Jazmine Song, maths teacher, Grades 9–12

I teach maths through inquiry, and build the tools to do it.

My lessons are visual, hands-on and built around discovery. If the right tool doesn’t exist, I make it, then share it.

See how I teach
Thumbnail A: a student studying alone in a dark classroom
A
Thumbnail B: a student in a school corridor at night under the title Night Study
B

Which one should Netflix use? By the end of Unit 1, students learn to form conclusions with trustworthy data rather than relying on their eyes for an answer.

Statistics Unit 1, start to finish

Thirteen discovery lessons, four formatives and a summative where students advise Netflix Taiwan. The packet, my boards, the review arcade, the A3 booklet and a real student's marked work.

Read the case study

More from my classroom

Each one opens the real thing, or a working version you can try.

Review games, custom-built for every unit

My Stats Arcade. Students finish lesson reviews to earn coins, play games to win tickets, and spend them at the Prize Counter. A few colleagues now run their own versions for precalculus, calculus and geometry.

Student engagement

Open the arcade (opens in a new tab)

Interactive experiences, custom-built for every lesson

I couldn't find one tool that did everything I needed: clear visual explanations of the maths, a hands-on interactive tool for every problem, and a name picker, group generator and calculator built in. So I made one. Like the Stats Arcade, my boards are now used by many colleagues in their own classrooms.

Technology integration

Open a lesson board (opens in a new tab)

Lesson pages, built so no student falls behind

Every lesson has a page with its essential question, learning targets and materials, plus a "Missed class?" column that tells absent students exactly how to catch up.

Organisation and communication

See it in the case study
Jazmine Song

About me

I've taught maths for five years in the US and Taiwan. I now teach Grade 9 Honors Integrated Math II and Grade 11–12 Statistics at Kang Chiao International School, Linkou. My family is settled in Taipei.

Outside class, I like to sing, take photos and learn languages.

Degree
M.Ed. Secondary Education, Arizona State University (PGCE equivalent)
Licence
Arizona teaching certificate, Grades 6–12 Mathematics
Languages
English, Español, 中文
Now teaching
Statistics (Grades 11–12), Honors Integrated Math II (Grade 9)
Listen to my classroom playlist (opens YouTube Music in a new tab)

Discover first, name it second

Lessons open with a question students can argue about. They collect data, spot the pattern, and only then do we write it down.

Move more, write less

My students don't love writing, so they toss coins, build, sort and play. The writing comes when they have something to say.

Grade what they know

I grade by learning target, so every student knows exactly what to practise next, and I know who to pull into a small group.

I'd love to talk about teaching maths with you.

The quickest way to reach me is email.

songjazmine@gmail.com
All work

Statistics Unit 1, start to finish

How my Grade 11–12 students go from "Were the Eagles just lucky?" on the first day to defending a recommendation to Netflix with data at the end.

Course
Regular Statistics, Grades 11–12
Unit
Collecting and Describing Data
Length
13 lessons, 4 formatives and a two-lesson summative
What I made
The packet, a board for every lesson, the formatives, the Stats Arcade and the summative. Lesson activities adapted from Math Medic.
Cover of the Unit 1 student packet, Collecting and Describing Data First page of the Unit 1 summative booklet, The Thumbnail Test

Where students start

Many students walk into Statistics saying they're "not maths people". Most don't enjoy writing, so a page of definitions loses them in minutes. And when my first quiz averaged 93%, I knew it was checking memory, not thinking.

So I built this unit around three rules:

  • Every lesson opens with a question worth arguing about. Did the Eagles cheat? Did AI write Luke's essay? Does music improve exam scores?
  • Students find the idea in the activity. I name it afterwards, in the notes.
  • Assessments ask students to explain and decide, not fill in blanks.

The unit at a glance

Four parts, each built around one essential question and ending with a formative. In Part 3 students graph their own data: their apps, their sleep, their texts.

Part 1

Where data comes from

How can a partial picture mislead us about the whole story?

  1. 1.1 Introduction to statisticsWere the Philadelphia Eagles just lucky?
  2. 1.2 Sampling methodsDid AI write Luke's response?
  3. 1.3 Avoiding biasSurvey says

Formative 1

Part 2

Studies, experiments and evidence

When is it fair to say one thing caused another?

  1. 1.4 Studies and experimentsDoes eating breakfast improve grades?
  2. 1.5 A good experimentDoes music improve exam scores?
  3. 1.6 Making conclusionsDoes exercise reduce resting heart rate?
  4. 1.7 Statistical significanceDoes music improve exam scores? Part 2

Formative 2

Part 3

Picturing one variable

How can a picture tell the truth and hide it at the same time?

  1. 2.1 Categorical graphsWhat is your social media of choice?
  2. 2.2 DotplotsHow many hours do you sleep?
  3. 2.3 HistogramsHow many text messages do you send a day?

Formative 3

Part 4

Summarizing with numbers

When does a summary hide more than it shows?

  1. 2.4 Measures of centerThe great cousin decline
  2. 2.5 Measures of variabilityHow much variety is there in the length of names?
  3. 2.6 OutliersA new home run record

Formative 4

Summative: The Thumbnail TestTwo lessons. Every part of the unit, in one Netflix story.
The class calendar on Canvas, colour-coded by lessons, formatives and the summative.
Each part has an overview page with its lesson map and learning targets.

Inside a lesson: did AI write Luke's response?

Lesson 1.2 opens with a news story: a PhD student expelled from the University of Minnesota for allegedly using AI. Then the twist. A statistics teacher suspects AI wrote Luke's response to a writing prompt. Luke's in-class writing averages 3.5 letters per word. Is this essay different?

