Goals for today's session include:
- presenting a sample of the Math Forum services;
- imagining instructional uses of the Math Forum services,
including mentoring, curriculum connections, and problem-solving
- discussing ways these services could enhance mathematical
learning in higher education.
Math Forum Services
The Math Forum - http://mathforum.org/
The Math Forum is an online community of teachers, students, researchers, parents, educators, and citizens at all levels who have an interest in math and math education.
Ask Dr. Math - http://mathforum.org/dr.math/
Ask Dr. Math is an ask-an-expert service in which math
questions at all levels are asked of our volunteer doctors. A
searchable archive is available by level and topic, together with a FAQ and Classic Problems
Teacher2Teacher - http://mathforum.org/t2t/
Teacher2Teacher is like a virtual teacher's lounge in that people pose questions and share opinions about topics ranging from classroom teaching techniques to good Internet resources for professional development. The initial responses are provided by mentor teachers, most of whom are Presidential Awardees for Excellence in Mathematics Teaching.
Problems of the Week -
The Problems of the Week are designed to challenge students with non-routine problems and to encourage them
to verbalize their solutions. There are Elementary, Middle School, Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry &
Calculus, and Discrete Mathematics Problems of the Week. The Problem of the Week is a mentored environment in which students submit
solutions to math challenges. Each submission is responded to by a mentor.
Encouraging Mathematical Thinking - http://mathforum.org/brap/wrap/
This videopaper opens a conversation about the use of discourse as the basis for encouraging students' mathematical thinking in classrooms and for supporting professional growth. A collaboration of teacher practitioners and Math Forum staff, it reflects an attempt to integrate practice and research, reporting on findings culled from discussions of research articles and chapters, classroom practice, and videotapes of classroom teaching.
Internet Mathematics Library -
The Math Forum has collected, organized, cataloged, and annotated thousands of math-related Web sites from diverse sources to create its Internet Mathematics Library. You can browse or search this gold mine of mathematics, organized under the headings of Mathematics Topics, Resource Types, Mathematics Education Topics or Educational Level. Selecting any of these headings yields a hierarchical outline. Clicking on a category in the outline takes you to a page showing subcategories, selected sites, and all sites in the category. This format is consistent as you 'drill down'.
Web Units and Lessons -
The Math Forum is committed to being a resource built upon the activity of the teachers,
students, and researchers who use it.
Math Forum Searches -
Discussion Groups, Special Discussion
Projects - http://mathforum.org/discussions/
The Math Forum's discussion archives
include mathematics and math education-related newsgroups, mailing lists, and Web-based discussions
(e.g., Math-Teach, Numeracy, Geometry-Pre-College, K-12 Math Education, Math History List, NCTM
Standards 2000, etc.). For example, we host discussions for AMTE, the Association of Mathematics Teacher
Educators, Historia-Matematica, a moderated multilingual scholarly math history list, and SNARK, a mathematics problem and puzzle list for Spanish speakers. Many of these groups are open to the public.
Math Forum Internet Newsletter -
An electronic newsletter is sent out via e-mail once a week to those who subscribe, and is archived on the Web. Each week it offers suggestions of good sites to visit for mathematics and key issues in math education, or tips for what we have at the Math Forum and how to find it. Once a month in a special issue readers receive notification of interesting conversations taking place on Internet mathematics discussion groups.
You might want to browse through an issue or two. You are welcome to subscribe to the newsletter as one immediate way to join the community.