Best of the Web

I'm not sure why I didn't have this page before but in the fall of 2016 @jstevens009 sent out this tweet and I started to put this together but then life happened. Finally I have made some time to complete it. This is by no means a complete list but as you can see it's still pretty long. It's pretty amazing that most of this stuff comes from individual teachers just sharing their stuff.

These are Math conversation starters that you could use in just about every class to get the ball rolling. They are presented in no order and all created by teachers for teachers and are free for you to use

• Between Two Numbers -
  
  From the creator of visualpatterns.org, @fawnpnguyen,  comes a new site. On this site you are given pairs of images and asked to compare them somehow. Proportional reasoning skills are the main idea here and eventually she expects to have enough so you could do one per week.
• Math Before Bed -
  
  This is the companion site to the book of the same name from  @MrOrr_geek. On this site you will see images with question prompts that you could use to start a math fight or get kids thinking. I'm not sure how long he can keep it up but he has put up a new one every day since it's inception. They run the span from k-12 so there is something for everyone.
• Estimation 180 -  
  
  from @Mr_Stadel,  this gives you and your students something different to estimate every school day (that's the 180 piece). Don't forget to check out the links on each that give previous estimates.
• Visual Patterns -
  
  I think understanding patterning is a very important skill for students to have. This site from @fawnpnguyen will literally give you hundreds of examples of visual patterns for students to extend. And of course there is a teacher's guide. 
• Fraction Talks -
  
  From @NatBanting, this gives you many images that are broken up in ways that you can then use to talk about fractions. They are done in a way that they have a low floor high ceiling (I think). Don't forget to see the Fraction Talks tweets as well and I even made a online websketch of a dynamic fraction talks image here.
• Which One Doesn't Belong -
  
  This site was created by @MaryBourassa inspired by the book by @Trianglemancsd of the same name. The premiss is simple, there are four things and students have to decide which one doesn't belong. The beauty is that there is always a reason that could be given for each of them to not belong. The categories are shapes, numbers and graphs and there is even a section for incomplete sets. 
• Math Talks -
  
  we want our students to talk about math. On this site from @fawnpnguyen there are several prompts for student discussion as well as sample student responses. There is also a teacher's section to help you figure out how to pull these off in your classes. 
• 101 Questions -
  
  This site from @ddmeyer has a huge number of images and videos (less than 1 min long) that try to illicit a mathematical response from students. Anyone can submit media and then are asked to ask a question about the images or videos they see. Those questions are then compiled so you can see them all. Some of the more popular ones are expanded into full 3 Act Tasks.
• Open Middle -
  
  this was developed by @Anderson02B,  @RobertKaplisnki,  @Math_m_Addicts,  @danluevanos and @zmill415 and based on an idea from @ddmeyer.  It has prompts for students ranging from k-12 organized by topic. The premiss is that each of these prompts has a fixed beginning and end but the middle has many possible pathways. 
• Math Hooks - "
  
  Our goal is to introduce challenging, inquiry-based activities to every middle school math classroom in order to foster student participation, enthusiasm and improvement through rigorous discussion." To do this, they have several pictures to use as conversation starters for students. They are broken down into five categories for grade 7 & 8 (US grades for my Canadian friends) and give you suggested questions for each image. 
• Graphing Stories -
  
  is a great site put together by @ddmeyer and @Buzzmath that give many examples of situations for students to take some motion or action and turn it into a graph (eg position-time). There are simple instructions and a basic handout to get kids going.
• Number Talk Images -
  
  If you like number talks then you'll like Number Talk Images. Put together by @Pierre_Tranche this site give several images that you can use to spark a conversation with students. They are organized into Dots, Photos and Strings and there are some great ones here.
• SolveMe Mobiles -
  
  Want to have your kids crave solving equations. Then look no further than SolveMe Mobiles. These visually appealing and friendly looking equations are so engaging to students of all ages. Plus if you create an account you can make your own.  
• Daily Desmos -
  
  Do you want some Desmos challenges? How about one every day? Then checkout Daily Desmos
• Would You Rather -
  
  This site from @jstevens009 plays that party game where you are given two choices and asked to choose. The difference here is the theme is math. 

