Other blog sites/Apps

More for my own reference point; if I’ve used something that was effective in the classroom, it should appear elsewhere on my site…

  • Dan Meyer – he has also written a post of bloggers/sites he likes. Here’s a  2021 version of the kind of ideas Dan throws out to ponder – this one a response when discussing with students conventions in maths:
  • Dan has also helped (from what I can tell) with the creating headaches website: ideas for generating a ‘headache’ that the ‘aspirin’ of mathematics can help solve!
  • Someone else has put together a page dedicated to 3 Act activities and the like building on Dan’s work
  • And here is a search engine from making math moments with 3 act and many other style tasks!
  • Geometry teacher
  • Maths blogger
  • Maths Mistakes – interesting concept
  • Open middle who also have a book available
  • Desmos Classroom Activities (here is also a site/doc dedicated to Middle School Desmos Activities)
  • Maths Kit – access to things like graph paper… and heaps more!
  • Also Dad’s worksheets has good printable/adjustable grids/coordinate planes
  • Estimation 180 – great warm up/discussion activities
  • Slow reveal graphs – An Instructional Routine to Promote Sensemaking about Data
  • Middle School Math Blogs – whole list of different pages from here
  • Reason and Wonder – worth keeping an eye on (Michael Fenton’s blog, employee of Desmos whose work I’ve used before)
  • When math happens (and a link to Jesus stuff too!)
  • This one is titled GFletchy and has a whole range of tools, videos, 3 act tasks…
  • Mr Orr might be a geek (?!) but he puts some good stuff up online, including this page on ‘starting a maths fight’ that reminds me of some key sites, most of which I’ve used.
  • A key ‘co-presenter’ often with John Orr is Kyle Pearce from tap into teen minds – plenty of resources/lesson ideas there.
  • Their combined site ‘making math moments‘ has stacks of stuff… but overall this piece could be one ofthe best things I’ve read summarising an approach I lean towards. It unpacks all the steps, gives examples etc.
  • I haven’t checked this one out much yet – Dave Ebert’s site?
  • OK, this one isn’t a blog site, but wanted to make a note someday to maybe check out Minecraft Education? Dan Haesler is keen on it! Would like to maybe try it with a Supp class or something?? (NB. there is also classcraft)
  • Another maths site to explore ‘one day’ is Open Omnia’s free learning platform?
  • Kyle Pearce and ‘Tap into Teen Minds’ seem to have co-produced the ‘Maths is Visual‘ site which has lots of visual representations to help conceptualise maths ideas
  • Mr Rowe has a page also dedicated to tasks he’s created.
  • I like the titles of the activities on the Retro Desmos page.
  • Need to check out the free Deltamath at some point (can’t remember, was it a Marian Small thing I came across or something else?)
  • ABCs MathXplosion site is here with various maths resources
  • Sarah Carter’s Math = Love site is seemingly pretty popular on the web, including for some resources on first day/first week activities and lots of template/activities that she creates.
  • One that’s not a blog… but a resource! Virtual manipulatives on Polypad. The rest of the Mathigon site is worth exploring – visuals, activities etc.
  • And then there is this file (248 pages of it!) recommended on twitter by D Meyer and co. on functions / graphs etc
  • The math-play app/site has a range of different game type activities, such as this one on rounding decimals…
    (NB> for a rounding decimals activity with dice, check out this nrich page)
  • It took quite a bit of searching at the time(!), so wanted to record the site I found where I could manipulate a spinner for a probability activity to have the mix I wanted – see here.

Keen to also keep a record of apps that may/may not be of use that I’ve heard others speak highly of or explored/signed up for briefly:

  • Socrative
  • nearpod
  • Pear Deck
  • knowledgehook
  • There’s also the Endeavor Game that is looking to be prescribed one day as an ADHD help!

And here is one very random page… but wanted to keep a handy record of Sara VanDerWerf’s post on phones in class! Thoughtful, thought provoking and well-considered.