Math Talk Videos

I made the choice to ignore a Common Core Math jab that appeared up on my Facebook feed this week, but I found myself thinking, "Oh no.  Here's another parent who thinks unkindly about the direction math is heading these days."  I believe it's a problem that teachers have a responsibility to address.  How can we help chip away at the pervasive negativity concerning math instruction?  I recently shared my thoughts and game plan for what I'm doing about it, and because I believe it's an important dilemma to tackle, I'm sharing the post again here for those who haven't read it yet.

If you saw that previous post, you'll know that I have a weekly habit of sharing kid math strategies with parents so they have a clearer picture of how their children are thinking about math.  All year I've been wanting to take it to a new level though.  My cousin David, who is the IT boss in the Boise district, gave me a great idea at the beginning of the year.  He talked about how cool it would be if parents could watch videos of kids explaining their thinking.  I was all over the idea.  It just took me half the year to figure out how to share personal videos on my weebly class website without it costing me a $40 upgrade.  I love what I'm able to do for my parents now.

After I've asked a mathematician to draw their solution to a problem on the board, they're given the opportunity to teach the rest of the class.  (Read this if you'd like more specifics.)  Now that I have a way to share videos with parents, I videotape math talks and share them on my class website, along with pictures of the strategies and my explanations, as I always have. 

Click on the photo to watch some recent math talk videos.

The more parents are invited into our classrooms to see and hear for themselves what math is doing for their children, the better they'll understand that the changes we're making are for the best.