In this episode, I talk to Ella Hereth, a middle school math teacher in Indianapolis, Indiana. Ella’s my first guest that I randomly emailed because I’ve only really gotten to know her on Twitter! Even though we both live in Indianapolis, our paths don’t cross regularly, but I’m looking to change that in the future! Ella has been teaching for 13 years everything from 7th grade to Pre-Calculus and she continues to grow as a professional trying something new in her classrooms as she learns more about the very best ways to meet the needs of every child. Listening to her talk about successes and struggles in teaching math, the beauty she sees in math, and  how she makes connections between art and mathematics is so cool.

The math in this episode is how elementary mathematics connects to secondary math concepts, the beauty of math in graphs and relationships, math in art, using Desmos as an ongoing tool for learning, and some great examples of the inspiration she’s taken from various mathematics resources for teachers!

The other things in this episode is Twitter as a learning tool, doing math with other teachers to think hard about how children are thinking about the math and how they might respond to tasks given to them, giving yourself permission to think about teaching math in many different ways, realizing you don’t always have to plan the perfect lesson, the benefits giving up the control in your classroom by opening space for students to do the thinking, and so. much. More.

Resources Referenced in this episode:

Twitter Hashtags worth following!

First, don’t forget to follow Ella - @mshereth and, of course, don’t forget to follow @mathandothers!

#iteachmath

#elemmathchat

#MTBoS

#desmos