Khan Academy Textbook "Maps"

*New*  

High School students can now easily access the Khan Academy videos and online exercises for the topics they are currently studying.  Go to my Khan Academy resource page and simply download the pdf "map" for your textbook, locate the chapter and section you are currently learning, and click through to the appropriate Khan Academy materials.  

More textbooks coming soon.
The Khan Academy

The Khan Academy is a non-profit conceived by Salman Kahn that has produced a collection of hundreds of (free) streaming videos on (among other things) math topics including basic arithmetic, algebra, geometry, trig, probability and statistics, calculus, differential equations, and linear algebra.

View the video below for an overview of what Sal is trying to accomplish, or go to my dedicated Khan Academy page for more details and resources for using the Khan Academy including pdf "maps" of the Khan videos and exercises to popular textbooks.

Winner of a 2009 Tech Award in Education, these excellent video lectures by Salman Khan can be powerful learning tools.  There is a valuable (and also free) GoogleApps based interactive exercise module that allows students to test themselves on the concepts.  He also works through all of the Math SAT questions on the practice tests of the first edition of "The Official SAT Study Guide" in his SAT Review section.  View a PBS NewsHour report on the Kahn Academy.
Salman Khan at TED 2011: Changing Math Education with Video
Resources for Educators

Facing History and Ourselves is a powerful resource for teachers (primarily history, English, and Social Studies), providing training, curriculum, and resources to relate current events to history on issues such as genocide, racism, and immigration.  See a cool video about FHAO at the bottom of this page.

Watch the October 2011 Roundtable at Stanford University "Education Nation 2.0" on the future of K-12 education with moderator Charlie Rose and panelists Sal Khan, Corey Booker, Reed Hastings, and others.

The New Teacher Project is a non-profit that works with school districts to ensure that poor and minority students get outstanding teachers.

Atlantic Magazine article:  What Makes a Great Teacher?

New York Times article:  Building a Better Teacher  (The Doug Lemov book referenced in the article, Teach Like a Champion, is now available.)

The book A Mathematician's Lament, by ex-Brown University professor and current K-12 math teacher Paul Lockhart, is a powerful and brilliantly written short rant on how we must change the way math is taught in K-12 to allow students to discover the creative beauty of mathematics.  A must read for math teachers. 

Details on the U.S. Race to the Top program

Teach for America is working to build the movement to eliminate educational inequity by enlisting our nation's most promising future leaders in the effort.

 
Fun Books about Mathematics

Journey Through Genius, The Great Theorums of Mathematics (William Dunham)

Mathematics: The Science  of Patterns (Keith Devlin) - go for a used copy of the hardcover in "Very Good" condition - worth it for the gorgeous illustrations.

A Tour of the Calculus (David Berlinski)

Fermat's Enigma: The Epic Quest to Solve the World's Greatest Mathematical Problem (Simon Singh).  If you feel like watching, rather than reading, the story of Andrew Wiles' quest to solve Fermat's Last Theorem, this cool 45 minute video is worth a look.

The Mathematical Universe, An Alphabetical Journey Through the Great Proofs, Problems, and Personalities (William Dunham)

"e": The Story of a Number (Eli Maor)
Math Teaching Resources

Better Explained is a fabulous website authored by Kalid Azad whose goal it is to "share hard-won 'a ha!' moments in clear and simple language" for mathematics. His tagline: "Learn Right, Not Rote."

PurpleMath is a terrific website with an exhaustive set of lessons on all levels of algebra.

Steve Strogatz, a math professor at Cornell, writes an ongoing wonderful commentary  for the online version of the New York Times about all aspects of mathematics, presented in an incredibly clear and insightful way.  His 15 part series Elements of Math ran from January to May 2010.

The Wolfram Demonstrations Project is a tremendous resource.  Folks from around the world have contributed a huge number of applets that visually demonstrate mathematical principles using the Mathematica program.  You don't need to own Mathematica, you can download a free player.  They also have a wonderful Education Portal.

 

Brightstorm also has videos, and some fill gaps in the Khan Academy collection.  They have nicely organized videos by course:  Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II, Trigonometry, Pre-Calculus, and Calculus.  Each course section has over 100 videos.  The videos are thorough, and are taught on screen by math teachers.  Unlike the Khan Academy Brightstorm is for-profit, so there are ads you need to sit through and a subscription model for step by step solutions.  They also make money by selling online test prep services, which are separate from the classroom videos.

Vi Hart is a brilliant young musician/mathematics fan who (among many incredibly creative endeavors) has produced a series of short, fascinating speed videos of her "doodles" in math class and how they explore interesting math properties. These are REALLY cool.

Paul Dawkins is a math professor at Lamar University.  He has put all of his lecture notes online.  The notes cover algebra and calculus.  One highlight are his "cheat sheets" for algebra, trigonometry, and calculus among others.  These sheets are "need to know" reductions of the key formulas and concepts of each course for quick review.

Kuta Software sells a series of great "Infinite" programs that generate unlimited numbers of unique practice worksheets and tests for a huge number of topics in Pre-Algebra, Algebra I, Algebra II, and Geometry. You can purchase one or more of the packages, or they also have some free pre-generated samples you can download for many of the topics.

mathteachertools.com has a simple, but excellent and free pdf practice worksheet generator for a reasonable breadth of Algebra I and Algebra II topics.  

math101.com is a very helpful site for step by step breakdown of user inputted problems including derivatives, integrals, function graphs, and many other functions.  Derivatives and most other tools free, integrals very nominal charge.  

Keith Devlin, mathematics professor, author, and NPR's "Math Guy" writes a blog for the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) called Devlin's Angle.  Very interesting, he has a strong opinion on many issues with excellent insights. If you enjoy Devlin's Angle, here is an index of other blogs/RSS feeds on the MAA site.  

The BBC's Radio 4 has aggregated all of their highly entertaining math education shows (hosted by terrific mathematicians) on one index page.

Norman Koch and Dr. Denise Meeks have provided an online Spanish/English and English/Spanish dictionary of mathematics terms that is free for non-commercial distribution.  You can view the original online version, or I have created a searchable pdf of the English/Spanish version you can download.

The Story of 1, originally a BBC Documentary that is now available as streaming video on Google Video, is an entertaining story of 1, from the first Sumerians to the code breaking binary computer at Bletchley Park. Excellent for showing to a class (just under an hour). 

Oragami has been used to help teach Geometry.  Martin and Erik Demaine are a father/son team at MIT that explores the connection between origami and mathematics. They were featured in the fantastic documentary film Between the Folds, with other artists and educators. The Unversity of Tennessee has put together an index of Origami/Math Education links.
Facing History and Ourselves (www.facing.org)