Robert Kaplinsky

Are your students working on parallel and perpendicular lines? Try out these two Open Middle problems from Bryan Anderson: www.openmiddle.com/equation... www.openmiddle.com/equation...

Here are some examples of what math Depth of Knowledge looks like in K to 2nd grade. Check out and download my Elementary Math DOK matrix. robertkaplinsky.com/depth-k...

Can your students figure out which Michaels coupon will save them the most money? Is it the 30% off their entire purchase or 40% off of one item? robertkaplinsky.com/work/mi...

How do you measure professional development's effectiveness? What if the evaluations are all glowing but nothing's being implemented weeks or months later? robertkaplinsky.com/3-compo...

I had questions about Project Follow Through after listening to the Sold A Story Season 2 podcast. So, I found the original report and shared both my questions and exact quotes from the reports. I also check statements made on the podcast. Ready more here: robertkaplinsky.com/fact-checkin...

Which of these four images does not belong? These kinds of conversations are great for math class. You can find more like it on talkingmathwithkids.com/wodb/ from Mary Bourassa and Christopher Danielson.

It's frustrating to find students' hidden misconceptions when it's too late to do anything about them. So check out my free webinar called Three Engaging Methods To Uncover And Fix Hidden Student Misconceptions for tips on what we can do. Watch here: info.robertkaplinsky.com/th...

Can your high school students create a parallelogram, triangle, or rectangle by listing their points when given one? Find out using these three Open Middle problem from Bryan Anderson. www.openmiddle.com/creating... www.openmiddle.com/creating... www.openmiddle.com/creating...

This skytyping lesson gives a real world context for all four transformations: reflections, translations, rotations, and dilations and their implementation using algebraic notation. robertkaplinsky.com/work/sk...

Do you like listening to podcasts too? I love how much I learn from them and how entertaining they are. So, I want to share my six favorite non-education podcasts. Please let me know any of your recommendations in the comments. robertkaplinsky.com/my-six-...

Are your high school students working with complex numbers? Try these two Open Middle problems out to see what misconceptions they have: www.openmiddle.com/complex-... www.openmiddle.com/complex-...

Most theme park rides have height restrictions. Sometimes you have to be taller, sometimes shorter, and sometimes in between two heights. These restrictions are a great way to introduce the idea of inequalities such as greater than and less than. robertkaplinsky.com/work/ri...

Help your students think deeply about radicals with this Open Middle problem from Phillip Haislip-Hansberry. www.openmiddle.com/comparin...

Looking to see what a problem-based math lesson looks like in a high school classroom? You can #ObserveMe teaching a pre-calculus class here. robertkaplinsky.com/watch-t...

Check out these tires! If they're bigger than an SUV or a semi trick, then how big is the vehicle that uses it?!?! This lesson is great for seventh graders studying proportions. robertkaplinsky.com/work/ti...

If you're a current or aspiring educational consultant, I wrote a blog post with four things I thought I knew about being an educational consultant, but later learned I was wrong... sometimes narrowly avoiding disaster. You can check them out here: robertkaplinsky.com/four-th...

Have you seen Dane Ehlert's website with so many real world lessons? There are many problem-based lessons for upper elementary through high school: whenmathhappens.com/3-act-m...

If you're looking for high quality online professional development that works around your schedule, check out Grassroots Workshops. You'll find lots of options from education leaders you know, like, and trust. You can earn graduate PD credits too! grassrootsworkshops.com/

If your students are learning about perpendicular lines, try out this Open Middle problem from Andy Schwen with them: www.openmiddle.com/perpendi...

Apple made a screen that was so sharp they called it a "retina display" because the pixels were so small that they couldn't be seen by a human retina. have students use the Pythagorean Theorem to calculate the screen's pixel density. robertkaplinsky.com/work/re...

How do you think your students would respond to this impossible math question? Watch how 32 eighth graders I interviewed responded. robertkaplinsky.com/how-old...

If your high school students are working on adding vectors, try out this Open Middle problem from Bryan Anderson. www.openmiddle.com/adding-v...

This engaging STEM lesson about sunspots requires middle school students to incorporate a variety of skills to precisely describe their attributes. robertkaplinsky.com/work/su...

Here's a matrix multiplication problem from Bryan Anderson that will help you bring out their conceptual understanding. See hints and answers on Open Middle. www.openmiddle.com/matrix-m...

In this 5-min IGNITE! presentation, I share how knowing when we need Febreze is a metaphor for helping us all become better educators. Watch and download here: robertkaplinsky.com/observe... #ObserveMe

While there aren't as many Toys 'R Us stores as there used to be, the context remains. How does a computer know how far away something is from you? The method is very similar to finding the distance between two points on a coordinate plane. Check out how it works: robertkaplinsky.com/work/to...

