18 months ago, Pittsburgh teacher Justin Aion decided to write a blog post for every day that he was in the classroom. He had no idea where it would take him but he soon found that interesting things started to happen. Not least of all he quickly gained many math teacher followers who related to his very honest reflections.

Justin is also well known by the math ed. twittersphere and he is regularly to be found discussing how to get better at teaching math on social media. He also hosts a popular middle school math chat once a week and tweets regularly with his math students.

We ask Justin about his experience in the blogger/twittersphere and if what he is doing is something we should replicate, or just how to make the most out of the online community.

Justin Aion - 180 Blogging

Steve Leinwand is a Principal Research Analyst at AIR and has over 35 years of leadership positions in mathematics education.  He currently serves as mathematics expert on a wide range of AIR projects that turn around schools, improve adult education, evaluate programs, develop assessments and provide technical assistance.

Before joining AIR in 2002, Leinwand spent 22 years as Mathematics Consultant with the Connecticut Department of Education where he was responsible for the development and oversight of a broad statewide program of activities in K-12 mathematics education including the provision of technical assistance and professional development, the evaluation of Title 1 and K-12 mathematics programs, the assessment of student achievement and teacher competency, and the coordination of statewide mathematics programs and activities. Steve has also served on the NCTM Board of Directors and has been President of the National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics. Steve is also an author of several mathematics textbooks and has written numerous articles. His books,Sensible Mathematics: A Guide for School Leaders and Accessible Mathematics: 10 Instructional Shifts That Raise Student Achievement were published by Heinemann in 2012 and 2009 respectively.

Steve Leinwand - The State of Education

Jo Boaler is an author/speaker, and is Professor of Mathematics Education at the Stanford Graduate School of Education. Boaler is involved in promoting mathematics education reform and equitable mathematics classrooms. She is the CEO and co-founder of Youcubed, a non-profit organization that provides mathematics education resources to parent and educators of K–12 students. She is the author of several books including, What’s Math Got To Do With It? (2009) and The Elephant in the Classroom (2010), both written for teachers and parents with the goal of improving mathematics education in both the US and UK. Her 1997/2002 book, Experiencing School Mathematics won the "Outstanding Book of the Year" award for education in Britain. Currently she is the Research Commentary Editor for the Journal for Research in Mathematics Education.

Prof. Jo Boaler - Having a mindset for learning math

From Desmos.com:

'At Desmos, we imagine a world of universal math literacy, where no student thinks that math is too hard or too dull to pursue. We believe the key is learning by doing. When learning becomes a journey of exploration and discovery, anyone can understand – and enjoy! – math.

To achieve this vision, we’ve started by building the next generation of the graphing calculator. Using our powerful and blazingly-fast math engine, the calculator can instantly plot any equation, from lines and parabolas up through derivatives and Fourier series. Data tables open up a world of curve-fitting and modeling. Sliders make it a breeze to demonstrate function transformations. As browser-based html5 technology, the graphing calculator works on any computer or tablet without requiring any downloads. It's intuitive, beautiful math. And best of all: it's completely free.

Desmos is used by students, teachers, researchers, and general math enthusiasts from every state, and 169 countries.'

Eli Luberoff began his programming life on his TI-83 graphing calculator in elementary school, culminating with a working version of Monopoly which was destroyed when he removed the backup battery by accident. He began working on the software that would become Desmos.com during a year-long hiatus from Yale University in 2007, returning to graduate summa cum laude with degrees in Math and Physics in 2009. Eli was also selected by Bloomberg Businessweek as one of the top 25 entrepreneurs under 25 in 2011.

Eli Luberoff - Desmos

Robert Kaplinsky has worked in education since 2003 as a classroom teacher, district math teacher specialist, and University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) instructor.  He graduated from UCLA with a Bachelors of Science in Mathematics / Applied Science (Computer Science) in 2000 and earned his Masters of Education in 2005.

He has presented and conducted professional development at across the United States and Canada.  His work has been published by Education Week (2012 | 2015) and the American Educational Research Association (AERA).  He has consulted for major publishers including Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Pearson.  Robert is a member of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics (NCSM), California Mathematics Council (CMC), Orange County Math Council (OCMC), and Greater Los Angeles Mathematics Council (GLAMC).  He also co-founded the Southern California Math Teacher Specialist Network, a group that includes over 170 math teacher specialists from more than 5 counties.

In 2011, Robert was awarded the Downey Unified School District (DUSD) Superintendent’s Vision Award in the area of Student Achievement and in 2007 he won Raytheon MathMovesU Math Hero Award. He is currently working as Teacher Specialist in Mathematics in DUSD.

Robert Kaplinski - Rich Mathematics Lessons

Dr. Gutierrez‘ scholarship focuses on equity issues in mathematics education, paying particular attention to how race, class, and language affect teaching and learning. Through in-depth analyses of effective teaching/learning communities and longitudinal studies of developing and practicing teachers, her work challenges deficit views of Latin@ and Black students and suggests that mathematics teachers need to be prepared with much more than just content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, or knowledge of diverse students if they are going to be successful. Her current research projects focus upon: developing in pre-service teachers the knowledge and disposition to teach powerful mathematics to urban students; the roles of uncertainty, tensions, and “Nepantla” in teaching; and the political knowledge (and forms of creative insubordination) that mathematics teachers need to effectively teach in an era of high-stakes education.

Prof. Rochelle Gutierrez - Equity in the Mathematics Classroom

Craig is a secondary school maths teacher, based in the North West of England. He is the Maths Adviser to the TES, the creator of mrbartonmaths.com, host of the Mr Barton Maths Podcast, and the co-founder of diagnosticquestions.com. He also runs the (non maths!) blogs 555words.com and songsineverskip.com. His novels are Secrets and Mince Pies,Tell me a Story and The Cambridge Diaries: A Tale of Friendship, Love and Economics. On Twitter he is @mrbartonmaths.

We discuss making rich resources for the mathematics classroom as well as the state of mathematics education in the UK and the US.

Craig Barton - creator of 'Mr. Barton Maths'

Welcome to the MathEd Out Podcast! This show is for mathematics educators who want to hear about the latest ideas and resources that are available. Each episode we will be interviewing someone from the Math-Ed community who has a unique insight into what a great math class looks like.

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