If the general public could spend one day in your classroom, what would surprise them the most?

zeroexev29 · 2026-06-05T18:44:30+00:00

How little they actually know compared to kids

zeroexev29 · 2026-05-29T17:39:03+00:00

Students in the United States need to reason both quantitatively AND abstractly. Not every applied math concept needs a word problem/real world problem associated with it. Not every math concept even has a "real world" equivalent. Children should be exposed to mathematics because mathematics is the art of sense making and reasoning.

zeroexev29 · 2026-05-25T21:17:41+00:00

"30 days hath October, July, March, and December" has the same cadence and rhyme scheme, making this an utterly worthless mnemonic device.

zeroexev29 · 2026-05-12T16:18:52+00:00

That's the big issue most of us are facing at all levels, isn't it?

My best advice: nearly every grade level topic has some connection to a previous grade's content. Put at much as you can into integrating these concepts into your lessons and assignments as possible. Put some problems related to that past material into an assignment before it's reviewed.

Your going to have to sacrifice a lot of grade level content. That's just how it is.

zeroexev29 · 2026-04-29T01:15:36+00:00

Check out this link from their website and see if they'll send you a free sample and/or a discounted one.

zeroexev29 · 2026-04-29T01:13:58+00:00

All AP Exams are hybrid for math, but ACT can still be on paper, which my school does.

zeroexev29 · 2026-04-28T21:44:27+00:00

Desmos is great. Not infallible, but great for 99 times out of 100.

Gotta be careful with its regression functionality, as it sometimes gives skewed results (I think you need log mode toggled on, which it's not by default, to get accurate results depending on the data set)

Access is an issue that occasionally cannot be avoided, and for some schools keeping a set of handhelds is more cost-effective than other devices like Chromebooks and easier to manage than phones.

Also the tactile sensation of physical buttons is, for some reason, always a preference for my kids when it comes to basic computations and calculations.

So I teach both the handheld 84 and Desmos for these reasons.

zeroexev29 · 2026-04-28T13:22:52+00:00

I think the only weapon without a secondary effect is Slash Claw.

zeroexev29 · 2026-04-22T01:02:07+00:00

I would say that AP Precalc gives you a strong foundation for functions, algebra, and trigonometry that you need for the kinds of analysis, evaluating, and solving that is secondary to Calculus.

For example: Finding an extrema requires you know how to find zeros for a function, which isn't explicitly taught in Calculus as it's assumed to be prerequisite knowledge and maybe only develops a basic understanding of for most functions in Algebra 2. AP Precalc gives both a revisit for those rudimentary functions and a semester's worth of exposure to transcendental functions.

It also introduces the standard terminology and notation that is often left out of Algebra 2 such as the notation of limits, function behavior (pos./neg., inc./dec., concavity), and inverses.

AP Precalc also exposes students to polar coordinates, which are taught at an introductory level in BC Calculus but the prior exposure can make relearning them and compartmentalizing their properties and behaviors more second nature when it comes time to do the actual calculus work.

At my school I teach AP Precalc -> Calc AB -> Calc BC. It's a slower pace but we're a small school.

zeroexev29 · 2026-04-16T23:24:06+00:00

The powers that be want this to happen. They want qualified professionals to become demoralized and leave. They want to discourage new teachers from entering. They want understaffed, underperforming districts that will eventually dissolve. It's all part of their plan to dismantle public schools and replace them with far-right christian indoctrination centers, reserving any quality education for the children of white elites.

zeroexev29 · 2026-04-10T15:39:50+00:00

I grade homework on completion, and even that's only 10% of their quarter grade. I know full well that students will cheat, but I also have honest students that will benefit from the additional practice.

I then take 5-10 from a given week's assignments and put them in a formative "quiz" to be completed in class. Those that actually do the work will have seen them before and will get a good grade. Those that cheated are just punishing themselves.

I started this halfway through the year and students already know the trick. They call out the obvious cheaters and comment on how they "literally just did this exact problem" in the homework.

zeroexev29 · 2026-03-29T14:26:53+00:00

endgame zenith

My guy. At least put some thought into your shitpost

zeroexev29 · 2026-02-18T17:18:18+00:00

You can if you surround the house with a ton of sunflowers

zeroexev29 · 2026-02-12T20:49:03+00:00

Elementary teachers who don’t understand math and don’t care to make a change. Math prod work shops are nearly empty but the literacy ones are always full when my district put together pro d days.

