For several years, I was quite active on Twitter. What got me to stick with it (until its takeover) was that it was a good place to discuss math teaching with like-minded educators. In fact, it was a good place to meet such educators. Among them: Michael Pershan, Dan Finkel, John Golden... Not long ago,… Continue reading Makeover or Heart Transplant?
Tag: Teaching
Teaching Math in the Age of AI
This is a guest post by Liz Caffrey, a former mentee and colleague, now a master middle school teacher near Boston. I’ll link to her previous blog contributions at the end. -- Henri Teaching Math in the age of AI by Liz Caffrey I have been teaching since 2000, when I began my career as… Continue reading Teaching Math in the Age of AI
Designing Great Lessons
Michael Pershan teaches math in elementary, middle, and high school. He is a bit of a celebrity in some online circles as a thoughtful writer about math education. He deserves his fame, because his writing includes both highly practical ideas based on his actual experience in the classroom, and interesting reflections, often including intelligent reviews… Continue reading Designing Great Lessons
Reaching Consensus
I worked in a high school for many years. Over time, my department reached a close consensus on curricular and pedagogical matters. One administrator, after visiting some math classes, expressed amazement on how similar our students' experiences were, irrespective of who their teacher was. I've also worked as a consultant. In that capacity, I visited… Continue reading Reaching Consensus
Two Math Education Books
As long-time readers of this blog know, I was a fan of Peter Liljedahl’s Thinking Classroom "before it was cool". (See this post from 2015.) Thus, I was quite pleased to hear from Amanda Cangelosi that the book I co-authored with Robin Pemantle works well as a complement to Liljedahl’s. My book is There Is No… Continue reading Two Math Education Books
Rate of Change: No One Way!
Many good teachers end up leaving the profession for a variety of reasons, often after only a few years in the classroom. Part of it, surely, is how teachers are treated in the US, as shown in Punch Teacher, a particularly sharp satirical bit in one of the Muppet movies. Some of those who leave… Continue reading Rate of Change: No One Way!
Letter from a Homeschooling Mom
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
Mentoring and Coaching
Today, I share a guest post by Margot Schou, who I had the good fortune of mentoring at the start of her career. With her permission, I inserted footnotes with links to some relevant further reading on my blog, website, and in the book I co-authored with Professor Robin Pemantle (There is No One Way… Continue reading Mentoring and Coaching
Integrating Argumentation Seamlessly
In Part 1 of “Integrating Skills Seamlessly”, Frank Cassano and Anya Sturm discussed the importance of explicitly teaching the skill of problem solving, and shared powerful strategies to do that. In this post, they focus on another skill: constructing well-justified and well-organized arguments. I’ve always agreed with this goal, but my approach consisted mostly of… Continue reading Integrating Argumentation Seamlessly
Integrating Problem Solving Seamlessly
Frank Cassano and Anya Sturm are math teachers at Marin Academy, an independent high school in San Rafael. They presented on "Integrating Argumentation and Problem-Solving" at the California Math Council Northern Section meeting in Asilomar last December. I quite enjoyed their talk (which I reported on here) and asked them to summarize it as a… Continue reading Integrating Problem Solving Seamlessly