Becoming the Math Teacher You Wish You'd Had: Ideas and Strategies from Vibrant Classrooms

Tracy Zager

Stenhouse Publishers, 2017 - Education - 376 pages

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 find:

• How to Teach Student-Centered Mathematics: 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 Application: 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.

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.

Contents

• Chapter 1 Breaking the Cycle: 1
• Chapter 2 What Do Mathematicians Do?: 9
• Chapter 3 Mathematicians Take Risks: 29
• Chapter 4 Mathematicians Make Mistakes: 55
• Chapter 5 Mathematicians Are Precise: 79
• Chapter 6 Mathematicians Rise to a Challenge: 111
• Chapter 7 Mathematicians Ask Questions: 137
• Chapter 8 Mathematicians Connect Ideas: 171
• Chapter 9 Mathematicians Use Intuition: 209
• Chapter 10 Mathematicians Reason: 243
• Chapter 11 Mathematicians Prove: 279
• Chapter 12 Mathematicians Work Together and Alone: 311
• Chapter 13 Favorable Conditions for All Math Students: 351
• References: 357
• Index: 367

About the author

Tracy Johnston Zager has worked in many schools over the course of her career, first as a fourth-grade teacher, then as a supervisor of pre-service teachers and their in-service mentors, and currently as a math coach. Becoming the Math Teacher You Wish You'd Had grew out of Tracy's work in classrooms, where she's most in her element, learning together with teachers and students over time.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Becoming the Math Teacher You Wish You'd Had: Ideas and Strategies from Vibrant Classrooms
• Author: Tracy Zager
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: Stenhouse Publishers, 2017
• ISBN: 157110996X, 9781571109965
• Length: 376 pages
• Subjects: Education / Educational Policy & Reform / General; Education / Philosophy, Theory & Social Aspects; Education / Professional Development; Education / Schools / Levels / Elementary; Education / Schools / Levels / Secondary; Education / Teacher Training & Certification; Education / Teaching / General; Education / Teaching / Methods & Strategies; Education / Teaching / Subjects / Mathematics; Mathematics / Study & Teaching; Reference / General