How to Teach Math as a Social Activity 

A very skilled and mindful teacher - he using excellent communication skills, has good content, and appears to be excellent with using group process, especially when teaching math.

i love his compassion. He is so patient and caring. Schools and parents need to value teachers like this.

I just love passionate teachers like this we need more like him!

He is very patient with the kids and spends a lot of time at the beginning talking about appropriate behavior and good social skills.

I agree with both who like this and with those who say math should not be taught like this. What is shown in the video - the group activities - are all valuable exercises for all the parties: those who are observed and critiqued, those who are being helped and those who are observing and giving suggestions. The issue is: the video did NOT show how the teacher delivers direct instruction. This part - the teaching and the methodical explanation delivered in a well-thought-through manner, to ensure that full curriculum is covered over time, and that concepts are delivered in a certain order to allow a progression from smaller concepts to more complex ones - is INTEGRAL part of teaching math or any subject for that matter. The video is good for reinforcement" and 'drill and practice"" , but the 'developmental' activities sill need to be 'delivered by the teacher' and 'executed individually by the student'. Otherwise huge gaps in knowledge result.

This teacher needs to be training teachers around the USA. His ability and patience to treat these children with respect and the manner in which he positions each child to succeed is repeatable. Hat's off...

This is college level discussion bouncing ideas off each other you are genius! I love this fishbowl!

HIs affect and interaction with the students is outstanding. Lots to commend and emulate here.

This is an amazing video! I wish that this teacher could clone himself and be in every district, demonstrating what he gets students to do with their thinking. Awesome!

Magic! This guy is tremendous! How inspiring!

This is a great method of teaching. By integrating intellectual, social, and emotional cognitive skills, students can learn the way that is best for them!

What a valuable impactfull mind this teacher has.

It's a great idea. Thank You for your advice, dude. God bless you.

"...because no matter what I say, or try to push... unless kids own it, it's not going to matter..." (3:45 in video context) Smart Kids Robotics, St. Louis, MO, utilizes similar strategies to encourage adaptive expertise and promote kids' confidence to pursue their ideas and realize their accomplishments. Excellent work!

I wish my teachers and most schools were like this...

brilliant! I am inspired and will return to this and try to emulate the technique

It looks like a great method and I've been thinking much about incresing social aspects of teaching, but I'm wondering about the results. How do they compare to other classes using regular methods? Off-topic: those kinds of math problems might be a bit arbitrary for fifth-graders. If they use blocks, I bet they all can arrive at the answer. But can they all also excel with larger numbers using pen and paper? Do they really understand the concepts or are they just adding up blocks on the table?

Fun and learning yes it can be done! Amazing!

Wow!! Amazing teaching and learning!!

Can you come to INDONESIA? We have warm sun the whole year.. but we also have children who need to learn math ..

Constructive idea: let's destigmatize doodling. There is by now ample evidence in research that doodling helps people concentrate.

Also, teaching basic multiplication like 3*4 in grade 5? In my grade 3 class, I remember having a rapidfire multiplication competition between me and another kid with the teacher showing flash cards going up to 12*12, and I won eventually. Grade 3. Kids are getting dumber every year.

the level of mathematics appears several grades below where it should be for a 5th grade math class. Not every child elarns mathematcis best through group work and peer discussion

Excellent.

wonderful

I agree with Caduzeus. This is a great idea, but can kids manipulate numbers on paper? Maybe to improve this method they could make it scientific process style. Step 1. read the problem Step 2. work it out on paper Step 3. What's above. My only problem with this is that it sounds like some of the stuff they made us do in math in middle school and everybody hated it because it was "stupid". But maybe that was because we didn't realize it helped us understand the concept better and we didn't have to explain it to the class in words.

Great idea.

Excelent !!

Random order flash cards btw.

a more classical version of teaching, socratic style

dhur alala

This guy seems really nice but math is not best when taught like this, take it from me, a university math major. Social skills are not an integral part of math, hence they shouldn't be taught that way like this. Later on in math, there will be no one to work with to solve problems, you'll need to learn the stuff on your own, not relying on others for help or to give advice to.

Has anyone noticed that these kids are in fifth grade and they are working on fractions and using blocks? Anyone think that perhaps if the MATH TEACHER simply TAUGHT MATH they may have progressed a bit further than fractions! DISGRACEFUL. Dont worry if he took the socializing component out its well covered EVERY where else in schools....when do they LEARN ACEDEMICS? oh yeah, they dont