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Becoming the Math Teacher You Wish You'd Had: Ideas and Strategies from Vibrant Classrooms
Ask mathematicians to describe mathematics and they' ll use words like playful, beautiful, and creative. Pose the same question to students and many will use words like boring, useless, and even humiliating. Becoming the Math Teacher You Wish You' d Had, author Tracy Zager helps teachers close this gap by making math class more like mathematics. Zager has spent years working with highly skilled math teachers in a diverse range of settings and grades and has compiled those' ideas from these vibrant classrooms into' this game-changing book. Inside you' ll ' How to Teach Student-Centered Zager outlines a problem-solving approach to mathematics for elementary and middle school educators looking for new ways to inspire student learning Big Ideas, Practical This math book contains dozens of practical and accessible teaching techniques that focus on fundamental math concepts, including strategies that simulate connection of big ideas; rich tasks that encourage students to wonder, generalize, hypothesize, and persevere; and routines to teach students how to collaborate Key Topics for Elementary and Middle School Becoming the Math Teacher You Wish You' d Had' offers fresh perspectives on common challenges, from formative assessment to classroom management for elementary and middle school teachers No matter what level of math class you teach, Zager will coach you along chapter by chapter. All teachers can move towards increasingly authentic and delightful mathematics teaching and learning. This important book helps develop instructional techniques that will make the math classes we teach so much better than the math classes we took.
392 pages, Paperback
Published January 4, 2017
58 people are currently reading
276 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
April 12, 2022
Nothing super earth shattering. Very elementary focused, I would loved more secondary ideas.
April 21, 2020
A must read for every math teacher. I can’t wait to be a math teacher when I grow up!
July 12, 2019
An excellent book with practical examples that brought about new changes to my thinking regarding teaching math. I found plenty of inspiration in the first few chapters but I did find the later chapters a little repetitive in terms of ideas.
March 7, 2018
A brilliant book which is a must-read for anyone involved in math education. Tracy focuses on a fundamental aspect of education which I think is lacking in most education literature out there.
Teaching and learning is a social endeavor, and is founded on the culture we create in our classrooms. This culture, in turn, comes from the relationships that we develop with our students, the relationships that they develop with each other, and with the subject. Tracy talks about the forces that shape these relationships - the beliefs we have about our students and what they are capable of. Teachers' and students' perception of what is valuable in the math classroom.
I've walked away from this book with a refined perception of the math classroom. I will look for and make explicit risk taking, self-advocacy and productive collaboration in my future interactions with students!
Teaching and learning is a social endeavor, and is founded on the culture we create in our classrooms. This culture, in turn, comes from the relationships that we develop with our students, the relationships that they develop with each other, and with the subject. Tracy talks about the forces that shape these relationships - the beliefs we have about our students and what they are capable of. Teachers' and students' perception of what is valuable in the math classroom.
I've walked away from this book with a refined perception of the math classroom. I will look for and make explicit risk taking, self-advocacy and productive collaboration in my future interactions with students!
July 21, 2018
This was an absolutely fabulous book. I highly recommend it! Two of my favourite quotes from the book are: Obedience is unmathematical. Mathematicians as a group, are a ragtag bunch of rebels. They push boundaries, ask questions, take risks, test conjectures, try new things, and are relentlessly passionate about pursuing meaning.”
The other quote that I loved was “When students generate real math understanding they are creating math anew. Whether or not other mathematicians have had the same idea before is completely irrelevant to that child.
Some great reminders for me were contained within these pages.
The other quote that I loved was “When students generate real math understanding they are creating math anew. Whether or not other mathematicians have had the same idea before is completely irrelevant to that child.
Some great reminders for me were contained within these pages.
June 15, 2018
This book is one I will keep coming back to again and again to hone my practice. There is just SO MUCH in here!! My absolute favorite part of this book is getting to read transcripts from conversations in real math classrooms. It really helped me think about how I can better have math conversations with students!! BUY THIS BOOK!! It's a game changer.
June 29, 2017
Add a sixth star for "life-changing." One of the best professional books I've ever read. Engaging, full of examples from classrooms K-8, thoughtful, well-organized...just...wow. If you teach math, and maybe even if you don't, this is a great book.
June 29, 2020
This is such a great book. I have so many good ideas for next school year, even with distance learning. I think I will want to read this book every summer to get my ready for the next school year. I have so many marked pages to reference during the year.
August 29, 2021
This is an excellent compilation of actionable strategies to get students thinking about and doing math. Only complaint is the wealth of resources shared has really lengthened my reading list - which of course is a good thing.
December 27, 2022
Every maths teacher needs to read this book.
An absolutely beautiful learning snd teaching tool. Lots to take in. I read a chapter than actioned it, before taking on the next chapter.....so, so good. I am a much better maths teacher after reading this book.
An absolutely beautiful learning snd teaching tool. Lots to take in. I read a chapter than actioned it, before taking on the next chapter.....so, so good. I am a much better maths teacher after reading this book.
September 3, 2018
Some good info and ideas, dragged at places. More like a 3.5 star review.
May 12, 2019
love love LOVE this book. math is sense making, math is talking about ideas, math is computation and there are lots of ways to compute! thank goodness i found this book.
May 28, 2019
A must read for every teacher of mathematics!
June 21, 2020
I wish I read this years ago! Every math teacher should read this! This will be referenced frequently this coming year!
October 7, 2020
10/7/20 not in KCLS catalogue
July 26, 2022
One of the best books about math teaching I have ever read!!!
February 23, 2023
EBN23 Category: A book that makes you think
July 15, 2024
Um will be honest. Adding this in vain pursuit of finishing my challenge. Which i probably will not. But anyway I read this for school. Loved. Honestly. Felt it was really practical and interesting.
July 27, 2020
It’s hard to explain in words how much reading this book made me excited for the upcoming academic year. It is not only a must read for any teacher who strives to provide their students with a genuine, real life and useful mathematical experience. I’d also highly recommend it to anyone who simply wonders, thinks and catches himself thinking about ‘strange’ occurrences in life that are most likely to be explained by mathematics.
I used to hate mathematics at school and yet I’m in love with it as a teacher. It sparked curiosity and eagerness to understand number problems more than I’d ever expect!
I used to hate mathematics at school and yet I’m in love with it as a teacher. It sparked curiosity and eagerness to understand number problems more than I’d ever expect!
May 2, 2020
This is a book to dip into when you need great ideas for teaching math.
July 23, 2019
This book is mostly aimed at the K-8 level, but I got some things out of it nonetheless. I particularly like that the chapters are themed based on things mathematicians do ("Mathematicians Reason, Mathematicians Prove, Mathematicians Ask Questions," etc.). My favorite part of the book was that each chapter typically began with a story about a particular mathematician, or sometimes a particular math challenge from history, and then connected this to pedagogy.
January 23, 2017
Great book about what a mathematician does and how students should be doing the same thing in the math classroom. The book focuses more on elementary, but does a great job of leaving the door open for secondary math.
April 23, 2018
I REALLY enjoyed this book, however, as a middle school teacher I didn’t start feeling excited until chapter 5. This book leans towards elementary, and while it provided awesome strategies, I would have enjoyed more insights how they look with older struggling students.
May 9, 2018
Great information about what Math teachers are thinking and doing. Reinforced the ideals that I have used to formulate my coursework.
October 9, 2018
LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!!!
Great book for book study!
Great book for book study!
December 28, 2019
So good, so urgently needed. Now can Tracy please write a slim companion guide for parents and teachers of other subjects?
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews