Teach Middle East Magazine Apr - Jun 2020 Issue 3 Volume 7 | Page 26

Sharing Good Practice
NAVIGATING MATHEMATICS INFORMATION
OVERLOAD
BY: NICOLE FEDIO
Where to begin?
Start small. Are your students
struggling to learn multiplication
facts? Look at youcubed.org or
nrich.maths.org for some resources.
Try a multiplication number talk.
Pick one new resource to try and
stick with it. And give yourself grace,
the implementation dip is real.
Ask your colleagues or coach for
feedback. If you are fortunate enough
to work at a school with a learning
coach, invite them into your classroom.
If you don’t have a coach, try something
like an observe me protocol to invite
feedback from colleagues.
B
ar Models, open middle, three-
act Math tasks, esti-mysteries,
numberless word problems,
rich tasks, number talks, unit
chats, which one doesn’t belong,
choral counting, Desmos, GeoGebra,
Youcubed *…
What have I missed? This list goes on
and on. I know there are other great
Mathematics resources out there that
I could have mentioned.​
Does this list start to make you feel
a little like the pictur e above? Some
days it does to me.
The educators who have created
these Mathematics resources are an
amazing group of people who I follow
on Twitter. I am continually awed by
their ability to create meaningful
material that inspires teachers around
the globe. What’s especially wonderful
about these resources is that they
are all free and readily available to
26
Term 3 Apr - Jun 2020
teachers with a quick Google search.
What's not so wonderful is that there
really isn't such a thing as a "quick
Google search" when it comes to
lesson planning.
If some of these names are new to you
(What in the world is choral counting?)
it can be very daunting to try them
out with your students. It’s very easy
to suffer from information overload,
especially in the world of Twitter,
Instagram, and other social media.
Information overload can cause us to
be paralyzed. There is just too much
out there…. it’s easier for me to just
keep doing what I’ve always done.
Where can I even start? If you feel this
way, you are not alone.
Let go. This is one of the most
challenging things about trying new
things as an educator. Experience
is both a blessing and a curse. If I’ve
successfully taught a topic the same
way for many years, why should I try
to teach it a new way? My answer to
that is Why not? What is holding you
back? Two high school teachers I
worked with last year were amazed at
the quality of projects their 9th grade
students independently created using
Desmos. What did the teachers do
differently? They let go of thinking that
they needed to teach the material the
way the textbook did. The students
met the same learning objectives, but
in a different way.
Shifting through the sheer number
of Mathematics resources out there
takes a lot of time. Time is a limited
resource for most educators. Want to
try something new but don’t know
where to begin? Reach out to me via
email to get started.
Nicole is an independent mathematics consultant at Mathematique Consulting.
With two decades of experience as an educator. She earned a B.S. in Mathematics
from Penn State University and a M.Ed. in Teaching and Curriculum from Harvard
University. She is a National Board certified teacher. Follow her on Twitter @
NicoleFedio
Class Time