November 2021 - What is a Mathematician?
Who do you think of when you think of a Mathematician? Is it the stereotypical portrayal we have been exposed to in the media of an adult male in a white lab coat? This is the way many of our students describe mathematicians, which is not accurate. It does not represent the many social and cultural identities of past and present mathematicians and excludes students from seeing themselves as capable mathematical thinkers. If we want children to see themselves as mathematicians, we need to disrupt this stereotype and help children to understand that we are all mathemat
October 2021 - TVO Learning at Home Supports
There are several free online resources developed by TVO in partnership with Ontario educators and media experts to support learning at home. The following may help in discovering new and engaging ways to connect students from Kindergarten to Grade 12 to the Ontario curriculum.
TVOkids (Kindergarten to Grade 6)
September 2021 - Financial Literacy
Welcome to a new school year and a new year of mathematical thinking!
The math curriculum has financial literacy expectations from grades 1 to 9 and 11. Here are some suggestions for activities that families can do together to support learning about financial literacy.
Primary (Grades 1 to 3):
June 2021 - Games
With summer fast approaching we wanted to take some time and explore different ways you can engage your children with math while they are not in school. One way to continue mathematics through the summer months can be done through games.
May 2021 - Math Trails: Outdoor Math Learning and Spatial Reasoning
Math is everywhere. Have you ever stopped to take a look at all the math around you? Going on a math trail gives you an opportunity to explore the mathematics in your neighbourhood. It can be done in an urban or rural setting, in malls, parks, museums, or along city streets. It’s a creative opportunity to bring mathematics to life for students who are young or old.
April 2021 - Fractions
When you learned about fractions in school, what did it look like? Did all the examples have to do with pizzas, pies, and chocolate bars? Did you memorize procedures to work with fractions like invert and multiply in order to divide them? Many of these methods focus on getting to an answer without building an understanding of fractions. One way to build fraction understanding is through fraction talks. A Fraction Talk is a discussion about a visual problem involving fractions.
March 2021 - Data Management
Data is everywhere and it serves as a means to help us understand ourselves and the world we live in.
February 2021 - Patterning and Algebra
Mathematics has been called “the science of patterns” (Steen, 1988). Young children enjoy working with patterns, and older students enjoy discovering and manipulating patterns. In fact, it is human nature to find patterns in our everyday experiences. Some educators and mathematics would go so far as to say that patterning is the foundation of mathematics (Lee, 1996: Mason 1996). The study of linear growing patterns offers a tangible way for students to think about relationships between quantities.
January 2021 - Productive Struggle
Productive struggle is a state of engagement that enables students to work through challenging problems and new problems they have never seen before. Thus, making students have to do some creative thinking so they will stretch their brains.
December 2020 - The Value of Mistakes
How often do our students consider their mistakes to be signs of failure? How many students, as well as families, believe that the goal of learning mathematics is solely to get the correct answer? How often, on arriving at an answer, do students believe their thinking about the problem is finished?