3 Ideas for High School Math Teachers to Explore This Summer

Take, for example, the high schoolers who competed in the International Mathematical Olympiad this month. The U.S. team won the youth math competition for the first time in more than 20 years, The Washington Post reported last week.
But many teens never reach the highest level of math in high school.
The usual advanced math course sequence for American students is algebra I, geometry, algebra II, precalculus and ultimately, calculus. ​Only about 14 percent of public high school students complete calculus, according to a new federal report.
"I wonder how many students have really experienced the pride of completing an interesting math problem from beginning to end and feeling excited about having done that," says Bob Lochel, a math teacher at Hatboro-Horsham High School in Pennsylvania. "I think we need to be able to glean​ that for more students."​
School might not be starting for several weeks in most communities, but now is a good time for high school math teachers to explore the following ideas that may help their teenage students start the year off right.
• Connect with other math educators: The best way to find math lessons that work is by talking to other teachers that have created successful lessons, says Lochel, who recently worked as an instructional coach for his district. Teachers may also need to take a critical look at their own work. 
"You tend to get in this mindset of well, 'Of course I created the perfect lesson, it must be the kid,'​" he says. "Well, it's very rare that it's the kid. It's​ oftentimes, there's something we can do in the classroom better, and we need to take a hard look at what we are doing."
Math teachers could connect with other educators at their school or through professional organizations, says Lochel, but he's connected with many math educators on Twitter. Many math educators can be found on the social media platform using the hashtag #MTBOS,​ which stands for "math twitter blogosphere."​

• Think about how to make math relevant to teens: Math teachers may be able to ease the transition to high school math for freshmen by making the subject more applicable to students, says David Sladkey, a math teacher at Naperville Central High School in Illinois. He thinks one way this can be done is through technology.
Instead of using an old-school TI-83 graphing calculator​, for example, teachers could use an online version like Desmos, he says.​ He's also a fan of GeoGebra,​ visual math software.
Or teachers could make math more real to teens by using performance assessments that take a cue from real life. The following video from education website Edutopia shows how educators from one high school asked students to use math to carry out a simulated disaster relief mission.

• Search for inspiration:​ Summer is the perfect time for math teachers to explore new ideas and inspirational materials since they don't have the pressure of planning lessons each day, says Sladkey.
He suggests teachers explore educator-created math blogs and websites, such as Visual Patterns, Would You Rather? ​and Estimation180.​


When high school freshmen start class this upcoming fall, one math teacher will be eagerly waiting for them.

"I find students that I deal with in ninth grade are accustomed to thinking that math is what they see in work sheets; ​that being good at math means that you can complete a lot of work sheets well," says Lochel, the Pennsylvania teacher.
"And I get to open their eyes a little bit toward, 'I need you to think more deeply about what you are doing mathematically,' so I really like the freshmen."​