Robert Kaplinsky: Teaching Mathematical Problem-Solving Digitally

#EduDuctTape S03-E049

Episode Notes Available
at: jakemiller.net/eduducttape-episode-49



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Today’s Guest: Robert Kaplinsky

Robert has been an educator since 2003 as a classroom
teacher, teacher specialist, instructor for the UCLA, and
presenter at conferences around the world. He's the author of
Open Middle Math: Problems That Unlock Student Thinking and
created the #ObserveMe movement.  He’s also the founder
and president of Grassroots Workshops.

Contact Info: @robertkaplinsky on Twitter,
@robert_kaplinsky on Instagram, @robertkaplinsky on Facebook,
robertkaplinsky.com, openmiddle.com, grassrootsworkshops.com,
robert@robertkaplinsky.com






2 Truths & 1 Lie


Educational Duct Tape Question: "How
do I teach mathematical problem solving digitally?"

"We are coming from a position where we have always
taught it without technology, we should give ourselves a lot
of grace."

In-N-Out burger question

Find similar problems at robertkaplinsky.com/lessons



Desmos Activity Builder for a real-world problem

Desmos has pre-built classroom activities, as well as
the "Activity Builder" for making your own.

Use drag-and-drop editing to add content to an
interactive slide deck (text boxes, sketches, graphs,
etc.)

Slides can be oneway (providing info to students) or
interactive (text questions, drag-and-drop, sketch, card
sorts, etc.)

Can see an overlay view that is similar to what Pear
Deck offers

Teacher.desmos.com

Desmos Marbleslides

Desmos can anonymize student names and freeze
student screens

Sliders let students explore elements of problems,
patterns, and graphs (for example, changing the m or b in
y=mx + b)



"A lot of the way that we value mathematics in the United
States is on getting the right answers quickly and
efficiently. As a teacher, I was really good at creating math
robots who could get the answers, but really didn't know what
they were talking about."

 Focus on real-world problem-solving in mathematics
mathematical modeling

"It's easy to enter into, but challenging to master and
that, I think, is very satisfying in general."

Open Middle Math

Find problems on https://www.openmiddle.com/

Learn why educators' like Open Middle problems at
#WhyOpenMiddle

Open Middle - “Want the Google Slides?”

Asynchronous use of the Google Slides - a
separate set of slides for each kid, but that makes
it more difficult to observe their work

Synchronous - collaborative Google Slides

Level up - Google Slides with Pear Deck

The video of Robert using Pear Deck with an
Open Middle problem is in this workshop.

or The Answer Pad







Open Middle with Desmos Activity Builder

The Dunning-Kruger Effect - "The more that you learn, the
more that you realize you don't know."




The Celebration of the Adjacent Possible

Apple Podcast Review from Jated Bubbsy

#EduDuctTape Flipgrid Question from Andrew Nikola

microphones that I mentioned:

Samson Q2U Handheld Dynamic

Audio-Technica ATR2100

Audio-Technica ATR2100x

Blue Snowball

Blue Yeti

Rode