Habits of a Mathematician
Animas High School Math Department

The below habits are practices that the AHS math department explicitly and regularly supports students to develop, via daily classroom work and group roles, Unit Problems that the class works through as a whole, and individually-completed Problems of the Week. These habits map both to the Colorado State Standards for Mathematical Practice/Common Core Process Standards​ and the NCTM Process Standards. 

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​Generating ideas

• Making a clear plan
• Brainstorming! (Coming up with lots of ways to approach the problem)
• Identifying and applying math tools (formulae, equations, diagrams, graphs, data)
• Asking interesting, precise, and relevant questions 

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​Communicating thinking clearly

• Restating the problem in a way that’s easy to understand
• Translating ideas into pictures, symbols, and other visual models
• ​Responding to others (asking clarifying questions, etc.)
• Drawing out contributions from quieter members of the group

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Recognizing and resolving errors

• Disproving with a reason or counterexample
• Track steps and monitor for meaning (why are you doing each step? Do the values make sense?
• Finding and correcting logical flaws
• Attending to precision and detail - correcting computational mistakes

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Reflecting and synthesizing

• Reflecting on the answer: how is it meaningful?!    
• Providing justification for an idea or process (“this is a good idea because…”)
• Developing general rules based on specific examples
• Connecting abstract ideas to real world examples