Author: Geoff
-
This is just too good not to blog about: FireFighterMath.org
OK, I’ve tweeted about it. Several times. @IngridRistoph is probably tired of her twitter notifications buzzing, but she tweeted it out last night, and I retweeted it about a hundred time. So huge hat-tip to her. (Update: Ingrid went ahead and started a blog, after being inspired from her discovery. Google Reader bookmarks at the…
-
The Energy of a Hurricane: crackpot attempts to mitigate hurricane damage
Here’s a beautiful photo of Hurricane Irene as it makes its way up the East Cost this weekend (tomorrow is Saturday, Sunday comes afterwards). There have been a few hair-brained schemes to mitigate the intensity of a hurricane throughout the years. I say “hair-brained” because it seems highly unlikely that either of these could potentially affect the…
-
The “Don’t Teach Them Content on Day 1” Myth
I’ve often been told by teachers and administrators to neglect teaching Math to students on Day 1 of the school year. In some cases, teachers and administrators prefer to spend a full week on culture building activities. Another typical model of year-starting schedules might have, say, the Math Teacher facilitate culture building activities, the Social Studies…
-
I really hope my son’s future teacher assigns him lots of worksheets, Part 2
Since I last blogged about my son’s very normal obsession with technology, this happened: [Zoodle Pad app for iPad and iPhone] This was my son’s first experience with an iPad. He immediately began drawing with his finger, followed by him picking up the device and turning it over to see what would happen to the…
-
Alfie Kohn “goosed” us. I probably deserved it.
So I am a Math Coach for the New Tech Network. And I really love my job. And here’s why. A few weeks ago we ran our New Schools training. And, if I may say, it was really awesome. I was able to see the growth in teachers as they began to structure their classrooms…
-
The Phoenix Children’s Museum provides a treasure trove of math-like things.
Earlier this summer, I had the opportunity to take my kids to the Phoenix Children’s Museum. OK, if I’m being honest, it was my parents who got to take their grandkids to the museum. I simply came along for the ride and got to snap pictures and videos with my camera phone. Being a math…
-
Things that are Good: A Problem Based Learning Approach in Mathematics
As a teacher in a Project Based Learning (PBL) school, I cherished the projects I created. I worked diligently to ensure that all PBL units I developed were rigorous and engaging. They were oftentimes a beautiful marriage between my Schoolwide Learning Outcomes and my state content standards, a labor of love that took weeks to…
-
How can we measure the egregiousness of gerrymandering? Geometry, Perimeter, and Area
Artifacts This NY Times article/interview conducted by FiveThirtyEight.com’s Nate Silver and David Wasserman, House editor of the Cook Political Report. Particularly this snippet: And/or this slideshow from Slate showing the most gerrymandered congressional districts in the nation. Here’s my favorite from Illinois: It’s worth noting that by federal law, congressional districts have to be “contiguous.” That means…
-
So, what exactly am I supposed to eat? The new MyPlate icon vs. the classic Food Pyramid vs. Geometry.
A month ago, I was considering writing a post on the old (now “old, OLD”) food pyramid – you know, the one we all grew up with – and the new (now “old”) food pyramid, unleashed in 2005. It would be about area of triangles and trapezoids and Geometry and possibly graphic design. See, here’s…
emergent math 