Nat Banting is a full-time classroom mathematics teacher in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. He also works as a mathematics education lecturer at St. Francis Xavier University and at the University of Saskatchewan. Nat has given featured and keynote presentations at mathematics education conferences across Canada and the United States as well as professional development workshops to both pre-service and in-service teachers (get in contact here). He is also the curator of FractionTalks.com, the creator of Upscale Pattern Blocks (which can be purchased through Math For Love), and has visioned and implemented numerous other projects (e.g., this, this, and this) aimed at bring playful mathematics into the classroom.
Recently, Nat received the Certificate of Excellence from the Prime Minister’s Awards for Teaching Excellence in STEM for his contributions to Canadian STEM education. This national-level award is considered the highest honour for teachers and early childhood educators in Canada. In 2019, Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences (@FieldsMathEd) awarded him the Margaret Sinclair Memorial Award recognizing innovation and excellence across all levels of Canadian mathematics education–the first practicing K-12 mathematics teacher to receive the award. Later that year, his entry was named the winner of 2019 Rosenthal Prize for Innovation and Inspiration in Math Teaching awarded by the National Museum of Mathematics (@MoMath1) in New York.
He served as a division consultant in grades six to twelve mathematics, has created and shared numerous classroom resources through his social media network, and sat on the executive of the Saskatchewan Mathematics Teachers’ Society (SMTS) for twelve years and co-edited its periodical, The Variable–a 2019 NCTM Affiliate Publication Award winner. He archives his ideas and commentary concerning the teaching and learning of mathematics through his blog as well as his Twitter account.
He holds a Master of Education degree in Secondary Education from the University of Alberta, and his academic interests include the ecological and biological roots of cognition (particularly pertaining to the instigation and observation of student problem posing), the decision-making of teachers and students with(in) high-density mathematics classrooms, and student (and teacher) impressions of probability.