You’re struggling to teach math concepts to your students. What are the most effective tools you can use?

When we teach in rural areas, there are no fancy equipments and there is low network connectivity to use online tools. So, we use the things that are around us for example, wooden sticks, ice cream sticks, pebbles, leaves, etc. (We do that in a controlled environment to make sure they don't hurt themselves) It make mathematics so much fun and simple for them. A perfect way to be resourceful.

Today I'm starting to teach parabola I'll start start with example for a parabola in daily life. Consider a basketball player aiming for the hoop. The path the ball takes when thrown can be described by a parabola. The player's objective is to calculate the perfect angle and force to make the ball follow the desired parabolic trajectory, optimizing their chances of scoring. This real-world scenario not only captures attention but also illustrates the practical application of parabolas in sports.

Teaching math concepts is a challenging task. You may use and connect mathematical representations. Facilitate meaningful mathematical discourse. Use digital tools and apps that are engaging and aligned with the curriculum. such as Moose Math, Happy Numbers, Prodigy, Zearn, and Desmos. Adopt a growth mindset and high expectations for all students

Manipulatives and models are not only helpful, but crucial for students developing understanding. It is unfair to expect all students to be receptive to learning mathematics through abstraction, and crucial that students understand mathematics' connection to the real world. Regardless of whether your student population requires the use of manipulatives and models to understand some concept, it is universally beneficial to students at all levels to have concrete concepts to mentally attach to abstractions. Models help students who struggle to grasp abstractions by demystifying them, and help students who excel in abstractions to go a step further in real-world, career relevant applications.

In my experience, students struggle the most with concepts relating to statistical topics. Students just expect to follow a process with little-to-no understanding of why they are getting the result they are getting. Two resources that I have used with great success in tandem are Desmos Classroom and activities provides by AMSP. They are completely free and they investigatory nature, whilst it can take more time initially, helps to save time overall in a normally packed curriculum.

There will probably be some notes here about how content is more engaging if it is fun, but there is another factor of content delivery through games and apps that I think is worth illuminating. Games and apps provide students with a tangible and quantifying sense of progress and achievement. While the specific delivery of content may differ when using this medium, I would consider it hard to deny that this method of delivery can increase student motivation with tools like achievements, unlockable profile flairs, and daily check-in rewards.

Many subject specialists try to make their content more engaging with the use of gameplay and the evidence supports this as a successful way to motivate some students through adding competition. Maths has the distinct advantage of being the natural language of games, whether it is the scoring or the logic behind the rules, most games are maths based and there is usually an easy way to create a game from any maths topic, get the students to try!

I think my answer to Q1 is relevant here as well, and often just provides a different and more visual medium to present models and manipulatives to students.

Math and literacy are core subjects, each difficult to teach for their own reasons. Using stories, however, can provides students who are stronger in one area or the other with a natural scaffold. Stories and scenarios are not only applicable to assist students with stronger literary skills grasp mathematics, but can also help students exceeding in mathematics with reading comprehension. When integrating mathematics into a story, the text is naturally "chunked" into more digestible sections. Those natural breakpoints can be locations where a mathematically adept student can identify the next logical step they need to complete before proceeding with the story, or literary story beats identified by student with literacy proficiency.

Stories are key. A scenario is often a minimal story and likely to be less memorable. I will always remember the one about the shipwreck with the captain, the cook and the ship's monkey helping themselves to coconuts while the others slept.

Though I no longer teach in a classroom setting, tutoring and small group/extracurricular instruction are areas which I have dedicated much time. As a professional, consistently learning new skills is essential to my own career progression, so I believe my answers are also relevant to adults like myself who are motivated to teach and learn new skills in a professional setting. Mathematics is everything and everywhere, so I cannot overstate my respect for those who teach as a profession. I hope that new strategies in education with a focus on real-world models in conjunction with many exciting new breakthroughs in tech to come can help you all inspire a new generation of young learners who have a passion for math and science :)