http://mathforum.org/math_talk_landing_book.html

Max's book has officially hit the shelves!

Powerful Problem Solving: Activities for Sense-Making with the Mathematical Practices gathers what we've learned about helping students become proficient problem solvers, focused through the lens of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for Mathematical Practices.

With the book's publication, we unveiled an accompanying website yesterday, as well. Whether you've purchased the book or not, watch our free YouTube clips of Max and the rest of the Forum team as we teach at a school near us here in Philadelphia, using Problems of the Week (PoWs) and the many activities from Powerful Problem Solving:

http://mathforum.org/pps/video.html

http://blog.desmos.com/post/62158789621/
des-man-a-desmos-labs-project

Desmos just came out with a way to learn about functions: by drawing funny faces.

Having recently teamed up with Dan Meyer on their first collaboration, the folks behind the desmos.com free online graphing calculator realized that making thoughtful content "is really freaking difficult ... and really freaking fun."

Des-man, the Work In Progress that Desmos announced Wednesday, guides students through the process of making domain and range restrictions. Then — "navigating the fine line between doing too much and not enough, between guiding and pushing" — Des-man prompts students to "draw" a face using expressions:

https://class.desmos.com/desman

A teacher dashboard that updates in real time lets you monitor your students' progress as they plot functions. Des-man's filters narrow in on just those students who, for example, have experimented with circles or ellipses.

Desmos welcomes feedback on this Work In Progress, which draws on an idea blogged by longtime PoW member Fawn Nguyen. From "where it shines" to "where it falls short," Desmos wants to know; and further seeks your suggestions for another lesson, or what you want to see more from them:

https://docs.google.com/a/desmos.com/forms/d/
15t8W9qWz7KCSmShyeDVpL7lAFtWpxp3AFQxZEOnQjew/viewform

https://courses.mooc-ed.org/EquipartitioningF13/preview

A Massive Open Online Course for Educators (MOOC-Ed) kicks off two Mondays from now. It's based on fair sharing — and it's free.

With units such as "Deal or No Deal?" and "Let Them Share Cake!" and "That's Not Fair! (Or Is It?)," the MOOC-Ed focuses on splitting, re-allocating, and other ways to form equal-sized groups (from collections) or parts (from a single whole). Such fair sharing, or "equipartitioning," establishes a foundation for students' conceptual understanding of division, multiplication, fraction, and ratio. A team led by Drs. Jere Confrey and Alan Maloney will provide instructions, suggest resources, contribute to discussions, and answer questions from course participants in each lesson of the course.

Recommended for elementary and middle grades educators and "open to anyone interested and involved in mathematics education," the Equipartitioning Learning Trajectory MOOC-Ed officially opens Monday, 7 October, but continues to accept registrations until the end of its first week. Get the scoop on time commitment, certificates of completion for Continuing Education Units (CEU), and other frequently asked questions by consulting

http://www.mooc-ed.org/EquipartitioningF13/faq.html

Learning Trajectories and its TurnOnCCMath.net site first appeared in these pages this summer. Created by a research group from North Carolina State University, this MOOC-Ed from Generating Increased Science and Math Opportunities (GISMO) is offered by the Friday Institute for Educational Innovation, and made possible in part by funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Oak Foundation.