Ask mathematicians to describe mathematics and they' ll use words like playful, beautiful, and creative. Pose the same question to students and many will use words like boring, useless, and even humiliating. Becoming the Math Teacher You Wish You' d Had, author Tracy Zager helps teachers close this gap by making math class more like mathematics. Zager has spent years working with highly skilled math teachers in a diverse range of settings and grades and has compiled those' ideas from these vibrant classrooms into' this game-changing book. Inside you' ll find: ' How to Teach Student-Centered Mathematics:' Zager outlines a problem-solving approach to mathematics for elementary and middle school educators looking for new ways to inspire student learning Big Ideas, Practical Application:' This math book contains dozens of practical and accessible teaching techniques that focus on fundamental math concepts, including strategies that simulate connection of big ideas; rich tasks that encourage students to wonder, generalize, hypothesize, and persevere; and routines to teach students how to collaborate Key Topics for Elementary and Middle School Teachers:' Becoming the Math Teacher You Wish You' d Had' offers fresh perspectives on common challenges, from formative assessment to classroom management for elementary and middle school teachers No matter what level of math class you teach, Zager will coach you along chapter by chapter. All teachers can move towards increasingly authentic and delightful mathematics teaching and learning. This important book helps develop instructional techniques that will make the math classes we teach so much better than the math classes we took.

Readers, be warned: you are about to fall in love. Tracy writes, "Good math teaching begins with us." With those six words, she invites you on a journey through this most magnificent book of stories and portraits...This book turns on its head the common misconception of mathematics as a black-and-white discipline and of being good at math as entailing ease, speed, and correctness. You will find it full of color, possibility, puzzles, and delight...Let yourself be drawn in. Elham Kazemi, professor, math education, University of Washington While mathematicians describe mathematics as playful, beautiful, creative, and captivating, many students describe math class as boring, stressful, useless, and humiliating. In Becoming the Math Teacher You Wish You'd Had, Tracy Zager helps teachers close this gap by making math class more like mathematics. Tracy spent years with highly skilled math teachers in a diverse range of settings and grades. You'll find this book jam-packed with new thinking from these vibrant classrooms. You'll grapple with big ideas: How is taking risks inherent to mathematics? How do mathematicians balance intuition and proof? How can teachers value both productive mistakes and precision? You'll also find dozens of practical teaching techniques you can try in your classroom right away--strategies to stimulate students to connect ideas; rich tasks that encourage students to wonder, generalize, conjecture, and persevere; routines to teach students how to collaborate. All teachers can move toward increasingly authentic, delightful, robust mathematics teaching and learning for themselves and their students. This important book helps us develop instructional techniques that will make the math classes we teach so much better than the math classes we took.

Readers, be warned: you are about to fall in love. Tracy writes, "Good math teaching begins with us." With those six words, she invites you on a journey through this most magnificent book of stories and portraits ... This book turns on its head the common misconception of mathematics as a black-and-white discipline and of being good at math as entailing ease, speed, and correctness. You will find it full of color, possibility, puzzles, and delight ... Let yourself be drawn in. Elham Kazemi, professor, math education, University of Washington While mathematicians describe mathematics as playful, be.

Talking and writing about unfinished ideas is vital to learning mathematics, but most students only speak up when they think they have the right answer - especially middle school and high school students. Amanda Jansen and her collaborating teachers have developed a breakthrough approach to address this challenge. Rough Draft Math: Revising to Learn, Jansen shares the power of infusing math class with the spirit of revision so that students feel comfortable thinking aloud as they problem-solve rather than talking only to perform right answers. Creating a Community of Learners: As part of the rough draft framework, a class of students becomes an equitable and inclusive community of thinkers, one where students feel safe to engage in discourse while developing mathematical competency and confidence Practical Application of Innovative Ideas: This book includes specific teaching techniques and a range of classroom vignettes showing rough draft math in action within a student-centered teaching approach. Children can develop solutions at their own pace and share thought processes behind their conclusions Classroom Tested: Jansen has developed the concept of rough draft math in collaboration with a diverse group of dynamic and reflective teachers. Rough Draft Math' provides a blueprint for educators to allow free-thinking discussion while maintaining the mathematical learning goalsRough Draft Math, Jansen shows how to create an energetic classroom culture where students readily participate and share their evolving understanding while engaging in math talk, collaborative problem solving, and ongoing revision of ideas. '

Ever wish you'd paid more attention in math class? From third grade to senior year of high school, it went in one ear and out the other, didn't it? But now you're staring at the new washer and dryer, trying to figure out the percentage of sales tax on the purchase price. You multiply something by something, right? Or you're scratching your head, wondering how to compute the odds that your football team will take next Sunday's game. You're pretty sure that involved ratios. The problem is, you can't quite remember. Here you get an adult refresher and real-life context—with examples ranging from how to figure out how many shingles it takes to re-roof the garage to the formula for resizing Mom's tomato sauce recipe for your entire family. Forget higher calculus—you just need an open mind. And with this practical guide, math can stop being scary and start being useful.

Did you know that it's easier to add and subtract from left to right, rather than the other way round? And that you can be taught to square a three-digit number in seconds? In Think Like A Maths Genius, two mathematicians offer tips and tricks for doing tricky maths the easy way. With their help, you can learn how to perform lightning calculations in your head, discover methods of incredible memorisation and other feats of mental agility. Learn maths secrets for the real world, from adding up your shopping and calculating a restaurant tip, to figuring out gambling odds (or how much you've won) and how to solve sudoku faster.

A delightful tour of the greatest ideas of math, showing how math intersects with philosophy, science, art, business, current events, and everyday life, by an acclaimed science communicator and regular contributor to the "New York Times."