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Big Ideas from Math Workshop

Posted on February 10th, 2007 by Samantha Lundin Thom.
Categories: Numeracy, Pro-D.

Why is Math Important?

“Even more important than performing computational procedures or using calculators is the greater facility that students need - more than ever before - is estimation and mental mathematics.”
-NCTM 2005

Here are big ideas that were identified at the math workshop (Feb. 9/07) as important concepts to teach to students:

- estimate before calculating

- mental math

- more than one way to approach/solve a problem

- what “tools” does a student need to do an algorithm? estimate?

- comparing things

- the magic of the number 9

- patterns and relationships

- time is an issue: efficiency is key

- making math personal/related to the real world

- teaching concepts in isolation can be good and bad.

- critical thinking skills (e.g. interpreting data, word problems, etc…)

- word problems: all words, no words, pictures, numbers

- various levels to “guess and check” (from random to focused strategies)

- listen to thoughts; foster dialogue