r/mathteachers

I'm his older brother, currently in college majoring in chem engineering. My younger brother is 15 and spends most of his free time doing mathematics. He also keeps a diary where he writes down his mathematical ideas, observations, achievements, and anything interesting he comes across.

This is some of the things he has independently worked on:

Rediscovered the basic trigonometric ratios before learning them in school.

Explored prime-generating polynomials. Explored ideas related to the nth prime.( He was 13 yr old innocent guy then )

Arrived at symmetric variation of the Goldbach conjecture.

-Investigated prime around expressions of the form 2^n + 6 ( if n is even then primes are -3 and + 1 from it and if odd then -1 , +3 from it , works for n as 1,2,3,4,5,6,16,18 etc.

Developed an infinite-triangle method for approximating polygon and segment areas.

Created generators for Pythagorean triples.

Arrived at the positive-index binomial theorem formula by observing patterns in expansions and translating those observations into a general formula.

Etc etc much more a lot of work and ideas he has he is kinda obsessed

I'm not claiming that any of these are new discoveries or that he has solved any famous open problems. I know it's possible that many of these ideas already exist and that he may have rediscovered known mathematics independently.

I'm just curious how unusual this kind of mathematical journey is for someone his age, and what you think would be the best direction for him going forward.

I had a terrible math education growing up. I was undiagnosed with dyslexia and adhd. So school was hard. I got by by the skin of my teeth. I excelled in geometry because of how tangible it was. Fast forward I ended up getting hired as a 4th grade math only teacher (😬) realized I was teaching math in a way that was purely algorithm based and I didn’t truly understand anything.

My district ended up sending me to the NCTM conference and my world opened up. For the first time I could see what my gaps were, what I should be doing and then dedicated the next 5 years to becoming an expert in elementary mathematics (really K-8) I got a masters degree as a math specialist funded through my district, but really didn’t want to be a math specialist. I just wanted to know everything about math.

I have worked as a math specialist for one year, and I hate it, the teachers at my school are all outstanding and so appreciative of my support (I really treat the job as I am a teachers assistant and just do what ever I can to make their lives easier). Admin and my district are happy with me, but I miss working with children in my own classroom.

All this to say, I still love math, and love teaching but I want to teach high school. I am in Virginia and would need to take the 5165 praxis. But I am scared… I am worried my gaps are too deep, that I won’t be able to self teach. I truly understand mathematics now, but that extends as far as advanced 8th grade. Would I even know where to start?

Do you think it’s possible for me to get to where I can learn math throughly and basically teach myself high school math all over (now I’m talking about calculus, trigonometry, and statistics). The highly advanced concepts in high school that I never took?

What’s my best course of action?

Submission statement: this is a personal project I built myself, not monetized, sharing it here transparently to get real feedback, not to promote anything.

I spent time mentoring students in math before, mostly one-on-one, working through the stuff that's hard to get from a textbook or a lecture: seeing how a distribution actually shifts, why a vector operation does what it does, that kind of thing. Following up on a post I made here a few days ago about whether animated visuals can do some of that same work.

I built a small YouTube channel to test it directly, turning the concepts I used to walk students through by hand into fully animated lessons, from basic statistics up through linear algebra and neural networks. Search MathUnlockedYT on YouTube if you want to see what it actually looks like.

The open question for me is the same one I had when I was mentoring in person: does a student actually get it faster when they can see the concept move, or does a good explanation on paper do the same job if it's written well? I don't think animation is automatically better, I think it depends on the concept.

If you've taught or tutored these subjects, I'd like to know which specific concepts you found genuinely needed a visual to click versus the ones where a clear explanation was always enough.

I’ve been experimenting with a system that turns math topics into animated visual explanations instead of static slides or talking-head lessons.

The idea is simple: concepts like averages, distributions, functions, and probability become easier when students can see the movement instead of only reading formulas.

For teachers or students here: do you think this type of animated explanation is actually useful in education, or does it just look nice without improving understanding?

I’m especially curious where visuals help most: math, statistics, finance, science, or something else.

Looking back on my school years one thing I’ve noticed was that there seems to be two categories of students: those that love math and those that absolutely hated it.

They were almost never in between. Those anyone here feels this way or maybe I’m just a victim of survivor bias because it could just be that the students that hated/loved math were way more vocal about it so the students who were indifferent weren’t as noticeable?

My son attends a STEM middle school in Columbus, Ohio, and will be starting 7th grade this fall. His school has recommended accelerated placement into Algebra 1 and 8th grade ELA.

