For past newsletters, please click on the mathematics tab above. 

Call for Content

Are you doing something amazing in your classroom that you would like to share with others?  Please submit ideas to jhamlet@ksde.org to be showcased next month. 

Building Bridges To Mathematical Success

A workshop on Fluency, High-Quality Instruction, and Balanced Assessments. 

We had a great turnout for our Building Bridges to Mathematical Success around the new school improvement model of the Four Fundamentals!  The KSDE Math Team had the honor of presenting to around sixty-three educators to discuss fluency, quality instruction, balanced assessments, and updates on mathematics in Kansas.  There were so many great conversations throughout the four days of PLCs.  A big thank you to the service centers for letting us use their facility to host and thank you to all the educators that were able to attend as well.  The KSDE math team hopes to do more of these in the future! 

The Kansas Math Project Update


The Kansas Math Project is an instructional resource that educators can choose to utilize. It that can be beneficial for tiered interventions or for teachers who want to dig deeper into their content by watching a module being taught using a different methodology.  The KMP has been doing in-person training on the A-E Foundational Modules and the grade level modules this school year and will continue the trainings thru the 2024-2025 school year.  There has been 200+ Kansas Educators to view modules, participate in pilots and trainings and provide feedback for the KMP.  Foundational and grade-level modules will be delivered both synchronously and asynchronously via Moodle.


Trainings

Several in-person KMP Foundational Modules trainings will be offered this school year and next. For the 2023-2024 school year, two training sessions are available:


For the 2024-2025 school year, the following trainings are scheduled:


Registration for these trainings will be available at https://ksdetasn.org/mtss/kmp-information once all logistical information is confirmed.


If you would like to do the trainings via Moodle, please click the following link:  Trainings via Moodle   Once there, click on “Create account,” create your free Moodle account and begin with KMP Foundational Module A. You will sequentially go through KMP Foundational Modules A-E, taking each module’s quiz and ending with the cumulative quiz. 


11 Famous Women Mathematicians and Their Incredible Contributions!

March is Women’s History Month, a time to honor, celebrate, and acknowledge generations of women of all backgrounds, their struggle to achieve equality in society, and their incredible contributions in fields including civil rights, athletics, art, politics, mathematics, and every other facet of life imaginable.

Women’s History Month is a special opportunity for students to learn about famous women mathematicians throughout history and their contributions to the field of study—ranging from discovering fundamental theorems to rocket science and putting astronauts into orbit.

Read full article below

11 Famous Women Mathematicians and Their Incredible Contributions! — Mashup Math 


Sonia K Day @ ESU

The KSDE Math Team had the honor of presenting and working with approximately 60 young women in their junior year of high school, along with their mathematics teachers, at the Sofia Kovalevsky Day at Emporia State University.  The program is a celebration of Sonia Kovalevsky, the first recognized female with a Ph. D. to make significant contributions to the field of mathematics before the 20th century.  All high schools within a 50-mile radius surrounding Emporia are invited to select up to five young women who have excelled in mathematics in the classroom to attend.  Students attend career speaker presentations and workshops during the day, led by women professionals in mathematics-based occupations. The teachers also attended a session to hear about all the updates and great things happening in the State of Kansas with regards to Mathematics.  It was a great day! 

Check it out - Math@Home!


Lexile & Quantile Hub - click here for website.

Lexile & Quantile contains targeted, free resources appropriately matched to students by Quantile measure and math content. Free premium membership to all Kansas educators. 


Understanding Quantile Measures


The Quantile® Framework for Mathematics gives you a powerful tool to personalize math learning for students by linking assessments to instruction.

It’s based on a scientifically validated developmental scale that measures both the math skill level of your students and the difficulty of math skills and concepts they encounter.

A growing number of math programs and state assessments report Quantile measures. In addition, many textbooks and instructional materials are linked to the Quantile scale. When you’re able to match students with math resources that support their knowledge and build it further, you’re also supporting their path to college and career readiness.


