belong?

I am attempting to make homework look different this year after reading Mathematical Mindsets.

This past week I used the Mtbos resource of Which One Doesn't Belong?

I feel like this a a low floor, high ceiling task that forces students to explain their reasoning--which I need to find more ways for students to practice.

Before giving the students the homework, I gave them the following list--7, 21, 27, 42 and we practiced finding which number didn't belong. I randomly wrote those numbers down, and I am lucky it worked out really well. The students were able to come about with about 10 different ways to explain a number that didn't belong.

The homework they got is below.

I asked them to think outside the box--yes 16 is the only even number, but I wanted them to dig deeper than that.

I plan on sharing their various responses with the class hoping that all students can be more creative the next time I give them homework like this. 

If you would like to use this, you can download the pdf here.