I’m Chris Hunter. Former and future secondary math teacher. Current K–12 Numeracy Helping Teacher, Surrey Schools. Vice-President, British Columbia Association of Mathematics Teachers.
I acknowledge that I work and learn on the unceded shared territories of the Coast Salish. I acknowledge the Katzie, Semiahmoo, and Kwantlen First Nations who have been stewards of this land since time immemorial.
Chris Hunter 
Where’s Surrey? (I don’t remember how I discovered you this morning. I’ve been enjoying your posts, and was tickled to find my blog mentioned.)
Maybe it’s time for me to write a real About page. Surrey is about 35 km southeast of Vancouver, BC, Canada. Thanks for commenting – I’ve been enjoying your blog too.
Chris, did we meet at NWMC last fall? Your profile pic looks really familiar… if we didn’t, then I should definitely come visit — any excuse to get to the Pacific Northwest!
Patrick, I attended your breakfast keynote – a lot of fun, by the way – but I don’t think we spoke. Pretty impressive if you remember my face from the crowd. The next NWMC is in Whistler in 2015, if you’re wanting to visit BC. Maybe I’ll bump into you at NCTM NOLA?
Chris, would love to see you in NOLA! Send me your email to patrick [underscore] vennebush [at] discovery [dot] com.
Hey Chris,
Hope you’re having a great day!
I’m doing an expert roundup on my site and I think many new Math teachers using education technology products in their classroom like me would love to know your answer to this question :
If you could only use 3 Education technology tools/apps/sites for your teaching which 3 tools would you choose? e.g. WolframAlpha, KhanAcademy and Inside Mathematics.
Thanks in advance!
As soon as I’m done compiling the results, I would inform and link back to your blog.
Thank you!
Ishan
Hi Ishan,
I usually flip this question back on the asker: “What are the edtech goals of your math classroom?” Or better, leave out “edtech” in this question.
But I’ll play along.
In my classroom, I’d want students to collaborate to solve problems and then share their solutions during a class discussion. So, a document camera (or similar iPad setup) would be edtech tool #1.
Also, I’m interested in students communicating their learning. So, edtech tool/app/site 2 of 3 would be a virtual whiteboard app such as Explain Everything. This allows students to write on a blank whiteboard or mark up a photo/screenshot while giving narration. Creation, not consumption. To be clear: I’m not talking about step-by-step how-to videos aping procedures provided in class (see KA), but real examples of mathematical thinking/problem-solving. See this post: https://reflectionsinthewhy.wordpress.com/2013/10/26/less-play-by-play-more-colour-commentary/.
There’s nothing uniquely mathy about my first two choices, so let me include Desmos as edtech thing #3 for your new math teachers. Using this free, intuitive online graphing calculator (also available as an iPad app), students can predict, decide which function best models data, ask “what if…?” questions, etc. The assumption is that this is a classroom that values having students themselves do the interesting work of mathematical modelling. I’d encourage new math teachers to explore their classroom activities page: https://teacher.desmos.com/.
Finally, I’d recommend your new math teachers check out Michael Fenton’s Ignite! talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_aq2wUuoRk
Chris
Hi Chris, I found your site from a link on wodb and found a riddle about multiples that led to the perfect squares….but this morning i couldn’t get back to it. Can you direct me please? Thanks
Hi Doreen,
Hmm, I briefly mentioned the locker problem in this post. I linked to Nico’s treatment of the problem, but that link isn’t working for me. Here it is from The Math Forum.
Chris
I would like to access the problems in your virtual file cabinet but was informed that I need an invitation. Please send one.
Do you know which problem you had difficulty accessing?
Dear Chris –
I’m a teacher in San Francisco – SFUSD. We are preparing a K-5 math curriculum whose primary audience is the teachers and students of the San Francisco Unified School District. This curriculum is not for profit, and we intend to make it available as open source material for anyone who wants to use it.
We would like to use an image from WODB.CA that is attributed to you. May we have permission? It’s shape 13 and will be used as a Math Talk prompt in a 5th grade unit on 3d Shapes and Volume.
Thank you!
Noam Szoke
Hi Noam. Yes, you can use this image, crediting me or linking to Mary’s site. I designed this one with a conversation about patterns (or arithmetic & geometric sequences) in mind, so I’m curious how this will fit with your 3D shapes unit. Send me a link when your curriculum is available!
Hey, Chris — your WODB stuff is awesome. I suspect you already know this. But I’ve recently started a new gig at the Math Learning Center (Bridges), and I’m trying to identify whose doing interesting work with WODB at the elementary level. Any suggestions for who that might be, or can you point me in the direction of someone else that I could ask the same question?
Big fan of @Simon_Gregg’s sets.