See full article:  Understanding Quantile® Measures - Quantile (quantiles.com) 

Standards/Assessments

INSTRUCTIONAL INTERIM (MINI-TESTS) - NEW "HOW-TO-VIDEO" YOU DON'T WANT TO MISS!


Teachers, Building Test Coordinators and Users, and District Test Coordinators and Users can create and assign Instructional Interim tests composed of one or more Mini-Tests. Each Mini-Test is a grouping of questions related to a specific standard(s) created by the Achievement & Assessment Institute (AAI) at the University of Kansas. The Instructional Interim Mini-Tests are designed to be used frequently during instruction throughout the school year (early-September through May) to provide feedback to help students, evaluate students’ learning, and aid teachers in adjusting instruction. In general, educators do the following: 


1. Build tests using Mini-Tests with items that mirror summative assessment items. 

2. Copy tests created by staff within their own building/district. 

3. Assign Mini-Tests to students and start or stop test delivery to Student Portal. 

4. Monitor, Pause, Resume, Reactivate, and End Test Session. 

5. Administer Mini-Tests aligned to state curriculum standards. 

6. See immediate results from students’ tests. 



Mini-Test How-To-Video




Math facts you might not know! 


The most famous number in mathematics is the golden ratio, which is equal to 1.6180339… .


Sofia Kovalevskaya was the first woman to receive a Ph.D. in Mathematics.



Upcoming Professional Development

 Monthly Math Minutes 

Please join us for our monthly professional development from the KSDE math team.  Every month we will have mathematics updates from the state, professional development opportunities, and a topic of the month.  We would love to have any teachers, curriculum leaders, and administration join us!  The zoom link is below.

https://ksde.zoom.us/j/88043941824

The Monthly Math Minutes on April 10th will be on Rigor and Statistics. 


February Monthly Math Minutes - Relevance



Math Teaching Tools & Practices

NCTM Position in Procedural Fluency

"Procedural fluency is an essential component of equitable teaching and is necessary to developing mathematical proficiency and mathematical agency. Each and every student must have access to teaching that connects concepts to procedures, explicitly develops a reasonable repertoire of strategies and algorithms, provides substantial opportunities for students to learn to choose from among the strategies and algorithms in their repertoire, and implements assessment practices that attend to all components of fluency."

Strategies to Enhance Student Engagement

This webinar session will begin by exploring specific strategies to engage students in learning mathematics. Then, mathematical tasks in different content areas, which are designed to provide opportunities for rich discourse and student engagement, will be shared. Applications to the classroom will be discussed. 

Supporting Mathematics Teachers to Use Authentic Tasks in Their Classrooms

This is a webinar that presents examples of authentic tasks that have been developed in the context of European projects with a focus on the mathematical processes and practices that can be developed through these tasks.  They also provide a short review of the research literature of the different types of authentic tasks and of the ways of managing these tasks in the classroom focusing on the modeling process and emphasizing the processes involved in students’ work as well as the complex relationship between reality and mathematics.  Finally, issues related to our work with teachers while designing and implementing authentic tasks will be addressed.

Elementary Tools & Practices
Click the arrow on the right to access information for elementary teachers and classrooms.

Rules that Expire in Elementary Math Classroom

"Overgeneralizing commonly accepted strategies, using imprecise vocabulary, and relying on tips and tricks that do not promote conceptual understanding can lead to misunderstanding late in students' math careers." -Karp, Bush, Dougherty

Here are the 13 Rules that Expires in Elementary Math Classrooms.

Greg Tang Math

Tang Math provides many resources: books, games, problem generators etc. Greg Tang works with some of the highest performing and most improving schools and districts in the country. He is the NY Times best-selling author of The Grapes of Math, gold medal eBook Math Appeal, and 6 other books from Scholastic. 

