TEAM MMMathMania
We are a group of four elementary school educators from Edmonton, Alberta. We are dedicated to making math engaging, meaningful and FUN for children. We focus on helping students deepen their conceptual understanding of math through a hands on games approach. We are confident our games will build a stronger foundation of number sense and greater confidence in math abilities. All of our resources (videos and downloadable games) are 100% FREE. As teachers ourselves, we know how much time you are already putting into your work educating children, which is why all of our games are either no prep or low prep. As long as you have cards and dice, you should be able to play the majority of our games the next day, with no additional prep needed!
Vanessa
My name is Vanessa and I am the founder and CEO of MMMathMania. I have been a self proclaimed math geek for as long as I can remember (well except for that year in high school, I never did pass Math 31!) My love for all things math started early. In kindergarten one of my show and tells was me demonstrating how I could add dice together as soon as they hit the ground. Anyways fast forward many years later and my favourite subject to teach is math! The only thing I love more than math (besides my family and friends!) is the 90's music group TLC. That's right I am a HUGE TLC fan, some would say obsessive, but I prefer the word loyal! 😉😜🤭 I've been lucky enough to see them in concert 3 times, meet them twice and at one point I even owned TBozs pajamas from the video Baby Baby Baby. It's a funny story that I love to share with anyone who likes to listen to it, although not many people take me up on that offer! But enough about me being Canada's #1 TLC fan. I have 18+ years of teaching experience in a public school district in Alberta, Canada (mostly in the areas of grade 2/3) and during this time have been fortunate enough to learn from and become friends with some incredible human beings. A few of which I'm so fortunate to have as part of my team for this new venture of ours! When I'm not teaching grade 3, I'm a mom to a busy almost 8 year old boy. Besides numbers a few of my other favourite things include spending time with my family and friends, running on my Peloton treadmill, reading, hot tubs and animals (I'm a dog person!) and eating Indian and Vietnamese food.
Silvia
I am currently an elementary school teacher and have worked as a Math Consultant in a large school district in Canada. I am constantly making up or modifying games to learn, review and practice a mathematical concept. I was born in Brazil but I was fortunate enough to move to this amazing country when I was 9 years old. I love Canada! In fact, 9 times out of 10 when you see me I will be wearing my Canada gear and listening to an up and coming artist (which is usually code for boy bands!). I love my husband and two kids who are in their teenage years. One of my favorite quotes is "Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better." -Maya Angelou. This is my mantra! I am always striving to be better, especially in Mathematics Instruction. I hope to inspire you to love Math as much as I love Canada and the Backstreet Boys!
Nadine
Hello!! I would love to say I was always interested in math however that is not the case. I struggled through Junior High School and all the way through University. Made me wonder how I could teach math so that more students would be excited about it, engaged and could see themselves as mathematicians. At the beginning of my career 23 years ago, I was fortunate enough to have a mentor that knew games, hands-on activities, group work, “thinking tools” and literature was the way to go in achieving my goals. I have been teaching like that ever since. I have been involved with Math4All as a math coach and have started a math lab in two schools. Part of my role was to teach students math games to support students and teachers. This was an amazing experience! Outside of school, I enjoy snowshoeing, hikes, baking, horses and crocheting. I have an amazing husband and two children, ages 18 and 16. Thank you for joining us on this journey in spreading the word MATH IS FUN!!!
Ashley
I am currently an elementary school teacher and have a passion for anything involving creative arts and a huge love for Math. I was born and raised in Edmonton and I am the proud Mom of two energetic, beat to their own drums, curious boys. I wish that I could say I always loved Math from an early age, but in all actuality I had to work really hard at Math growing up and want to ensure that my boys do not have this same struggle. They both love numbers, especially when incorporated in any type of game format. But like many of my students, they both learn in different ways. Playing math games is how I meet both of their mathematical needs. My husband is amazing with numbers and claims he gained his number sense from counting cinder blocks outside the classroom...his Mom said he was very chatty, so he spent a lot of time in the hallway (poor guy!). A not so secret love I have is for bananas. That's right, the ones that grow on trees. Lol I cannot go a day without one, two or even three (but who is really counting...oh that is right we actually tracked my banana intake in a previous teaching year and let's just say our banana budget is pretty big here at the Elford house). At the end of the day I want Math to be something my students look forward to and hope to encourage teachers and parents that Math is indeed AWESOME!
our official music video
Check out our music video, "Let us Teach You Math Games" which is a parody of Jason Derulos's hit "Take you Dancing". This music video is our anthem to how we teach math, we had a tonne of fun making it, and hope you and your students will enjoy it too! Huge thanks to Anne Marie Switzer, Amanda Banister for being our vocal talent and Dean from TruBrand media for bringing our vision to life!