"Nathan For You" is a docu-series on Comedy Central (episodes available on Hulu) in which comedian and Canadian good-grades-getter Nathan Fielder "fixes" business by suggesting out of the box ideas to bring in new customers. These ideas includes amping up the scariness of a haunted house by telling the attendees they've contracted a fatal airborne … Continue reading “Nathan For You” is here to fix businesses, rate of work problems
Spring, Broken
On March 11, 2020, the National Basketball Association halted the season due to the novel coronavirus COVID-19. The cessation in play occurred soon after the cancellation of a game between the Utah Jazz and Oklahoma City due to a positive test from one of the Jazz players. Only five days prior the entire state of … Continue reading Spring, Broken
The next steps in classroom conversation orchestration
I’m currently rereading Five Practices for Orchestrating Productive Mathematics Discussions by Smith and Stein (2011) as part of a book study with a school. I’ve always appreciated this book as a great stepping stone from a classroom where the teacher is the ultimate knower of math to a classroom where students construct their own understanding. … Continue reading The next steps in classroom conversation orchestration
A couple of lessons from a semester of Math Education PhD coursework
I’m nearing the end of my first semester as a PhD student in Math education. Of the many lessons and content I learned over the past few months, I’d like to share two (for now). Lesson 1) There is a much richer scholarship and history of social justice in math education research than you’d think … Continue reading A couple of lessons from a semester of Math Education PhD coursework
Your cultural lexicon: who’s “in” and who’s “out”
In one of my recent classes, we had a guest speaker. The speaker was a Black professor of math education. She spoke of one of her favorite high school math classes and math teachers. He was a white Calculus teacher. She loved that class and thought he was a phenomenal instructor. However, she mentioned that … Continue reading Your cultural lexicon: who’s “in” and who’s “out”
A protocol for emerging bilingual problem solvers: a reflection on Kitchen (2014)
(Note: this blog post is cross-posted in my weekly page of doctoral musings (Week 5). If you're interested in the journey or random insights from research, be sure to check those out. In this case I found the research article eminently practical so I figured it'd be worth posting on the BLOG blog.) Of all … Continue reading A protocol for emerging bilingual problem solvers: a reflection on Kitchen (2014)
Math Bootcamp Mini-Series Part 5: Putting it all together. Additional nuts & bolts and an example syllabus.
In this miniseries we’ve covered how to promote and incorporate diverse identities into your syllabus, ways to promote a myriad of types of mathematical thinking, how to establish and teach norms, and laying out the year in a Hilbertian “challenge problem” style. Now we’re going to put it all together. I’ll give some additional suggestions … Continue reading Math Bootcamp Mini-Series Part 5: Putting it all together. Additional nuts & bolts and an example syllabus.
Math Syllabus Bootcamp Part 3: Norms. What are expectations for quality collaborative work?
(This is Part 3 in a mini-series on constructing a math syllabus. I hope it challenges you to think about possible ways to vision your classroom, even if you don't utilize all the ideas. Check out the previous entries via the links below.) Norms exist in every classroom, whether they are on a placard on … Continue reading Math Syllabus Bootcamp Part 3: Norms. What are expectations for quality collaborative work?
A DRAFT rubric to assess the Common Core State Standards of Mathematical Practice
The Common Core Standards of Mathematical Practice (MPs) have been available for a while now. They lay out eight habits that mathematicians embody. They've been instructive in what to teach and how to teach. They've also been helpful in providing a comprehensive vision of what math classrooms can be. MP1. Make sense of problems and … Continue reading A DRAFT rubric to assess the Common Core State Standards of Mathematical Practice
Where does a letter occur in a word? A matching activity
Whenever and however we come back together as math classes this Fall, we're going to need to spend considerable time building up students' mathematical identities. Chances are students are going to be entering your classroom with a wider array of math learning experiences over the prior six months than ever before. Therefore we need a … Continue reading Where does a letter occur in a word? A matching activity
