“I hate math.”

“I can’t do math.”

“Math sucks.”

Phrases so common as to have become almost cliché.

In addressing this “I hate math” mentality many students have, I wrote the following in Teach Like a PIRATE (2012), “The truth is, students probably don’t really hate math, they hate the way it has been taught to them in the past. They hate the fact that they have struggled to learn math in the past.”

The tragedy is that math can be a subject filled with beauty, wonder, and a joyful playfulness. Math can be fun and amazing. Math can be a wonderfully human activity that everyonecan enjoy…for a lifetime!

Math Recess: Playful Learning in an Age of Disruption by Sunil Singh and Dr. Christopher Brownell takes a giant leap forward towards the goal of making math approachable, fun, truly engaging, and filled with the curiosity and imagination that is deeply embedded in mathematics. We have released this book on the IMpress label, a subsidiary of Dave Burgess Consulting Inc. that we co-own with George (author of the incredible book, The Innovator’s Mindset) and Paige Couros, and it is a wonderfully written mathematical manifesto. The language and imagery are so beautiful and it is packed with a powerful collection of mathematical ideas, puzzles, and problems. Most importantly, it shows how math has always been fun and joyful at its core…and how we can get to a place where math instruction in our schools lives up to that ideal.

You can learn more about Math Recess and get a free preview by clicking RIGHT HERE. Please share the word about this amazing book with anyone looking to bring a playful and fun spirit into the math classroom. Sunil and Christopher have spent a lifetime doing just that and now they are opening up the treasure chest and letting all of us in to play with the toys inside.

Thanks,

Dave

PS: We have long had a soft spot for books for math teachers!! I wrote about the amazing The Classroom Chef by Matt Vaudrey and John Stevens RIGHT HERE. John also wrote about his wonderful Table Talk Math project HERE. Alice Keeler and the late Diana Herrington showed us powerful ways incorporate #edtech in Teaching Math With Google Apps RIGHT HERE. And, although certainly not just for math teachers, Denis Sheeran showed us how to #MakeItReal and look for math in the world around us in Instant Relevance.