EDD: For the math people: Do you have any tips for creating/incorporating deep, rich math tasks in your classroom?
In general, I still have an old school teaching style: here's how you do it, take notes on it, now practice it, you're gonna have a quiz/test on it. These were one- or two-day lessons per skill the majority of the time. This year, my fellow 7th grade math teacher and I want to try incorporating more math tasks/talks/activities that will deepen student understanding. I have read Jo Boaler's Mathematical Mindsets, which was inspiring and a great resource. However, I am struggling a bit on how to put it into practice when school starts. I realize that much of this will be trial and error for me this year, but if you have any resources/tips/ideas, I'd love to hear them! ******************* Here are some of the questions that are going through my brain. As I was writing this, it seemed like a whole lot of vagueness and rambling, so I thought I'd better separate them from the main question, but I'm hoping it gives you an idea of what kind of help I need. What do mathematical tasks look like to do in the classroom? Do we have a discussion about a topic instead of me lecturing? Or do we do an activity to figure out the concept in question? Or do we have to do projects all year long? How do you come up with projects? How do you guide the kids to do the projects? Do we have time for all this? Do kids work on the same skill or discover skills/understandings at their own pace? How do I incorporate this with the district tests I have to give/pacing guide I'm supposed to follow? Should I use the textbook at all? Do kids need to take notes? Do homework? Again, do we have time for all of this? How do I grade open-ended activities? How does the flipped classroom/blended classroom fit with this? How do Chromebooks work with this? How can I gamify this? What am I going to eat for breakfast this morning?
