Category: math
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Calling for 2014 Math Blogging Retrospectus Posts!
Ah it’s the time of year again. The time of year when we all start looking forward to fireplaces, family, and chewing up reams of your school’s printer-paper by printing out the Math Blogging Retrospectus. The impetus of creating the Retrospectus was that it’s so damn hard to keep up with all the great math…
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Quick Hits: Razor Blades and Fractions
A potential fractions task because because middle schoolers probably really struggle with the high cost of shaving blades. Not a super complex task, but maybe good for a warm-up? Artifact: Suggested Knows/Need-to-Knows: We know… Dollar shave club sells razors at a price of four for $6. “Their” razors cost 1 1/2 for $6. We need-to-know…
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Assessment via audibles: OMAHA! OMAHA!
It’s both the first question and the last one when developing an inquiry-driven classroom, ostensibly featuring significant groupwork: How do you keep individual students accountable while working in groups? While that’s a huge bear of a question that is better addressed via a book, I want to take a stab at a small slice of…
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Designing Problems: Linking a standard to a context
Context isn’t everything, but it’s often a good thing. Or at least, it’s a thing, sometimes only a starting point. While contextualized scenarios aren’t necessarily the key that unlocks engagement they may allow students to model, activate students’ interests, activate your own interest, or simply serve as a starting point from which to develop a non-routine problem…
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Reduced Fat ‘Nilla Wafers are an Empty Canvas for Problem-Based Learning Models
It’s probably not exactly the Great Double Stuf Oreo Controversy of 2013. We’ll be bouncing our grandchildren on our knees talking about that one. But here I am with some Reduced Fat ‘Nilla Wafers, thinking about multiplying percents and fractions. Rest assured, I purchased these on accident. I meant to get the Original Wafers in all…
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[NCTMNOLA Processing Session 5] Networks and Silos
This will be the fifth and final NCTMNOLA Processing Session. It’ll be short too, just a quick debrief. I vacillate between the poles of “math is different” and “math is just like other subjects.” Sometimes I wonder if math teachers use its alleged differentness as an excuse to teach it in an overly linear way.…
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[NCTMNOLA Processing Session 4] I may have missed my calling
Those most mathematical fun I had at NCTMNOLA was in sessions focused on Elementary School level math. Either by accident or by impulse I found myself drifting into sessions that one would associate with K-5. Well, if that’s the case, why did I have so much fun? David and Kathryn led us through a gallery…
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[NCTMNOLA Processing Session 3] Summer School is Dead, Long Live Summer School
In between the instant they opened the door to Jo Boaler’s talk on “Promoting Equity Through Teaching for a Growth Mindset” and when she began speaking, I, Eleanor, and a few others in my row banded together as Jo Boaler groupies. We were those people at rock festivals who get to the stage several acts…
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[NCTMNOLA Processing Session 2] What math teachers applaud
I realize now I’m recapping NCTM in order of sessions that force me to process things. Dan’s presentation definitely forces me to do just that. Dan’s talk focused on the lessons he learned while playing countless hours of Angry Birds, Portal, Flight Control, and Stickman Golf. I loved how he pointed out that the lessons…
emergent math 