Professors work earnestly to prepare prospective new teachers for independent instruction, however those new teachers will still encounter issues in the classroom that they may be ill-equipped to address. No matter how phenomenal college education professors are, new teachers may feel as though they do not know what they are doing at times.…

Interesting and engaging mathematics problems can come from anywhere. Sometimes great problems arise from interesting contexts. At other times, interesting problems arise from asking "what if" questions while appreciating the structure and beauty of mathematics. The intriguing problem described in this article resulted from the second…

Khan Academy, the free Web-based tutorial program, landed on the education landscape in about 2011, when it was featured on the popular weekly news show "60 Minutes." The program is now used worldwide by more than 10 million learners each month and is used in more than 29,000 classrooms in 216 countries. Are classroom teachers using the…

In January 2006 the Billings (Montana) Public Schools adopted a computer-assisted instruction (CAI) intervention aimed at helping students recover credits that they had attempted but had not attained. The author volunteered to teach the algebra component in his high school. Through the following seven semesters, he came to better understand the…

Integrating technology into the mathematics classroom means more than just new teaching tools--it is an opportunity to redefine what it means to teach and learn mathematics. Yet deciding when a particular form of technology may be appropriate for a specific mathematics topic can be difficult. Such decisions center on what is commonly being…

Many students find proofs frustrating, and teachers struggle with how to help students write proofs. In fact, it is well documented that most students who have studied proofs in high school geometry courses do not master them and do not understand their function. And yet, according to NCTM's "Principles and Standards for School Mathematics"…

Discusses the teachers' roles and responsibilities in classroom mathematics assessment in the context of the "Standards for Teacher Competence in Educational Assessment of Students." Considers the issues of choosing and developing appropriate assessment methods, obtaining and using assessment results, and communicating assessment…

Teachers can help students build a disposition to use connections in solving mathematical problems, rather than mathematics as a set of disconnected, isolated concepts and skills. One activity that addresses the criteria that involve problem solving, reasoning, communication, and representation that together create a vision that encourages…

Discusses a teaching method for transforming timid, dependent students into self-propelling, independent problem solvers. Describes four guidelines: expose students to problems; pose good questions and pause; put chalk into students' hands; and emphasize teamwork. Eleven references are listed. (YP)