Formathics 101
What is Formathics?
Formathics is a tool that is able to connect many different concepts and representations of mathematical relationships, and in doing so, it can generate dynamic math resources that are standard aligned, teacher vetted, and available in formats that teachers actually use.
Formathics is not a curriculum or an instructional program, and Formathics is not a worksheet generator.
How do you use Formathics?
Just like any other tool, Formathics can be used as designed or used creatively for new applications.
1. Use Formathics As Designed:
Formathics is designed to create a resource for you based on the skill that you choose. You decide on the topic and the format. We do the rest. So whether you are making a gallery walk, warm up slides, or an exit ticket, the activity you want is just a few clicks away. There are three ways you can start.
Curated Skills
Formathics has hundreds of Curated Skills that are organized by math course. Each Curated Skill is standard aligned and teacher vetted. You can pick any of these Curated Skills and choose the format that you prefer to get a unique resource that's ready to use.
Combine Skills
Use "Combine Skills" to put multiple Curated Skills together into one activity. You can choose the format and adjust the directions to make sure they reflect the needs of students in your class.
Design Skills
If you have a goal in mind but can't find the right Curated Skill, you might be able to make it with "Design Skills." Just like when you use a Curated Skill or when you Combine Skills, you can choose your desired format.
2. Use Formathics Creatively
Formathics is not a curriculum and it isn't an instructional program. So out of the box it doesn't lend itself to instruction. However, with some creativity (and teachers are the most creative people we know), you can use Formathics to save time while you create exploratory, collaborative, conceptual tasks. Here are three quick examples:
Save time creating learning experiences.
As a dynamic, unopinionated tool, you can use Formathics to make an endless variety of tasks, like this example of Concept Attainment that pushes the burden of thinking onto students and lets you introduce an idea before you start sharing vocabulary or processes.
Use Formathics to setup MLRs.
With Formathics, you can give your students something to talk about while they use language routines. See how to make the kinds of activities that support MLRs like Compare and Connect in seconds with this example.
Spend your time thinking about teacher moves, like the 5 Practices of Math Discourse.
You can use Formathics to generate graphs, equations, relationships, etc. while you think about supporting your students' thinking. Your time is best spent anticipating, monitoring, selecting, sequencing, and connecting your students' ideas together through discussion.
3. Use Formathics as Intended
All tools can be used in ways that were never intended and Formathics is no exception. Perhaps the least effective way to use Formathics would be by replacing strong math instruction and learning experiences with mere processes. Formathics does support proceedural fluency, and procedural fluency is a key component of mathematics, but it's not the only component. So use Formathics wisely to enhance your classroom, not to turn math into a list of rules followed by 20 practices problems.
Why is Formathics needed if it's not an instructional program?
For the same reason that teachers should have access to calculators. It's not about the tool; it's about what else teachers can do when they use the tool to save time.
And Formathics saves teachers time, especially when they are responding to the unexpected.
Our best teachers do that constantly. They respond dynamically to the unexpected. And if we want to encourage teachers to respond to student needs dynamically, teachers need a tool that is dynamic.
When do teachers use Formathics?
Truly, the possibilities are endless, but teachers who use Formathics say these are some of the times it's most helpful for them.
- Running small group sessions
- Relooping/reteaching after important assessments
- Developing question sets to build experiences from
- Preparing for end of year tests after they’ve taught the curriculum
- Tutoring students before or after school
Who uses Formathics?
Just adults. Students don't use Formathics. In fact, students don't get logins and Formathics doesn't track student data. Formathics is a tool for educators.
How Much Is Formathics Worth For Your Teachers?
View Pricing PlansWhat are some other ways to use Formathics?
Maximize productive time.
Warm ups or bell ringers have staying power for a reason, but just because they are ubiquitous doesn't mean that we shouldn't give them utmost attention. You can use Formathics to create the specific warm ups that your students need.
Small group whenever you need to.
Short teaching cycles with SMART feedback help students learn. But short cycles mean short windows to prep materials when you small group your students. Formathics can help.
Build procedural fluency with spaced practice.
There's no doubt that a strong instructional approach helps students retain skills and concepts for longer. But if you don't rethread those concepts and processes as your class moves onto new material, your students are going to start to forget. Use Formathics to give students extra exposure when they need it.
Assess, intervene, repeat.
You can't teach tomorrow if you don't know what your students know today. And when you take the time to intervene, you need to know if it was successful. Use Formathics to do the prep work so you can spend your time making a difference.