Ever feel like you don't get the attention or respect you deserve from the people who know you well? You're not alone and it can drive you bonkers. Here's my take on it including where it shows up in education and what you can do about it. robertkaplinsky.com/no-one-...

Did you know that Mike Flynn has a YouTube channel where he shares videos for math educators? Here are three of his most popular videos: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uzj... www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_F... www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBC...

Tired of students getting correct answers, yet not really understanding what they're doing? Then you should check out the recording of my How To Help Students Become Problem Solvers, Not Math Robots webinar with K-5 & 6-12 versions. robertkaplinsky.com/norobot...

Algebra teachers, check out these three rational exponent problems from Bryan Anderson. See the hints and answers on Open Middle: www.openmiddle.com/rational... www.openmiddle.com/rational... www.openmiddle.com/rational...

Looking for a lesson to help students develop strategies for solving problems involving coins? Check out this lesson that provides many opportunities for strategic thinking. robertkaplinsky.com/work/en...

Have you ever heard an idea that you'd never considered, but right after you heard it, you immediately recognized it's brilliance? The word for that is "postdictable". Read all about it as well as postdictable ideas in education: robertkaplinsky.com/postdic...

Are your students working on radical equations? This Open Middle problem from Jonathan Newman will challenge their understandings! www.openmiddle.com/radical-...

What is this?! A center for ants?!! Use scale and proportions to find how many times bigger Zoolander's school should really be. I've included a clip from the movie and three potential methods for how students might approach this problem. robertkaplinsky.com/work/ho...

How deeply do your students understand parallel and perpendicular lines if they can't create sets of points to define the lines? Try out these two Open Middle problems from Nanette Johnson: www.openmiddle.com/perpendi... www.openmiddle.com/parallel...

Professional development wasn't working great before the pandemic. We need more differentiation, flexibility, affordability, and access time. So here's my take on what we need to do differently now and how we can do it. robertkaplinsky.com/four-wa...

Want to help students develop conceptual understanding of parabolas? This lesson uses the game Angry Birds as a context for understanding what information you need to graph a quadratic. robertkaplinsky.com/work/an...

If you run educator events where people get paid to speak (or you get paid to speak at events like this), this blog post's for you. Since Feb 2021, I've asked orgs that hire me to pay all keynote/featured speakers equally. Here are five reactions. robertkaplinsky.com/five-re...

Steve Wyborney has SOOOO many free resources for teachers to immediately use in their classroom. Primary Tile Questions are a great mix of numbers sense and geometric reasoning. Don't wait to use these with your students: stevewyborney.com/2017/01/p...

Do you present to other educators or aspire to? I created a webinar where I go through my entire presentation creation process from start to finish. For example, I use this three circle Venn diagram to help me choose a topic. Watch it here: https://info.robertkaplinsky.com/captivating/

Are your students learning about parallel lines and transversals? Try out these two Open Middle problems from Shelli Foust: www.openmiddle.com/parallel... www.openmiddle.com/parallel...

The NHTSA created infographics to tell people that some children are not in the right car seats. The problem is that they don't actually show the correct fraction that they should! Have students suggest fixes for the images in this lesson. robertkaplinsky.com/work/ca...

If your school or district's initiatives are all over the place with little coherence, then this blog post will resonate with you. robertkaplinsky.com/the-nee...

Want to challenge your Geometry students to find the area of triangles? Try out this Open Middle problem from Dan Wulf. www.openmiddle.com/area-of-...

Looking for a real world context for writing out numbers in expanded form? This problem uses check writing to help kids make sense of the process. Share it with an elementary teacher you know. robertkaplinsky.com/work/wr...

Here's a challenging Open Middle problem to help students develop conceptual understanding of quadratics in standard form: www.openmiddle.com/maximum-...

Here's my letter to the editor published in Education Week about why math educators should use social media professionally. robertkaplinsky.com/letter-...

This lesson uses a BuzzFeed video to help students better visualize calories. It's also a great context for combining like terms and solving one- and two-step equations: robertkaplinsky.com/work/wh...

I used to think that courageous and fearless were interchangeable. They're not and I unpack the meaningful difference in this really short blog post. robertkaplinsky.com/be-cour...

Math openers promote rigorous student thinking and discourse at the beginning of each class. Dan Finkel from Math for Love provides over a dozen free openers on his website: mathforlove.com/lessons/ope... And here's his online workshop on openers: grassrootsworkshops.com/wor...