Nat Banting

My fav part here is “emphasis” on theory.

The “testable” crew also operate on theoretical assumptions of how teaching and learning exist—they just leave them buried.

Emphasizing the conditions of an experiment (and conclusion) feels important, no?

Has anyone built a math practice app where every answer is 6, 7, or 67 yet?

Visual Patterns 🤝 Pattern Blocks
I am currently OBSESSED, in a (mostly) healthy way, with @fawnnguyen.substack.com visual patterns and @mathforlove.bsky.social pattern blocks for kids to learn and create patterns. Ah-may-zing. Also, I am in LOVE with Mary Vail's Thinking Desks, they are phenomenal!

[New Post] Ontario Math Links - My favourite #math related links from this week:

ontariomath.blogspot.com/2025/09/math...

links & help from @mrcorleymath.bsky.social @mathsweek.scot @darrenmacey.bsky.social @natbanting.bsky.social @maria-naturalmath.bsky.social &more #MathChat #MTBoS #iTeachMath

I think this is all sorted now!

(That’s 5 hours of my Saturday I won’t get back 😂)

Yeah…

Something about hosting is screwy right now.

Sorry about that; trying to contact tech support is… tedius. 🙄

Play with your Problems I am a compulsive problem poser. When presented with a mathematical context, I have an incredible amount of difficulty leaving it alone. My teacher instinct is to push, prod, tinker, and/or alter i…

I wrote a new post yesterday:

natbanting.com/play-with-yo...

It’s about the benefits of teachers tinkering with the problems/prompts we offer students.

(And, tangentially, about the benefits of conference spaces where we are given license to do so)

#iteachmath

Play with your Problems I am a compulsive problem poser. When presented with a mathematical context, I have an incredible amount of difficulty leaving it alone. My teacher instinct is to push, prod, tinker, and/or alter i…

I wrote a new post yesterday:

natbanting.com/play-with-yo...

It’s about the benefits of teachers tinkering with the problems/prompts we offer students.

(And, tangentially, about the benefits of conference spaces where we are given license to do so)

#iteachmath

Ornje

??

Ornje

Also accepted: Ornch

“Orange” is a 1-syllable word

(Massive family argument occurring)

Any old #bcedchat folks have a lead on a veteran math history teacher??

BC has a grade 11 math history course!!

Have any BC math educators on here taught this course? If so, what was your experience?

Yup

Every influence is a sort of gambit.

And kids understand the structure of lessons and units. So eventually they will “self-spoil”

For this reason, I believe that the most authentic thinking occurs at the onset of a unit of study.

In general, we are worried that what students do *fits* the current unit of study so we spend time “listening for” specific acts that fit instead of “listening with” student thinking in more open spaces.

I get it. I do it. School math is packed and we need to get kids specific places.

Math class: “Here’s a task about a hallway of lockers that involves perfect squares”

English class: “Here’s a book and, at the end, the hero dies”

These are identical experiences imho

I think math teachers feel an increased need to include more “spoilers” to justify openness in their classroom.

It’s true what they say. This is excellent.

And I’m going to quote the end to give you a taste:

“But personalized learning is the wrong ideal. … We shouldn’t be going all-in on kids learning on their own. We should be trying to figure out how to make whole-group learning even better.”

#artmath

#unitchat

This exhibit at the Tate Modern in London giving real “How Many?” vibes.

@triangleman.bsky.social

Oh. I haven’t.

I’ve seen people link to it, but I’ve never checked it out.

Something to consider tho!!

I don’t know what “Substack” is.

I have the blog alongside some other project files for folks (like #MenuMath and a some classroom resources from over the years)

Also a sort of running CV.

RIP-BoS: A Tribute to the Math-Twitter Blog-O-Sphere When I was a first year teacher, the teachers in my province went on strike for two days. It was on the first of those two days that I signed up for Twitter in order to follow public opinion on the…

Re-sharing from Feb ‘24: @natbanting.bsky.social waxes poetic about the Math Twitter Blog-o-Sphere (RIP). Man, that was a heady scene. It felt like an open apprenticeship for those of us on the periphery. I love seeing so many good folks emerge from it. #mtbos

natbanting.com/rip-bos-a-tr...

Lots of the stagnancy isn’t due to lack of ideas, it’s a busy young family.

I never fathomed how much work raising littles is!! 😴

Find Your (Math) People Teaching is hard. The day-to-day cycle of planning, presenting, orchestrating, testing, and reflecting is continuous, and there’s always the uncertainty of how the students will show up (or not) to…

Looking forward to reading!

Here's my latest, on the importance of our connections to each other (thank you for being in my group of math people!)

karendcampe.wordpress.com/2025/08/05/f...

Finally! An AI that gets me.

I don’t think people read blog much anymore, but a week in a library has produced a few new ones for this school year.

Some thoughts that have been ratting about in my head for a while.

#TURDMath

The time crunch on feedback is the most difficult part of compressed courses.

I find student feedback to polarize as the course compresses. (Taught 6 hours a day for 5 days vs 3 hour classes over 10 weeks)

Here’s a thing about teaching post-secondary:

After the course, you’ll get emails expressing how enjoyable the course was. You’ll also get the odd one saying they disliked you and the course.

The former are sent immediately; the latter are sent after grades come out.

Pay attention to both.