About Pam / Media Kit
If Pam is doing a keynote, presentation, or workshop for your group, you may use the following promotional materials. You may choose to copy text and/or graphics directly from this webpage or download a PRINTABLE VERSION for use in promoting your event.
Bio:
Pam Harris is a mom, a former high school math teacher, a university lecturer, an author, and she wants to change the way we view and teach mathematics. While Pam was teaching high school math, her four children grew and mathematized their world in a way she had never imagined. “I had always bought into the myth that math is a disconnected set of facts to memorize, with rules and procedures to mimic. I now call that fake math.” Pam’s own kids, research, and experiences teaching real math have shown her what it means to mathematize and to support learners in their own journeys. Real math is thinking mathematically, not just mimicking what a teacher does on the board. You can shift your brain from using rote memory to mathematizing. Pam helps teachers make this shift for themselves, and helps teachers teach in a way that supports students to learn real math.
Short Bio:
Pam Harris is changing the way we view and teach mathematics. She is a mom, a former high school math teacher, a university lecturer, an author, and a mathematics teachers educator. Real Math is thinking mathematically, not just mimicking what a teacher does. Pam helps leaders and teachers to make the shift that supports students to learn Real Math.
Professional Background:
Pamela Weber Harris is the author of several books, including Building Powerful Numeracy, Discovering Advanced Algebra, and a book for professional development leaders. A former secondary mathematics teacher, Pam currently teaches at Texas State University, is a K-12 mathematics education consultant, a T³ (Teachers Teaching with Technology) Instructor, and an author and coauthor of several professional development workshops. Pam presents frequently at regional and national conferences. Her particular interests include teaching real math, building powerful numeracy, sequencing rich tasks to construct mathematics, using technology appropriately, smart assessment, and vertical connectivity in curricula in schools PK-12.
How Pam Presents:
Want to learn more about what technology Pam uses to present? Learn about it HERE
Head Shot:
Mathisfigureoutable Graphics
You may use these graphics to promote any Pam Harris events
Books
Building Powerful Numeracy for Middle & High School Students
From the Introduction: “As secondary teachers, we are often frustrated by the lack of number sense in our students. Students seem to either reach for a calculator or just shrug and say “I don’t know,” when asked simple arithmetic questions…”
“I was and continue to be amazed at the power we can harness in our secondary students by teaching ourselves and our students real numeracy.”
“…when we help students construct numerical relationships, they begin to believe that mathematics is understandable, that it is not all about memorizing abstract, counter-intuitive rules, but instead an arena in which they can reason and use their intuitive sense. We can develop their numeracy and use this understanding to build higher math.”
“This book is an outstanding and welcome contribution to the field of mathematics education. It simultaneously addresses the development of numeracy and the extensions to the mathematical ideas taught on the secondary level and does so in a wonderfully engaging, coherent, and thoughtful way. Any secondary teacher reading this book will come away with a far deeper understanding of how to develop numeracy and fluent computation while integrating the more advanced topics that they are required to teach.”
~ Cathy Fosnot, author of the series
Young Mathematicians at Work
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 Numeracy
Chapter 2 Addition and Subtraction: Models and Strategies
Chapter 3 Addition
Chapter 4 Subtraction
Chapter 5 Multiplication and Division: Models and Strategies
Chapter 6 Multiplication
Chapter 7 Division
Chapter 8 Decimals, Fractions, and Percents: Models and Strategies
Chapter 9 Decimals, Fractions, and Percents: Addition and Subtraction
Chapter 10 Decimals, Fractions, and Percents: Multiplication and Division
Lessons & Activities for Building Powerful Numeracy
From the Introduction: “I wrote Building Powerful Numeracy for Middle & High School Students to bring the wonderful world of research in numeracy at the elementary level to the secondary world. Lessons & Activities for Building Powerful Numeracy continues that work, providing classroom resources for you to help your students build numeracy.”
"There are two main types of activities in this workbook: Student Workouts and teacher-directed activities (strings, as close as it gets, and relational thinking). The Workouts (new in this book) are to be distributed to students to work on independently or in pairs. The teacher then leads a class discussion of the problems and the relationships and the strategies they reveal. These are often used as warmups. The teacher-directed activities, on the other hand, involve you, the teacher, actively throughout the activity. Both types help build a solid numeracy base.”
Building Powerful Numeracy Facilitator’s Guide
From the Introduction: “This facilitator’s guide is a companion to Building Powerful Numeracy for Middle & High School Students. The intended audience is workshop presenters, teacher leaders, coaches, pre-service instructors, and anyone else who delivers numeracy professional development. This guide represents a compilation of workshops I have given to hundreds of teachers for over 10 years on developing powerful numeracy in themselves and in their students.”
Discovering Advanced Algebra, Third Edition
“Discovering Advanced Algebra uses technology, along with applications, to foster a deeper understanding of algebraic ideas. The investigations emphasize symbol sense, algebraic manipulations, and conceptual understandings. The investigative process encourages the use of multiple representations— numerical, graphical, symbolic, and verbal— to deepen understanding for all students and to serve a variety of learning styles. Explorations from multiple perspectives help students simplify and understand what formerly were difficult algebraic abstractions…”
Advanced Algebra Problem Strings
From the Introduction: “We believe that the regular use of the powerful routine called problem strings helps both students and teachers before and after investigations. Increasingly, problem strings are being used by teachers to:
- preview big ideas that will arise in an investigation,
- solidify the ideas and skills that came up in the investigation,
- create puzzlement, disequilibrium, and curiosity,
- invite students to prove or justify their ideas,
- describe and solidify strategies, and move towards efficient strategies,
- build students’ efficacy at choosing strategies, and
- generalize an idea beyond the task at hand.
"Problem strings allow students to struggle in a contained, guided, purposeful set of tasks. They compliment and support the work of investigations and math discussions, working together to foster conversations and form conclusions about relationships, structures, and repeated reasoning. This is the work worthy of teachers, to help students develop and grow into mathematicians.”
Use Algebra Problem Strings with the Discovering Advanced Algebra textbook to support the investigations, or with a different text to provide students with opportunities to construct mathematical concepts.
Each Problem String has the following sections:
- At a Glance
- Objectives
- Placement
- Guiding the Problem String
- About the Mathematics
- Sample Final Display
- Facilitation Notes
Additionally, each Problem String has either full or partial Sample Interactions, or Important Question sections.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1 Linear Modeling
Chapter 2 Systems of Equations and Inequalities
Chapter 3 Functions and Relations
Chapter 4 Exponential, Power, and Logarithmic Functions
Chapter 5 Quadratic Functions and Relations
Chapter 6 Polynomial and Rational Functions
Chapter 7 Trigonometry and Trigonometric Functions
Chapter 8 Probability
Chapter 9 Applications of Statistics
Index