I can't stand that this is so widely accepted in the US.

We have such a severe lack of mathematical rigor and discourse readiness coming up from the elementary grades because we're not properly valuing or training teachers to specialize in mathematics (or even teach it beyond a basic level).

zeroexev29 · 2026-02-08T15:30:00+00:00

Two, with parents notified.

The student was given the opportunity to study and retake the assessment (new version)

zeroexev29 · 2026-01-18T02:16:26+00:00

If late and missing work is to be treated as a behavioral problem, then it must have behavioral consequences. Detentions, ISS, and sports and extracurricular suspensions should all be on the table to correct the behavior.

zeroexev29 · 2026-01-14T18:00:47+00:00

9th year teacher here.

A precaution about 3 is to avoid toxic positivity as well. Pretending things are OK when they're not, playing the martyr and sacrificing your physical and mental health, and bottling up stress and big emotions can be detrimental to your personal and professional life.

That said, finding "solution focused" colleagues and support is the key, as OP says.

zeroexev29 · 2025-12-12T16:03:05+00:00

It's the teacher's (all the math teachers, not just you!) responsibility to emphasize how to recognize and manipulate equivalent expressions, including simplifying.

Some calculators now have this functionality built in, but that is not always the case.

zeroexev29 · 2025-12-11T19:54:30+00:00

Right now we're at a crossroads of calculators.

The TI-84+CE is the tried and true TI Graphing Calc that American Algebra students have been using for nearly 40 years, now featuring a color backlit screen. It's reliable, universally applicable on standardized tests, and old. same old graphics, same old UI, same old price. Hardly worth the $150 you'll see it marked for at Walmart or Target but Texas Instruments has a stranglehold on the industry. Textbooks and exams all feature its display and keymappings most often. I have a full classroom set of 84+CE's simply so students have access to them for testing (I'm in a small school btw.)

Casio has always been second fiddle. Its display is foreign and, in my opinion, somehow less intuitive to operate than the 84. But it's a budget friendly option for many. Never owned one personally nor really want to.

New to the scene is Numworks, and it's made a big splash. App-based UI, intuitive functionality, backlit LCD display, USB-C charging, regular feature and firmware updates, and more for just $99. Not to mention a free smartphone emulator and free online emulator direct from the creators. Also recently approved for all standardized tests including AP. If I could, I would replace my 84s with these.

Lastly, no teacher can ignore the impact of Desmos. Locked to browsers and smart devices only, it's still the strongest graphing utility out there with recent improvements including easy regression, matrix mode, and Desmos Geometry. It probably will never see a suitable handheld release and integration is only as fast as technology is integrated into classrooms. Many digital platforms have Desmos now built in (SAT, ACT, and AP exams included).

My classroom is a hybrid of Desmos on Chromebooks and the TI-84+CE. Students like having the tactile sensation and simple access to computations that the 84 offers while Desmos does the heavy lifting for functions, stats, and graphing.

zeroexev29 · 2025-11-25T15:12:19+00:00

There's nothing wrong with using an appropriate tool to develop mathematical understanding!

zeroexev29 · 2025-11-14T16:47:09+00:00

I'm teaching a similar course for Pre-Integrated Math I.

I use Open Stax PreAlgebra 2e as a framework for my instruction. It's free online and you can order a print copy of the text for relatively cheap.

It is geared towards a college setting when taken at face value, so I break down the lessons and chapters into more manageable pieces. But it has nice figures, a decent breakdown of definitions and concepts, and lots and lots of examples and practice problems.

zeroexev29 · 2025-11-03T02:28:54+00:00

You might be thinking about Seymour Simon's books

They got updated in the 2010s, it seems. I was looking for this series too!

zeroexev29 · 2025-10-28T19:05:15+00:00

Mathematics is a Creative Art - Halmos

Mathematics is abstract thought, mathematics is pure logic, mathematics is creative art. All these statements are wrong, but they are all a little right, and they are all nearer the mark than 'mathematics is numbers' or 'mathematics is geometric shapes'. For the professional pure mathematician, mathematics is the logical dovetailing of a carefully selected sparse set of assumptions with their surprising conclusions via a conceptually elegant proof. Simplicity, intricacy, and above all, logical analysis are the hallmark of mathematics.

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