• Number Search -  This is not so much a website as it is a new hashtag (#NumberSearch) that appeared on Twitter. Number Search problems typically give some sort of colourful shape made of smaller shapes and one of the shapes is assigned a number (usually 1) and you are asked "What other numbers do you see?" For example, you might say "If the white triangle is one, what other numbers do you see?". And one possible answer is that the blue trapezoid would be three since three of the triangles would fit into the trapezoid. The link will get you to a Google folder of some examples.
• 
  [New] - Added Mar 2021 -I like these grid puzzles from @CaroleGreenes and Tanner Wolfram. The Alge-Grid puzzles have a 3x3 grid with an algebraic expression in each spot. The object is to find the single value (between 1-9) that, when substituted into each expression, gives an answer of 1-9 (so that each answer only comes up once). The Pattern-Grid puzzles also have a 3x3 grid but here there are 3 triangles, circles and X's that need to be placed on the grid. You are given clues as to some that are next to each other and have to place all 9 pieces. Get over 50 puzzles each in these complete sets. 

Next come some blogs. There are far too many to point out here but I thought I would point out a few where there are consistently things being created and shared out.

From Ontario

• Engaging Math - This is where my teaching partner and I house all of the activities we've developed for grade 7-12 math (Ontario Standards)
• Found Data - I'm a fan of stats but sometimes it's hard to find interesting data sets. So I started this blog to house data sets that I have found or created that I think are either interesting or helpful in teaching a particular statistical concept. 
• Tap Into Teen Minds - here @mathletepearce has been creating 3 Act Tasks and other activities for years. Everything is tagged by both Ontario curriculum and Common Core standards. 
• Mr Orr is A Geek - here @MrOrr_Geek does a great job of sharing out his activities both iPad centric and otherwise. He's done some work on spiralling, with 3 Act Tasks and has shared out some great stuff on standards based grading. 
• Making Math Meaningful - if you like spiralling and are looking for resources for grade 10 applied or 10 academic then @MaryBourassa has a complete day by day of each course (among many other things for courses like MHF4U)
• Slam Dunk Math - here @AlexOverwijk typically takes activities and does a deep dive on them. They are heavy on detail and focus on creating a thinking classroom
• Wheeler's Thoughts on Teaching - here @Wheeler_Laura shares out full lessons, often using Pear Deck as her main tech tool. She also does a great job of #sketchnoting bigger teaching ideas, pedagogy and concepts. 

From Elsewhere

• Dy/Dan - probably one of the best know math bloggers, @ddmeyer posts less regularly than before but consistently puts out high quality stuff (check out his Vimeo channel) not to mention his 3 Act Tasks and the conversations and math fights he has with thousands of math teachers. 
• Des-Blog - it's no surprise that I love Desmos (especially activity builder) and on this blog they are constantly showing off the best stuff created for classroom consumption
• Divisible by 3 - here @Mr_Stadel, creator of Estimation 180, shares out his activities and thoughts including his set of 3Act tasks.
• MathyCathy's Blog - here @mathycathy shares much of her classroom work using technology in the classroom. She's big on Desmos and Nearpod. 
• RobertKaplinski - here @RobertKaplinski shares out his work on conceptual ideas in teaching and has a great set of problem based lessons
• Sign of the Times - this blog from @dpscher has conceptual looks at math topics through the vehicle of dynamic web sketches. 
• Math Equals Love - if you want a blog where you will see tonnes of resources shared then see what @mathequalslove puts out. Lot's of downloadable resources ready made including interactive notebooks. 
• I Speak Math - in this blog @jreulbach shares classroom ideas and math resources from a range of grades and activities and they are tagged by topic as for easy searching. 
• Continuous Everywhere but Differentiable Nowhere - if you want some resources and ideas for the older grades then @samjshah has you covered. 
• GFletchy - here @Gfletchy looks at the fundamentals of mathematics (especially for the younger grades) with 3 Act Tasks, lesson ideas and don't miss his progression videos. 
• MissCalcul8 - do you want ideas for teaching math? Both from a curriculum standpoint and a classroom management standpoint, then @misscalcul8 has you covered.
• Steve Wyborney's Blog - here @SteveWyborney has developed an excellent resource called Splat!. With this you can have students solving equations even in some of the youngest grades. Do not miss this. He also has his Esti-mysteries which act as a great math starter and if you like those then you might like @RNHung's Desmos version. 
• Pi Day - And of course there is Pi Day, I have a Pinterest page collecting links related to Pi that I have been adding to over the years.