Today, another guest post, this time from a homeschooling mom. -- Henri Algebra and Geometry Greetings! I hope this email finds you well. I know you don’t know us, but I wanted to personally thank you for your math books. I cannot express how helpful your books have been, and the relief I have… Continue reading Letter from a Homeschooling Mom
Tag: MySite
Tangram Puzzles
When I was a beginning K-5 teacher in the 1970’s, my father-in-law introduced me to pentominoes. It was clear to me that there had to be some way to incorporate those in my teaching. It wasn’t long before I instituted a weekly "math lab" session for my students: every Friday, they had an opportunity to… Continue reading Tangram Puzzles
Geometry Labs Notes
In this post, I share thoughts about my Geometry Labs (free download), and complement some of Mimi Yang's notes about it. (In fact, this post was suggested by the existence of Mimi’s notes. You may find those useful, as she lists which topics are supported by various labs.) First, big-picture thoughts. The book includes obviously… Continue reading Geometry Labs Notes
Matrices
As a high school teacher, my first attempts at teaching about matrices were not successful. I tried to sell them as a way to solve systems of linear equations with three or more unknowns. This was a highly technical approach to something my students were not particularly interested in. It was not a hit, and… Continue reading Matrices
Supertangrams
Many years ago, in the exhibits area at an NCTM national meeting (in New Orleans?), I saw math teachers standing in an insanely long line. I had never seen anything like it, and never saw anything like it since. They were waiting to have a book signed by Martin Gardner, the author of the “Mathematical… Continue reading Supertangrams
Convex Tangram Polygons
If you’re a regular reader of this blog, or visitor to my website, you probably know of my long-standing interest in geometric puzzles. Among those, tangrams are probably the most well-known and widely available. Thus I included them in Geometry Labs (free download) where they are the subject of Section 2, and Lab 10.6. In this… Continue reading Convex Tangram Polygons
Making a GeoGebra Slide Show
I’m a long-time user of interactive geometry software, of which the dominant instance these days is GeoGebra. Here are some ways it’s enhanced my teaching over the years. Most obviously, it provides an environment for students to explore geometry and geometric construction. I’ve written much about it on this blog, and shared some curriculum on… Continue reading Making a GeoGebra Slide Show
Asilomar report, 2021
I attended the California Math Council North’s conference in Asilomar last weekend. Because of Covid, it was a dramatically smaller conference than usual. As a consequence, there were fewer sessions to choose from, and probably a smaller turnout for many of them. Here is my nearly annual report. Python Turtle Ned Diamond presented the Python… Continue reading Asilomar report, 2021
Geometric Puzzles Unit
—————————————————————————————————————— I added links to this post, updated it, and uploaded it to my website. Read it there! —————————————————————————————————————— The Geometric Puzzles home page on my website contains many links, and it is organized reasonably well. Still, someone who is not familiar with all these puzzles may need help in turning them into a… Continue reading Geometric Puzzles Unit
The Game of Pent
Puzzles are a big part of my work as a teacher and curriculum developer, as you can see in this article, in the Geometric Puzzles launch page on my website, and in fact throughout my books. (Not to mention my parallel career of sorts as a cryptic crosswords constructor, and how I spend much of my free time.)… Continue reading The Game of Pent
Henri's Math Education Blog 