A couple of years ago, during a workshop on transformational geometry, a participant objected when I used and recommended GeoGebra and not Desmos. Her main argument was that students love Desmos. Fair enough, but that does not make up for the fact that Desmos is mostly about graphing, while GeoGebra includes the many basic and not-so-basic… Continue reading Making a Vector in Desmos
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Hoping to see you soon!
Here is a list of my upcoming appearances, ranging from 20 minutes to a full week. Perhaps you can attend one of them!NCTM National Meeting in San FranciscoA Hands-on Approach to Operations and Equivalent Expressions Thursday 14 April, 8:00-9:15am. 3022 Moscone WestThis is a hands-on Lab Gear workshop aimed at grades 6 to 8. The… Continue reading Hoping to see you soon!
Factoring a Sum of Cubes
A correspondent who teaches math to 9th graders writes:I was looking at factoring the sum and difference of two cubes and was wondering if you have any input as to how to teach it for true understanding.I have not taught this topic much, if at all, in Algebra 1, as it strikes me as rather… Continue reading Factoring a Sum of Cubes
More Calculus, Less Understanding?
Sooner is not necessarily better! If you're a long-time reader of this blog, you may remember my posts about hyper-acceleration. (I have combined those into one article on my Web site.)Today, a guest post on acceleration by Robin Pemantle, a mathematician at Penn, who addresses this topic from his point of view as a university… Continue reading More Calculus, Less Understanding?
Visual Algebra
I will be teaching two instances of my Visual Algebra workshop this summer: grades 7-11, June 27-30, in Oakland; and grades 6-9, July 25-27, in Saint Louis. (More info). This is probably the topic I have presented the most often in the last 25 years.To many students, not to mention teachers, parents, and administrators, algebra… Continue reading Visual Algebra
Growth Mindset for Teachers?
Back in 2005, I spoke at the Asilomar meeting of the California Math Council. In that session (cheerfully titled "Nothing Works",) I presented a great many ideas about every aspect of the art of teaching math (slides | outline | article). Among those ideas:Make mathematical mistakes on purpose or otherwise, and model a positive response… Continue reading Growth Mindset for Teachers?
Animated Demonstrations
New on my Web site:→ Animated slides on the Lab Gear model for signed number arithmetic.Note that for each operation, the model is based on what students already know. For addition, you put down the first number, then the second number, and finally count. For subtraction, you put down the first number, take away the… Continue reading Animated Demonstrations
Glide Reflections and Symmetry
Glide Reflections and Congruence
Coding for All?
Some time ago, I argued that computer programming is a literacy, because it enhances learning in other disciplines, especially math. It is not nearly as important as reading and writing, which apply to all subjects, or as math, which applies to all sciences. But given the place of the computer in modern life, and the… Continue reading Coding for All?
Henri's Math Education Blog 