At this school, Algebra 1 is a semester-long course that is typically taken in the spring of 8th grade, so this would put him about a year ahead of the usual sequence.

Academically, he’s been a very strong student. He earned 98–100% in all of his 6th grade classes, consistently turned assignments in early, and genuinely enjoyed learning. Math has always come easily to him, although he’s also willing to put in the work when something is challenging.

His recent scores include:
Ohio State Tests: 750 Math, 777 English
Spring MAP: 242 Math, 240 Reading, 231 Language Usage

My hesitation isn’t whether he can do the work—it’s whether acceleration is the best long-term choice. I want him to be challenged without creating unnecessary gaps or pressure.

For those of you who teach middle school or high school math, what factors would you consider when recommending Algebra 1 in 7th grade? Have you found that students with a similar profile generally thrive, or are there things parents should watch for after accelerating?

Also, if we accept the recommendation and later find that the pace or workload isn’t the right fit, is moving back to the standard sequence typically straightforward, or can acceleration be difficult to reverse?

Thank you in advance!

UPDATE: Here is the response from his school:

Before I begin I will share that the notification for acceleration is an optional placement. In the fall you will receive a paper that will need to be signed to secure  placement. I don't give this paper until at least the 2nd or 3rd week of class to allow for students and families to assess their comfort in the course.

Math

• This course is actually a year-long Algebra 1 class. We haven't updated our course listing but we changed it to year-long to slow down the pace for Middle School students taking a High School course. The class will also be taught by the 8th Grade Math teacher.
• As far as gaps, Noah's scores indicate that there may not be gaps that need to be filled. If there are, this will be assessed and reviewed during the initial class pre-tests. If they are significant then we will likely move Noah to the Advanced Pre-Algebra course. You may also request that now, if you see fit.

English

• The curriculum for ELA 8 tends to cover many of the same standards explored in ELA 7, just in more depth. Again, Noah's scores show a readiness for this, meaning that he has shown a level of proficiency for many of the standards that will be covered in ELA 8.

I’ve spoken with my son and with this additional information, he feels comfortable with the acceleration. In addition, we will be reviewing the algebra readiness topics to ensure he is ready to go in the fall.

Thank you all so much for sharing your thoughts and helping us to make this decision.

Seriously, every other post is basically an advertisement for some app that was vibe coded with AI.

By the way, who wants a link to the new app I developed that already exists in 3 different formats, offers nothing new, isn’t accessible, is full of inaccuracies, and requires a subscription?

Math in Alberta is genuinely so difficult for students! It’s been so tough on my daughter but she has been using a site called studyio.ca and it has genuinely helped her so much! Just wanted to put this out there in case anyone needed help in grades 9-12.

Hello maths lovers,

I'm fairly new to maths tuition, so I'd really appreciate some advice.

Yesterday I had a 1-to-1 GCSE lesson that focused on algebra. We covered collecting like terms, expanding double brackets, and solving linear equations.

I came away feeling that the student knew many of the rules but didn't really have an intuition for them.

For example, he knew that you can only collect like terms, but it didn't seem obvious to him why. He knew that you have to perform the same operation on both sides of an equation, but it felt like something he was trying to remember rather than reason about, and he struggled to apply it consistently.

It felt as though there was a missing mental model tying everything together.

Has anyone found good ways of helping students build that intuition? Are there any books, worksheets, activities, or teaching approaches that you've found particularly effective?

At the moment I'm exploring ways to connect algebra to his interests, such as football or drumming, to make it feel more concrete. I'm also wondering whether visualisation or "mind's eye" exercises have a place in helping students develop an internal picture of what's happening.

I'd be interested to hear what has worked for others.

Thanks in advance!

https://preview.redd.it/ma7xec7gcjah1.png?width=1475&format=png&auto=webp&s=867ea6e2bf05203e66df7e7b185de7e50b5294af

I’m not a math teacher, so I’m asking before I build this in the wrong direction.

I made a small free grid maker in the browser. Right now it’s pretty simple: create a custom grid, use it for printable layouts / visual practice, and download it.

I first made it with drawing/reference use in mind, but I keep thinking there might be classroom uses too: blank worksheet grids, bigger grids for younger students, grids over images, area/array models, maybe geometry or graphing presets.

Tool is here if anyone wants to poke at it:

https://trygridmaker.com/

Mostly looking for honest teacher feedback. Is this useful at all for math class, or do you already have better ways to make this stuff? If it is useful, what presets would you actually want?

Feel free to let me know what topic you'd like to see covered if you're interested