On December 1st, I was a guest presenter at the UC Berkeley School of Education, for a student-initiated course about teaching practice. My past experiences in working with preservice teachers (at NC State in 1992, and at USF in 2006) had been rather unsuccessful. Both times I taught a course for undergraduates who were future… Continue reading Everything I Know
Author: hpicciotto
Escape! Meeting notes 3 — habits of mind
This is the third and final installment of my notes from the Bay Area fall meeting of Escape from the Textbook!(Part 1) (Part 2)We ended the meeting with a segment led by Avery Pickford. (See his notes about the meeting.)He presented this problem:(He didn't present it exactly like this -- this is how the problem… Continue reading Escape! Meeting notes 3 — habits of mind
Escape! meeting notes 2 — Miras
Notes from the Fall Bay Area meeting of Escape from the Textbook! (continued)back to Part 1 Carlos Cabana challenged us to think of uses for Miras, and for tangrams.Having done a lot with tangrams over the years, I chose to work on Miras. I have a class set of those at school but have not… Continue reading Escape! meeting notes 2 — Miras
Escape! meeting notes 1 — tools, backward design
Last Saturday, I attended an Escape from the Textbook! meeting. As always, it was stimulating. Here are some notes.Carlos Cabana talked about the special role of tools in a student-centered pedagogy. Used properly, they allow us to reverse questions and get at big ideas. This is in contrast to the shallow use of tools which… Continue reading Escape! meeting notes 1 — tools, backward design
Interview
I was interviewed by MathMirror.org about a variety of math education topics.You can watch the videos (3 parts, 4 to 6 minutes each) on their Perspective #6 page.On the same site is a quite interesting article by Tom Murray about the demise of small math education publishers. --Henri
Lab Gear availability
Apparently Lab Gear is gradually running out, and will soon be "out of print", or whatever the appropriate phrase is for plastic manipulatives. So if you want to get more blocks, now is the time. Go to the McGraw-Hill site.I'll be looking for another publisher, but who knows if I'll find one.--HenriPS: If you need… Continue reading Lab Gear availability
How do we know they’re learning?
I was interviewed for a school publication, on the topic "How do we know they're learning?"The question arises in part because my school (the Urban School of San Francisco) de-emphasizes AP's.If you want to see me respond, I am in the middle third of the video, with Jonathan Howland, our Dean of Faculty before and… Continue reading How do we know they’re learning?
Sense-Making and Algebra 2
I gave a talk at the NCTM Institute on Reasoning and Sense-Making. The topic was "Making Sense in Algebra 2." It was an updated version of an old talk titled "Seeking Depth in Algebra 2". For the occasion, I updated the Algebra 2 page on my site. In particular, I posted the new version of… Continue reading Sense-Making and Algebra 2
In my other life…
My Web site was mentioned in this news article.--Henri
Grades (part 2)
When students learn their grade for a given course, what they are learning is how they compare with their peers, which is one indicator of "how they are doing". (See Grades, part 1). Grade or no grade, many students know exactly where they fit in the classroom hierarchy, though some may not admit it to… Continue reading Grades (part 2)
Henri's Math Education Blog 