Mathematics Vocabulary Cards

Mathematics Vocabulary Cards contains math vocabulary cards for Kindergarten through 8th Grade and Secondary 1 Mathematics.  These cards can also be found in Spanish, Chinese, and French under the Dual Immersion menu.  Portuguese, German, and Russian vocabulary cards are located at the following website:  USOE Dual Immersion Vocabulary Cards 

Inside Mathematics

The Inside Mathematics Problem Solving problems are non-routine math problems designed to promote problem-solving in your classroom. Each problem is divided into five levels of difficulty to allow access and scaffolding for students into different aspects of the problem and to stretch students to go deeper into mathematics complexity. 

Slides and Jamboard Template

Have you seen Mrs. Park Shine's freebies? Run and check out her amazing slides and Jamboard templates.

K-5 Math

K-5 Math great site that contains K-5 teaching resources. Their mission is to transform the teaching and learning of mathematics, improving outcomes for all students in elementary and middle school.

Open Middle Tasks

Real World Tasks: Have you used Robert Kaplinsky's Open Middle Tasks and Real-World Problems? Great resources of math tasks that promote problem solving and reasoning. 


Geogebra + Illustrative Mathematics

Do you use Illustrative Mathematics to supplement lessons ad GeoGebra as a tool? Access free Illustrative Math in GeoGebra now!

Secondary Tools & Practices
Click the arrow on the right to access information for elementary teachers and classrooms.

Rules that Expire in Middle School Math Classroom

"Overgeneralizing commonly accepted strategies, using imprecise vocabulary, and relying on tips and tricks that do not promote conceptual understanding can lead to misunderstanding late in students' math careers." -Karp, Bush, Dougherty

Here are the 12 Rules that Expires in Middle School Math Classrooms.

Rules that Expire in High School Math Classroom

"Overgeneralizing commonly accepted strategies, using imprecise vocabulary, and relying on tips and tricks that do not promote conceptual understanding can lead to misunderstanding late in students' math careers." -Karp, Bush, Dougherty

Here are the 15 Rules that Expires in High School Math Classrooms.

Dan Meyer's Three-Act Math

This site is a spreadsheet with links to approximately 60 lessons that each linked to one or more grade 6 through high school Common Core Math Standards and one or more Standards for Mathematical Practice.

Online Calculator Apps

Desmos Graphing Calculator - Graph functions, plot data, evaluate equations, explore transformations, and much more – for free! Also available as an app on Google Play and Apple App Store

Calculate84 - a graphing calculators for iPhones

CALC 84 - a graphing calculator 83/84

Wabbitemu - creates a Texas Instruments graphing calculator right on your Windows, Mac, or Android device.

Inside Mathematics

The Inside Mathematics Problem Solving problems are non-routine math problems designed to promote problem-solving in your classroom. Each problem is divided into five levels of difficulty to allow access and scaffolding for students into different aspects of the problem and to stretch students to go deeper into mathematics complexity. 

Desmos Classroom Activities

Access digital math activities that engage students into problem solving, thinking and reasoning. Premade Desmos activities are available but teachers can create their own. 

Open Middle Tasks

Real World Tasks: Have you used Robert Kaplinsky's Open Middle Tasks and Real-World Problems? Great resources of math tasks that promote problem solving and reasoning. 


Geogebra + Illustrative Mathematics

Do you use Illustrative Mathematics to supplement lessons ad GeoGebra as a tool? Access free Illustrative Math in GeoGebra now!

Additional Opportunities from Outside KSDE

First Educational Resources: "Help! They Don't Know Their Facts!" Moving beyond Memorization by Developing Fact Fluency

Have you ever wondered why students don’t know their basic facts?  We have all had that thought, “if they just knew their facts…” So, what if they did know their facts, and it was built by constructing relationships with numbers and by using models and strategies that promote conceptual understanding? In this 90 minute virtual session, we will explore the difference between fluency and memorization, barriers, and how to build fact fluency through conceptual understanding and developing students’ number sense. 

 

Shelly Daun and Amanda Ironside have many years of experience working with teachers to successfully meet the diverse mathematical needs of their students by providing teachers with increased knowledge of how students learn math and what teachers can do to move their students along a continuum of deeper understanding. Click here to learn more about the it.

