Jason To | 杜澤信

Thank you to all Parents who joined us today @tdsb.on.ca Sheppard PS to learn about the various strategies for adding numbers & ways in which they help to build strong number sense. So nice to see parents work together with their children to solve math problems! @tdsbmath.bsky.social @mrjasonto.com

Before jumping straight to the algorithm and you show the visual representation of converting mixed fractions to improper fractions, vice versa, and they yell out “Ooooh, that makes sense!!” 🥹🤩proud of these students! @mrjasonto.com @tdsbmath.bsky.social

My heart breaks for the Tumbler Ridge community. All of Canada mourns for the victims of this immense tragedy.

Today, teachers @tdsb.on.ca Stanley PS had a Math PLC focusing on High Impact Instructional Practices. The format: observing 2 co-taught lessons (Gr. 2/3&3/4). The outcome: rich learning experience for teachers in classrooms with students deeply engaged in math! @tdsbmath.bsky.social @mrjasonto.com

God bless Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney for saying what needed to be said in his Davos speech.

If you haven’t listened to the full speech, do it right now.

It’s bold, pragmatic, yet still values-driven. Canada had a good day today on the world stage.

This speech is one for the ages.

www.cbc.ca/news/politic...

Toronto basketball coach Bob Maydo remembered by former students, family, friends | CBC News A friend, father figure and mentor. That’s just some of the ways family, students and former players are choosing to remember Toronto high school basketball coach Robert ‘Bob’ Maydo.

Bob was a good man and left a mark on so many people. My condolences to his family and friends.

www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

This is a great history lesson on how the Government of Ontario has reformed school boards since the 1960s to increase efficiency and offer more services, but also to exert more control on local schools.

Bill 33 appears to be the next stage in this evolution.

www.tvo.org/article/how-...

Teachers, politicians call on the province to release EQAO results | CBC News Educators and politicians are urging Ontario’s Ministry of Education to release the much-delayed Education Quality and Accountability Office assessment results.

The annual nature of EQAO assessments promotes quick-fixes that don’t necessarily have sustainability in mind. Large-scale improvements that really matter take time to implement.

www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Ep 27 - Jason To - Think Thank Thunk Jason To joins Kyle to bridge the gap between cognitive science and Thinking Classrooms. Learn how cognitive load and collective memory may help explain why Building Thinking Classrooms works.

Check out the latest episode of the @thinkthankthunk.ca podcast to hear me rant about inquiry-based vs. explicit instruction and how they fit:

thinkthankthunk.ca/ep-27/

or wherever you get your pods.

Implementing our Shaping Algebraic Reasoning Patterning PD into the classroom. Students built and walked around trying to determine other groups’ pattern rule. They were able to see the rate of change and constant. Great way to start linear relations! @mrjasonto.com @tdsbmath.bsky.social

How can we count efficiently? Counting Collections to start the Number Sense unit that will focus on representing, composing and decomposing numbers. Grade 3s @tdsb.on.ca Gracedale PS came up with amazing observations! @mrjasonto.com @tdsbmath.bsky.social

Day 2 of Leadership in Destreamed Mathematics PD and leaders got to play with algebra tiles to explore how they could use them to collect like terms, add/subtract polynomials, multiply and expand, factor and complete the square. So much fun! @mrjasonto.com @tdsbmath.bsky.social

Day 1 of facilitating with @codruc.bsky.social on Shaping Algebraic Reasoning with grade 7-10 teachers. Such a great PD on patterning and linear relations. Great activities to bring back to the class and do with students. @mrjasonto.com @tdsbmath.bsky.social

Exploring unit fractions with grade 9s at Emery CI. Lots of math conversations happening! @mrjasonto.com @tdsbmath.bsky.social

Day 1 of Unlocking Fractions with grades 2-5 math teachers was great! Dived into equal sharing, estimating proportions and unit fractions! @tdsbmath.bsky.social @mrjasonto.com

Using mini whiteboards as a tool for a whole class formative assessment is so quick and easy to do. Great strategy! @mrjasonto.com @tdsbmath.bsky.social

Kokirihia Annual Report 2025 cover page

Page of Jason’s ideas for destreaming

I got to meet folks from Tokona te Raki, an organization that is tackling academic streaming to promote educational equity for Māori children in New Zealand.

I shared some insights about destreaming in Ontario and they captured them in their annual report.

www.maorifutures.co.nz/research/kok...

Day 1 of Leadership in Destreamed Mathematics🤩! Had VP/Ps,CL/ACLs & teachers analyze school data to help set goals.& Looked at formative assessments & talk about next steps through small group instruction. & Worked on linking factor trees to scientific notation! @mrjasonto.com @tdsbmath.bsky.social

Jason holding the King of 94 trophy

When I’m not math-ing, I’m winning NHL94 world championships 🏆🏆🏆 @nhl94.bsky.social

I wrote up an experience using a slow reveal graph with a fourth grade class for Edutopia. ✨

"Harvard can't use race as a factor in admissions, but ICE can use race as a factor in detentions" is a retrenchment essentially to a pre-Civil War understanding of the Constitution. It's vanishingly few steps removed from "Latinos have no rights which the white man is bound to respect."

OECD chart showing students from Canadian provinces as ranking with Denmark as having the highest level of financial literacy in the world.

Financial literacy education is most plagued by the relevancy issue. 13-year-olds just don’t see credit card debt as being relevant.

Also, Ontario students rank amongst the highest in the world in financial literacy. So what problem is this test trying to solve?

www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Well deserved - congratulations!

You Don’t Need to Be Good at Math to Enjoy It

[GIFT ARTICLE] Mathematician Eugenia Chang explores the choices we make to determine if two things — numbers, shapes, words and even people — are equal. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/30/s... #iteachmath

Teachers’ subjectivities in responsive instruction: when ambitious practice encounters challenging teaching situations - Instructional Science In the pursuit of inclusive classrooms, educators have identified the importance of teachers’ responsiveness to the particular students they teach. To date, research on responsive teaching has emphasi...

🧵 New #openaccess pub just dropped:

"Teachers' subjectivities in responsive instruction:
When ambitious instruction encounters challenging teaching situations"

by me, Yeliz Günal Aggül, Shuqin Li, and Christine Hood

#AcademicSky #EduSky

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Racial bias affects early math education. Researchers are trying to stop that Researchers say more resources, teacher awareness needed to combat racial bias in math lessons.

The Racial Justice in Early Math project [Image of child's arm and some red and white counters on a desktop]

Great thread about the role of motivation/connection/interest in cognitive load theory . . . #ITeachMath #MathEd

How Should We Teach Math? General and Special Ed. Researchers Don't Agree The divide makes it less likely that students who struggle will get access to proven strategies, researchers argue in a new study.

Solid math teaching really is a strategic blend of inquiry for sense-making & agency w/ explicit instruction for skill-building & fluency.

The key is knowing how concepts progress & how students in the class learn best.

Inclusion in math ed needs BOTH approaches.

www.edweek.org/teaching-lea...

Screenshot of the linked article with the title: “Oklahoma ideology test for teachers from New York and California draws criticism.”

Screenshot of an article with the title “Results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) are in, and Oklahoma remains near the bottom nationally.”

MAGAs from Oklahoma need to worry a little less about leftist boogeyman teachers and a crap ton more about actually teaching kids how to read and do math. This is just bizarre and embarrassing.

apnews.com/article/okla...