Looking for a math tutor? The search is over! This week in the mentoring circle, we feature inspirational math educators who can help us find new ways of teaching math. One of them happens to have a famous educational mathematics channel with amazing videos of actual math lessons! Meet your first math tutor, Australia’s most famous math teacher and YouTube star Eddie Woo. He is a public high school teacher with more than 15 years of classroom experience. Eddie Woo gained international attention when he posted videos of his classroom math lessons online, to assist an ill student. His YouTube channel, WooTube has more than 1.7 million subscribers and his videos have been viewed over 50 lifetimes of teaching! We did the math!
Eddie Woo was named Australia’s Local Hero and was a Top 10 Finalist in the Global Teacher Prize for his love of teaching mathematics. Eddie believes that mathematics can be embraced and enjoyed by absolutely everybody! He is also the author of Woo’s Wonderful World of Maths, It’s a Numberful World and Whodunnit Eddie Woo? In the following TED Talk, he shares his passion for mathematics, declaring that “mathematics is a sense, just like sight and touch” and one we can all embrace. Using surprising examples of geometry, he encourages everyone to seek out the patterns around us, for a place-based way to learn math. Watch below his inspiring TED Talk: Mathematics is the sense you never knew you had.
Math is an important element of human culture, as such, it can’t be taught in complete alienation from other subjects. Math and culture are two ends of the same twine! Incorporating subjects such as art, geography, and science into our math lessons can support the addition of cultural aspects in a meaningful way. As a math teacher, instead of just explaining theorems and proofs, I use place-based learning to provide context to the numbers I introduce. The best way to create engaging math lessons is to contextualize math in what our students do in their daily lives. From her own field research with Indigenous communities in Canada, in the following video, ethnomathematics researcher and teacher Karli Bergquist shares the power of discovering mathematics in daily activities.
What is traditional Indigenous mathematics? Find out from Anishinaabe of Nipissing First Nation firekeeper, grass dancer, fisherman and Ojibwe language teacher Bryan Bellefeuille. Bryan is an Indigenous Culture and Curriculum Support worker who works with teachers to integrate Indigenous knowledge into many parts of the curriculum. From making tools and measuring trees to building canoes and cooking meals, Bryan explores the many uses of math in traditional settings. In the following video, take a digital walk with Bryan and tour a pine grove to understand the importance of land-based learning to expand the way we think about math! Watch below the first webinar of the Indigenous Ways of Knowing in Math and Science series, presented by The Robertson Program and Kikinoo’amaadawin.
Math is a human language, so we all have the ability to understand it. Using stories in math lessons enables the mind to visualize and grasp complex concepts that are thought of as abstract and difficult to understand. Teaching math as a language is a method taught by Randy Palisoc, a passionate educator, known for making math easy. He has created a stunningly simple and effective approach to teaching math, where it no longer creates problems for kids but solves them through language and stories. He is now a designer of math curriculum that makes sense to kids. Watch how his approach to learning math works in the following TED Talk: Math isn’t hard, it’s a language.