Resource list and bibliography

¶ … Mathematics Teachers in the Classroom

Internet sites

The Teacher Education Materials Project (TE-MAT) is a database of math and science resources, such as books and DVDs that can be searched by keywords or by concept the teacher wishes to teach, and the teacher's available resources. The website (http://www.te-mat.org/)givesthe teacher a searchable index of materials he or she can use in curriculum design that are specifically directed to the teacher's grade level, approach, and degree to which he or she wishes to use digital material. The database is helpful in finding new books for students to be used in addition to the textbook.

The Mathematics Teacher Education Resource Place provides a database of helpful lesson plans and articles (http://www.sjsu.edu/depts/mathed/resource.html).Someof the lesson plans are quite innovative and creative, such as reading a story to children and asking them to illustrate the fractions used by the main character on circles at their desks.

PBS Teachers-Math (http://www.pbs.org/teachers/math/)alsoprovides a searchable database of lesson plans by grade and concept, and is particularly valuable because of its use of digital media in making mathematics seem relevant and interesting. Some of its lessons, like asking the children to analyze if advertisements are really good deals, also encourage creative thinking in a way that is highly engaging.

Community Resources: Organizations

The Association of Mathematics Teachers and Educators (http://www.amte.net/)encouragesthe improvement of mathematics teacher education by offering conferences to its members, provides information about mathematics teaching and meeting national standards, and encourages the collaboration of its membership in sharing ideas that can be used in the classroom.

The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (http://www.nctm.org/)isthe largest professional organization for math teachers in the nation and provides links to lesson plans, standards, conferences, professional development, books and other resources. It encourages teachers to keep their skills up-to-date and their lesson plans fresh by offering new and exciting lesson plans that make use of technological resources and convey critical basic concepts for today's standards-based era.

The Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) (http://www.awm-math.org/)isdevoted to promoting the education of girls and women in math, and helps teachers find ways of encouraging girls to ignore peer pressure that suggests that women 'can't do math.'

Mathematics Journals

The Journal for Research in Mathematics Education (http://www.nctm.org/publications/jrme.aspx?ekmensel=c580fa7b_116_412_btnlink)isa peer-reviewed journal of current research on what concepts work for students in the classroom and also allows for the submission of teacher manuscripts on relevant topics.

The Journal of Online Mathematics and its Applications (http://mathdl.maa.org/mathDL/4/)includesdiscussion of how to teach math to students, such as the use of 'spinners' when teaching probability, to cite one example, and webcasts about 'best practices' in math education. Because the journal is web-based and makes use of wiki technology, it is both easy to access as well as engaging.

Education Next, published by the Hoover Institution, provides a continuing overview of how American education, including math, measures up against America's international counterparts as well as compares different approaches to education throughout the nation (http://www.hoover.org/publications/ednext/).Itprovides examples of how math is taught in other countries, sobering assessment of America's state of math education, and a fairly blunt and opinionated view of what works and what does not in the classroom.

The University of Cornell (http://www.tc.cornell.edu/Services/Education/Gateways/Math_and_Science)providesa math and science gateway to link science and math educators K-12. Its aim is to facilitate information exchanges and enhance professional contacts, particularly the use of the Internet such as webquests and WebPages in the classroom.