You know how teachers are supposed to join in when they do “Drop Everything and Read”? We should have the same attitude in math. My third recommendation to help students reconcieve of math as a discipline that goes beyond calculation is to do math with students. Most teaching time is spent with the teacher doing … Continue reading Three Strategies to Help Improve Students’ Conception of Math – Part 3: Do Math With Students (Not at Students)
Three Strategies to Help Improve Students’ Conception of Math – Part 1: Do Creative Math
How can we offer students a truer and more open conception of mathematics? Part 1: Do creative math.
Explainer post: A year’s worth of Algebra Warm Ups
Take me to the Warm Ups Landing Page We all have summer projects. Personally, I like to go into my back yard annually and destroy it a little bit (followed by putting something in its place). In addition to year projects, I always like to give myself at least one summer blog-ish project. These projects … Continue reading Explainer post: A year’s worth of Algebra Warm Ups
Delightful Data Visualization: Polypad and Young Statisticians
We all acknowledge that data analysis and representation is a key part of our math curricula in the 21st century. But while it’s baked into Common Core and other state standards, it can be a bit unwieldy at lower grades. One of the barriers between students and sophisticated data analysis has been (until recently) lack … Continue reading Delightful Data Visualization: Polypad and Young Statisticians
HB 1557 and lines in the sand: Understanding and communicating the purpose of Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill
(This website is about math and math education. While I don't normally write about Topics of the Day, it's crucial that parents and educators understand the text and purpose of Florida's House Bill 1557, which specifically targets teachers and students.) I’ve never been much of a proponent of fleeing a state because you disagree with … Continue reading HB 1557 and lines in the sand: Understanding and communicating the purpose of Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill
What’s the “of” in a percentage grade? A percentage of what, exactly?
In my Numbers, Operations, and Patterns course that I’m teaching, we discuss rational numbers a lot. We’re working through Teaching Fractions and Ratios for Understanding by Susan Lamon. It’s an indispensable book for the deep dive into rational numbers as well as the inherent glimpse into the development of elementary-to-junior-high mathematical thinking. Anyway, we often … Continue reading What’s the “of” in a percentage grade? A percentage of what, exactly?
Musings on Mathematical Creativity
This semester I had to write a literature review of a topic of our choice. Last year I focused on assessment, which will be my dissertation topic. I wanted to try something a little more “lighthearted” this year, so I went with Mathematical Creativity. I’m not going to reproduce my paper here, but I did … Continue reading Musings on Mathematical Creativity
Part 6: Scoring with Humility
This is the sixth and final installment of a mini-series on rubric design and use. Be sure to check out the other posts as well as the initial post. Your grades are qualitative data, not quantitative data. Whether you’re using a rubric on a complex task, or assigning a number out of 100 from a … Continue reading Part 6: Scoring with Humility
Part 5: Teaching with a rubric and teaching the rubric
This is Part 5 of a mini-series on rubrics. Be sure to check out the other parts as well as the intro post. Now we can have some fun. Creating a rubric is indeed hard work. Common indicators help streamline the process, but it still takes time to create and score them. But now that … Continue reading Part 5: Teaching with a rubric and teaching the rubric
Part 4: Scores, scoring, grades, and grading
This is Part 4 of a mini-series on a rubric masterclass. Be sure to check out the Intro post and subsequent posts. Before we get to it today, I want to offer a bit of a warning: this piece of rubric-land gets very sticky, very fast. It represents the tension between our aspirations as growth-minded educators and … Continue reading Part 4: Scores, scoring, grades, and grading
emergent math 