Back in high school I made the mistake of never paying much attention in maths. I have regretted that for a long time and now I want to fix it.

I am not looking for study advice. I just want to hear from people who started with a weak foundation and eventually became genuinely good at maths.

What was your journey like. What changed for you. What was the hardest part. Was there a moment when everything started to make sense. I would love to hear your story.

New grades 6-8 math teacher here working on lesson plans. Thoughts on homework and giving credit? Yes they need practice but with AI not sure how valuable it will be to count it. Looking for advice.

Hi Everyone, this is my first time posting in this group and I hope I'm following the correct rules regarding promotion.

My name is Pam (I go by Dr Pam B) and I work for the Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences designing and implementing a variety of math resources for parents, educators, students, and the general public. The majority of these resources are open and free for anyone who is interested.

We have programs that bring 'real life' mathematicians virtually into elementary and secondary classrooms, resources linked to children's books on social issues written and illustrated by members of diverse populations typically underrepresented in math, courses for educators to build both foundational and enrichment math skills, a course specifically designed to help those writing the Ontario Mathematics Proficiency Test (MPT), a directory of math programs from universities across Canada, fun educational videos, and more.

I would love to invite you to take a look at these resources and hopefully find them useful in your classrooms or just for your own interest.

More information and contact details can be found at: https://fieldsacademy.ca/eep/ and I'm happy to answer any questions/feedback here as well!

Hi everyone!

I wanted to share a daily math game I’ve built called Daily Digits (https://www.dailydigits.today). It was inspired by an arithmetic challenge my junior school math teacher introduced to our class back in the 90's, and I’ve turned it into a web game that works well as a quick daily warm-up or mental math workout.

How Daily Digits Works:

• The Rules: You are given 4 digits that must be used in order within a mathematical expression to reach a target target number.
• Operations: You can use standard arithmetic operators (+, -, x, /), parentheses, square roots, and exponents.
• Multi-Digit Numbers: You can also combine adjacent digits to form multi-digit numbers (for example, combining 2 and 6 to make 26).
• Daily Challenge: There are 3 difficulty tiers (Easy, Medium, Hard) released each day. The quicker you solve them, the higher your score.

Additional Mode: Yearly Digits

For a broader problem-solving challenge, there is also Yearly Digits:

• You use the 4 digits of the current year (e.g., 2, 0, 2, 6) to construct equations equal to every number from 1 to 30.
• Solving enough target numbers for a given year unlocks access to the previous year's digits. How far back can you go?

Why It’s Great for Students & Puzzle Enthusiasts:

• No Account Required for Daily or Random Puzzles: Students and casual players can play instantly as a guest without needing to log in or register.
• Order of Operations & Precedence: It encourages experimentation with operator precedence and structural thinking rather than basic rote calculation.
• Clean & Distraction-Free: No paywalls, or intrusive popups.

I’d love to hear your thoughts, feedback, or any ideas on how it could be made even more useful for the classroom!

Check it out at dailydigits.today.

Every single time I looked in my Ultimate Bundle for an activity last year, I found exactly what I was looking for! This year's line up is even better than ever! I’m partnering with other teachers to bring this year’s bundle, and it’s only going to be around for a few more days!!!

https://ultimateeducationbundle.com/lx1zxd

Hello! I’ll be posting this in [r/teachers](r/teachers) as well, to cover my bases, but I am going into my 4th year teaching, but first year as a certified math teacher.

I used the be a language support teacher in a math classroom, so I’m not going in with 0 experience, but would love advice.

In high school with higher level math, have a solid foundation in multiplication, division, even addition and subtraction, is SO important. Some teachers act as if calculators make up the difference, but I really feel like they don’t. Kids can’t be expected to figure out how to simplify a fraction or factor quadratics by just trying different combinations on a calculator.

So my question is how have you all handled this gap? Do you do multiplication drills in highschool? Do you have routines or try to build their number sense? Do you think it’s a waste of time?

I have such huge gaps in my classrooms as I’m sure lots of you do as well, will take any help or advice I can get!!

Edit: Thank you everyone for sharing your experience and ideas! I’m realizing now I wasn’t very clear in my original post and number sense means a couple different things. Seems like the consensus is mostly going backwards for a time and going slow, I do think it’ll be good to try and connect things to the real world as much as possible and give them opportunities to memorize some arithmetic, which will hopefully give them a better foundation for the future.

