A vast number of lesson plans, practice problems, and other resources for teaching elementary-school math are available. But when Maria H. Andersen is teaching future teachers, she says, they often do a poor job of seeking out those resources and sifting through what they have found.
Later, on the day before a school year begins, some new teachers "freak out" and wonder how they are going to teach the material, says Ms. Andersen, an instructor of math and physical sciences at Muskegon Community College, in Michigan. "They forget that there are people to go to for help."
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To show her students how to build a library of resources they can later use to teach, she requires them to create and maintain a Web-based "Mind Map"—a treelike diagram built around a central idea—to record and organize what they have learned during that term.
One student, Alanah Kiel, built a Mind Map on problem solving that included dozens of teaching resources, including a YouTube video showing how young students approach a multiplication problem, and a Web page with sample problems used to teach inductive reasoning. She noted what was useful about each resource.
The maps, created with software called Mindomo, can be more flexible than written notes, the instructor says, because they give students a better chance to revise their understanding throughout the semester. When students realize how two lessons fit together, they can indicate that connection on the map and more easily compare notes with their classmates.
Ms. Andersen, who writes the blog Teaching College Math (http://www.teachingcollegemath.com), is a fan of nontraditional teaching methods that encourage students to learn in groups. She has built more than a dozen board games that help students learn mathematical subjects including algebra and derivatives.
Some students don't like using Mind Maps, she acknowledges. But the same could be said of any teaching method. "I think, How many students hate lecturing?"
