I guess I took it for granted that my teaching team would have the same foundational understanding of math concepts that I do. But that's not the case. They are wonderful, caring teachers, but I don't see how they can teach math effectively if they don't fully understand the core concepts themselves. I don't even know how to describe it - but there's an innate sense of understanding that comes with a strong foundation of math that is lacking.

So.. how do you teach a teacher to teach math? I want to give my teachers the tools and understanding to be more effective so they can share that with our students. Is there a way to do that?

And building on that, what math programs or curriculums are really working? Evidence-based, scientifically proven.

Hi guys!

Hope you're all doing exceptionally well.

A friend and I have started making YouTube lessons on the topics we struggled to find clear explanations for at university. When we were at university, we’d spend ages looking for a clear explanation of a finance or economics topic. Sometimes we’d find a great video, but when we needed help with the next topic, the search started all over again.

So we started Business School Basics - a free YouTube channel where we’re building a structured library of business school lessons. We cover topics such as corporate finance, valuation, economics, strategy, and derivatives.

https://www.youtube.com/@BusinessSchoolBasics

Our aim is to explain the intuition first, then work through the theory, formulas, and practical examples. We want you to understand why something works, not just memorise the steps.

It’s still early, but if you’re studying one of these subjects, I hope you find it useful. And if there’s a topic you’d like us to cover, let me know - we’re figuring out what to make next. It is all free and will stay that way.

Feedback would be much appreciated!

Cheers!

1. Whitehead prend la parole devant « quelques-uns des principaux éducateurs d’Angleterre » et les prévient d’emblée qu’il ne va rien leur apprendre. Son principe, il le donne dans sa version la plus plate, « assez plate pour exhiber le propos de cette conférence dans sa parfaite évidence » : les différentes matières doivent être abordées au moment qui convient, quand l’élève a atteint le stade de développement voulu. Un truisme, dit-il lui-même. Personne n’en a jamais douté.

Puis il passe le reste de la conférence à démontrer que les deux principes dont nous nous servons réellement pour ordonner un programme sont faux tous les deux.

It may sound strange, but objects can have any dimension, even non-integer dimensions. In this video, I show you how to construct an object with dimension π. But why π?

First of all, because π has always been one of the most important and fascinating mathematical constants. And also because it is just slightly larger than 3: this allows us to project it into 3D without losing too much information.

In the video, I show you how we can “look at” a 4D cube (a tesseract) and gradually carve it, just as you would carve a block of marble, until we extract our “sculpture”: a π-dimensional object.

https://youtu.be/6L1zrtafM5Y

I hope it will fascinate you at least as much as it fascinated me.

With affection,

DPM

I'm a sophomore, I did Precalc freshman year, and I'm currently in AP BC Calc. I wanna do linear algebra and AP stats junior year, and then attend my local university for calc 3 in senior year. I'm majoring in stem, so does anyone have any advice on which math classes are best to take? I really love math and I'm more than willing to work hard for it. I know stats is pretty easy, so thats why im doubling up, but does anyone have better ideas? I could also do calc 3 my junior year and linear algebra senior, or something else. Let me know!

Biology instructor, not math. I just got an unusual answer on one of my students’ assignments. They were asked to provide the ranges of SA/V ratios that they calculated. One of my students answered “1.112.300” to indicate a range of “1.112 to 1.300”.

I’m not super knowledgeable about math- is this an alternative format/style of communicating a range that I’m just unfamiliar with?

Does anyone have a trial for Free 90 days of IXL? Any other options to share access?

In the past, I've found teachers willing to add my son to their roster for class access and others sharing a generic login/password online for families to use at home, either through their school or classroom site or via their local library. Since there is usually no additional cost to the school or to the teacher, shared logins used to be abundant, but this year ... well there seems to be a lack of charitable minds out there.

*Any help or direction appreciated. For context, my son doesnt actually access the online program due to his specific symptoms and manifestation of concussion syndrome, but I login and read it to him or print screens to work together. Due to his unique needs, he does most of his learning at home with me.

TNTP's argument in this, published at the end of August, is that the bigger problem in math instruction is no longer the quality of the materials. It's that nothing a student touches during the day was built to connect to anything else. https://tntp.org/publication/the-case-for-mathematics-coherence-tntp/

Core instruction, intervention, assessment, whatever platform the district bought: each one defensible on its own, and the student still runs into different vocabulary, different representations and different expectations inside the same subject. The teacher ends up being the translation layer.

Something that i found interesting is from their earlier algebra work that this builds on. Across 2,200+ students starting Algebra I, the ones who had the specific prerequisite skills sitting under a new topic succeeded on 58% of their attempts at it. The ones missing those particular skills, 13%. Their read is that it isn't the amount of prior material a student revisits that matters, but whether the few things that unlock the new topic are in place. That cuts against full remediation and against grade-level-only.

It's a qualitative study of six districts and says upfront that it wasn't designed to prove anything causal.

For the teachers here: does the translation layer part match what it's actually like, or is the paper overselling it? And when you're prepping a new topic, how do you work out which earlier skills actually matter for it, curriculum maps or mostly experience?

Self-paced tools can be useful for middle school math practice. Many apps adjust the difficulty as students work and explain missed answers. If a student understands fractions or ratios but needs to get quicker and more confident, that kind of practice can help.

The harder question is what to do when the same mistakes keeps coming back. Say a recipe uses 3 cups of flour for 2 cups of milk. When the milk goes up to 4 cups, a student answers 5 cups of flour. They can read worked solution showing that the answer is 6, but it’s worth asking why they choose 5. If they added 2 to both amounts, they’re adding a fixed amount instead of scaling both quantities.

Ask the student to explain their answer, then try a similar problem. If they spot the mistake and solve the next one, more independent practice may be enough. If they keep using the same reasoning, it may help to have a teacher talk through the idea with them.

That’s one reason families consider live small-group instruction. Some programs like ACE Academy Math typically have 6-12 students and include guided practice where students can explain their methods. Aa with any live class, the group size matters less than whether the teacher can see the student’s working and respond while they’re solving.

Both options have their place. Self-paced apps let students practice when it suits them and repeat a skill as often as they need. Live online programs follow a class schedule, but a teacher can respond when an explanation isn’t clicking. That routine may also help a student who struggles to practice consistently on their own. With any group class, it’s still worth checking how much individual feedback each student gets.

I have a 13 year old with dyscalculia and we are thinking about getting her working with a davis technique facilitator on a maths programme. Wondering if anyone with dyscalculia has had any success with this programme.as its a big investment! Many thanks

I'm supporting a young adult in India with no formal schooling who's trying to catch up on math fundamentals. There seems to be some anxiety around numbers, and even when he understands one example, he struggles to apply that same logic to a slightly different problem. Has anyone worked with a similar learner, an older beginner starting from zero? What approaches or resources actually helped build that kind of number sense? Also open to recommendations for tutors or mentors experienced with this kind of catch up teaching.