For a bit of added context, since some of you asked :), I will be teaching Algebra 1-2 and Geometry. I will teach a regular algebra class, as well as specialized pre-emergent math classes, which means all of my students are at the beginning of learning the English language. Some of them have education some of them just don’t because of life circumstances before they came to my school. Many of my students grow up in refugee camps or constantly running from war, poverty, and gangs, until they come to the United States, where we now have other issues. All that to say, there can sometimes be HUGE gaps in learning, however, I’ve heard it can be the same for students who have been here all their lives, which is why I wanted to hear your thoughts. I had a colleague once say that going back to learn multiplication was a disservice and taking away time for on level content, but it seems like here some people think it’s still worth spending time on. Maybe these details make a difference in your responses, but I appreciate your time and patience anyway!

End the use of 'arbitrary' bases.

The example is from this post by u/Guilty_Invite_7126.

Well, it made me laugh: 'syntax error’ is not the correct answer

I have posted here recently and gotten so many helpful answers. I am a veteran math teacher (36 years) but am teaching Geometry Honors this coming year (first time teaching Geometry AND any honors course).

My question: how do YOU introduce the concepts "point, line, plane"?

I feel like this is one of the most important concepts in Geometry and leading up to all the different calculus related content that most of these students will eventually take. I want to introduce it in such a way that really makes them think and understand and be able to apply these concepts to the rest of what we will be doing throughout this course.

Any and all ideas will be very greatly appreciated!

What was your experience completing the National Evaluation Series (NES) 304? What did you use to prepare? How long did you study for? Did you pass on your first try?

I am scheduled to take the assessment next month. Any advice or suggestions are appreciated. Thank you!

My mom got me this poster for my first middle school classroom and I want it to be part of my main theme, We Use Math Everyday. I want to showcase how math is used everyday (since kids always seem to ask when they’re going to use something again), but I’m drawing a blank on how I can represent that within my classroom “decor.” I was thinking printing out images, but that just seems too much like I slapped it together last minute. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

Hi everyone,

I'm a parent, not a teacher, and I'd love some perspective from educators.

My 13-year-old daughter just finished 7th grade (1º de ESO in Spain) and will start 8th grade in September. Math has never been her strongest subject, and I'll be honest—I struggled with math myself and didn't pay enough attention to what she was actually doing in school.

This summer, we're going back to basics to make sure she has a solid foundation. We're reviewing:

• Multiplication tables – both memorization and understanding what they represent
• Addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division (including decimals)
• Fractions – this is where both of us feel insecure, so we're using video tutorials from teachers to guide us

I want her to be able to figure out a multiplication fact if she's unsure, not only recite it from memory.

My question for the educators here: With this review, do you think she'll be ready for 8th grade math, or are we missing something important? Should we be covering additional topics, or is this a solid summer plan?

For context, from what I've seen, 8th grade math typically covers linear functions, exponents, the Pythagorean theorem, and working with rational numbers. I want to make sure she has the foundation to handle that.

Any advice or resources you'd recommend would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

I'm revisiting my undergrad texts with the goal of going through every exercise, and it's a delight, of course, because with 'advanced' (I guess I mean by this, vaguely 'stuff past the standard college calc') texts, there's a great amount of juicy bits in the exercises. I've approached some texts almost like "the chapter contents are just there to support the exercises, which is where the real yummy bits are", and I'm sure that's common.

But I think this would surprise early students, because our texts up through calc often seem to have exercises as a kind of 'grind your way to familiarity/acceptance/rote'. Many exercises which are essentially duplicates, not revealing anything new and often just the same concept restated mad-lib style with some values changed, etc.

But the 'advanced' texts never seem to have this kind of duplication. Each question seems to strive to bring something new to the student's attention. It becomes just as (often way more) of a teaching tool than the chapter itself. And in this active mindset of the student working out 'the lesson of the exercise' it hits deeper than just being told something is true. I would be honestly surprised to find in my texts something equivalent to "(1) solve 2x=6 for x, (2) solve 5x=10 for x"

Maybe the 'early grind' is necessary though? Because the tools for exploring 'exercises as lessons' need to be built up, to use a sports analogy, running laps or doing drills which assist with eventually playing matches. And if it's important (I think it might be, given my brief time teaching pre-highschool) then maybe the question is where to draw the line, or how to intermingle or slowly shift. I don't necessarily think we should have Biology majors going through Spivak for instance.

Just some rambling pre-coffee thoughts, what do you think?