Students estimate the average word length from a sample of five words. First they circle five words by eye. Then they pick five with a random number generator. Every student adds a dot to two class dotplots at the front of the room, and the difference between the two dotplots is the lesson.

The hook, KARE 11 newsPhD student expelled from University of Minnesota for allegedly using AIWatch on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Try it: sample Luke's response

Circle five words by eye. Tap any word to circle it.

Two class dotplots of sample average word lengths: circled by eye, and chosen with a random number generator

  1. Hook

    The news clip, and a question students care about: can you prove AI wrote something?

  2. Discover

    Circle five words, then use random numbers. Compare the two class dotplots.

  3. Name it

    QuickNotes. We label the diagram and define the eight key terms together.

  4. Check

    So, did AI write Luke's response? Then the student council and MrBeast polls.

My Lesson 1.2 board on the classroom screen: every circled word in red, every random pick boxed in green. The class sees where their eyes went.
The Explore slide: the packet on the left, Luke's response on the right.
The activity page from the student packet.
Luke's response, as students see it.

Every lesson also has an interactive board I build for the classroom screen (many colleagues now use these boards too) and a Canvas page. The "Missed class?" column tells absent students exactly how to catch up, so nobody falls behind quietly.

The Lesson 1.2 page on Canvas.
Open the lesson board (opens in a new tab)

Practice that feels like a game

For review, students play in my Stats Arcade. Each lesson has three review levels that pay up to five coins. Coins buy games, games win tickets, and tickets go to the Prize Counter. New games unlock as students finish more lessons.

Key words appear in English and Chinese, with hints and read-aloud, so students still building their English can keep up. A few colleagues now run their own versions for precalculus, calculus and geometry.

The arcade's home screen.
The Review Booth: every Unit 1 lesson, three levels each.
Level 1 of Lesson 1.2, Sampling Methods: bilingual key words and a card match.
Open the Stats Arcade (opens in a new tab)

Checking progress, one target at a time

Before each formative I give students a one-page mind map of the whole part, so they can see how the lessons connect.

I grade every formative by learning target instead of total points. A student sees "got it" for sampling methods and "not yet" for bias, not just 7 out of 10.

This is also how I use AI to help me make informed, data-based decisions about my teaching: a tracker I built shows every student's progress on every target, so I know who to bring into a small group before the summative.

One class in my tracker: mastery on the latest formative and the average over time.
The course map: every lesson's targets, and the four Unit 1 formatives.
Results for one formative. Real class data; student names are not shown.

The summative: The Thumbnail Test

Students play a new intern at Netflix Taiwan. The team has to choose a thumbnail for Night Study, a horror drama I wrote for the task, and their boss wants data, not opinions.

Over two lessons and five sections, they work out why a festival vote misled the team, design a fair A/B test, graph and summarise watch time, and use 100 simulated "fake tests" to decide whether the result is real. Then they write a recommendation.

Each character makes a mistake students have to correct. Mr. Wu, for example, thinks "statistically significant" means "better". Students can recommend either thumbnail: their level depends on the evidence, not the choice. It's marked against MYP criteria A–D.

The GRASPS brief and the team at Netflix Taiwan.
Section 2: spot the confounding variable, then design a fair test.
Section 3: compare two histograms of watch time.
Section 5: is a gap of 60 plays just luck?

What one student did with it

A Grade 11 student's booklet, marked against the rubric. The name has been removed.

7/8A. Knowing and understanding
6/8B. Investigating patterns
5/8C. Communicating
8/8D. Applying in real-life contexts

What this student does well

  • Q9–10Draws the confounding diagram and explains how a famous lead actor drives both the face and the views.
  • Q12–13Finds that Mr. Tsai's plan fails randomise and control, then designs a fair test.
  • Q33Chooses A despite fewer plays, backs it with 286 vs 116, and names the risk of the choice.

The scanned booklet. Scroll sideways, or select a page to enlarge it.

Section 1: The Festival Flop
Section 2: The A/B Test Blueprint
Section 3: Visualizing the Viewers
Section 4: Summarizing the Watch Time
Section 5: Make the Call

Reflection

The formatives steered the unit. I used each one as a guide: what to reteach, which reteach groups to form by learning target, and how to calibrate the difficulty of the next formative.

Open questions work when there's a way in. After that 93% quiz I moved to open responses, but kept sentence frames, fill-in tables and a few multiple-choice items, so every student can show what they know before they write.

What I'd do differently: get students out of their shells sooner, using Thinking Classroom techniques.

Through my lens

I like to romanticize everyday moments.

A laughing boy in a red jacket splashing through the waves at dusk
A train passing a platform, two people waiting on green seats
A small boy in a red plaid shirt running across a Taipei crosswalk
A boy in a red Lunar New Year jacket striking a pose with a red envelope
The Fujitetsu shopfront with scooters parked outside
Morning light in a living room, a grandmother cleaning the window as a boy walks over
A shopkeeper scrubbing the pavement below old apartment balconies
A grandmother feeding a giggling boy at a breakfast table full of food
The entrance of Zhishan MRT station under the elevated tracks
A small boy stopping at a bright fruit stand in an MRT station
A boy jumping on a bed into his grandmother’s arms by the window
A shop window glowing at dusk on a grey wall
A grandfather washing up in a narrow kitchen by the window
A grandfather lifting a boy up to the cab of a yellow wheel loader
The empty Zhishan MRT platform with red signs
A boy sorting small treasures on a bright mattress
A father photographing his son on a bright beach under big clouds
A father lifting his son into the air at the beach, backlit by the sun
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