I learned to love math later in my school career (high school). I was one of those people who thought I just wasn’t born with the “math gene.” With the help of great high school mathematics teachers, math became one of my favorite subjects even though it still didn’t come easily to me. I found that I enjoyed the logic, the challenge, and the satisfaction of solving difficult problems. In addition (no pun intended), I love teaching math precisely because it doesn’t come easily to me; I think I can communicate the interim steps to the solution in simpler language than someone who has a brain that quickly jumps to answers.
You may have seen my post on 15 Math Sites that Won’t Make You Fall Asleep, which links to many “fun” math pages online. One of the aspects that I like about many of these sites is that they encourage conversation. “Parallelogram” is a new one that I need to add to my post. It is a weekly set of math challenges by Dr. Simon Singh that will be sent to your students for free. The questions are designed for 11-13 year olds, but I plan to try it with my 4th and 5th grade classes. Teachers can sign up, and have students join through a class code to be added to a teacher dashboard. You can get a preview of the program here. Keep in mind that the match challenges do include video clips, and I always recommend that you preview any videos before showing them to your students.