First Educational Resources: Leveraging Small Group Instruction

Small group instruction allows teachers to understand their student’s instructional strengths and areas of need.  This allows teachers to  tailor lessons that meet  students where they are along their journey of learning and understanding mathematical concepts.  Individualized attention towards students boosts confidence and provides an environment where students feel comfortable with risk-taking, asking questions and receiving feedback to their learning. This series will provide teachers with many tools to build their “tool box” to meet the needs of the diverse learners in their classrooms through small group instruction.

 

Shelly Daun and Amanda Ironside have many years of experience working with teachers to successfully meet the diverse mathematical needs of their students by providing teachers with increased knowledge of how students learn math and what teachers can do to move their students along a continuum of  deeper understanding.  During this series, Amanda and Shelly will share practical small group instructional tools and activities that teachers can use instantly in their classroom to leverage student success and conceptual understanding of various mathematical concepts. Click here to register.

NCTM Webinar Library

Did you know that the National Council of Teaching Mathematics has a webinar library on recent shifts in Math Teaching practice?  Check out their topics here.

Grow Your PLN!

Math Education Organization

Kansas Association of Teachers of Mathematics (KATM)

KATM is an affiliate of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics whose mission is to foster engaged community to advance effective practices in teaching and learning mathematics throughout Kansas. 

National Council of Teachers of Mathematics

NCTM advocates for high-quality mathematics teaching and learning for each and every student. 

Its Strategic Framework includes Teaching and Learning, Access, Equity and Empowerment, Building Member Value, and Advocacy.

NCSM Leadership in Education

NCSM is the premiere mathematics education leadership organization. Our bold leadership in the mathematics education community develops vision, ensures support, and guarantees that all students engage in equitable, high-quality mathematical experiences that lead to powerful, flexible uses of mathematical understanding to affect their lives and to improve the world. 

Twitter

KSDE Teacher Leader

They are amazing tools for personalized professional learning and great communities to network with other educators and leaders. Check out @KSDETCHRLEADERS and @KATMWebmaster on twitter and Kansas Association of Teachers of Mathematics on Facebook. #KSMath 

Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics 

Want to network with other math educators and leaders about Building Thinking Classrooms? Follow Dr. Peter Liljedahl, the author of BTC in mathematics, and you'll find tons of math educators and leaders to collaborate with. 

Another great BTC resource is the BTC Facebook page where teachers share tips, ideas, success stories, and ways to address some challenges and struggles. 

Podcasts

Making Math Moments that Matter

Looking for a good math podcast? Wondering how to create a classroom culture where students don't want to stop exploring mathematics when the bell rings? Kyle Pearce from TapIntoTeenMinds.com and Jon Orr from MrOrr-IsAGeek.com team up to uncover how we can Make Math Moments That Matter for every student in the math classroom from Kindergarten through Grade 12. Discover how you can build easy to plan and fun to deliver maths lessons that kids will not only love but also learn from using the Making Math Moments That Matter 3-Part Framework. 

The Build Math Minds

The Build Math Minds podcast is for my fellow Recovering Traditionalists out there. We are math educators who used to teach math the traditional way. Flip lesson by lesson in the textbook, directly teaching step-by-step how to solve math problems. 

But now, we are working to change that to a style of teaching math that is fun and meets our students where they are at, not just teaching what comes next in the textbook. We want to encourage our students to be thinkers, problem solvers, and lovers of mathematics. 

Shake Up Learning

WHAT: The Shake Up Learning Show is a weekly podcast hosted by Kasey Bell. 

The show features a variety of episodes for K12 teachers and educators, including tech tips, lesson ideas, practical advice, on-air coaching, student interviews, and interviews with inspiring educators.

WHEN: New episodes are released every Tuesday.

HOW: Listen on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, iHeart, or any of your other favorite podcatchers. You can also stream on ShakeUpLearning.com.