When I was much younger, I was under the impression that anything students “discover”, they will remember. Over time, I realized that this is not really true. First of all, what I hope they discovered may not be what they actually understand. But also, it’s not clear to them what is important about their discovery,… Continue reading Towards Inquiry
Tag: Teaching
Teaching the Distributive Property
A guest post by Rachel Chou I have been a classroom mathematics teacher for 20 years. I have heard students use the phrase “the distributive property” more times than I can count. Many of them misunderstand what “the distributive property” even is. But maybe I think that because I don’t really know what “the distributive property”… Continue reading Teaching the Distributive Property
Freakonomics Radio on Math Curriculum
Every now and then, an academic decides they’re qualified to fundamentally rethink math education, and to share their brilliant solution with the world. That is already problematic when the academic is a mathematician or a math education researcher, but it is even worse when it is someone whose only connection to K-12 math education is that… Continue reading Freakonomics Radio on Math Curriculum
Remembering Lew Douglas
(Post updated on 19 Jan 2020.) The Bay Area Math Project and the Alameda Contra Costa County Math Educators presented Lessons from Lew, a professional development session in memory of Lew Douglas, a leading Bay Area math educator who passed away in April. Lew delighted in math and developed lessons to allow others to share in that wonder. We… Continue reading Remembering Lew Douglas
Retakes vs. Test Corrections vs. Neither
Both in person and online, a common topic of discussion among math teachers is the question of “retakes”. Under what conditions should students be allowed to have another chance at taking a test? How does the retake affect the grade? This is an important conversation. Different opinions reflect different values, different attitudes towards assessment, and different… Continue reading Retakes vs. Test Corrections vs. Neither
Learning from Teaching (cont.)
For the second time this summer, I taught a version of my Visual Algebra workshop, this time as part of a summer institute at the Atrium School near Boston. (Earlier in the summer, I did this at Synapse School, in Silicon Valley, and wrote about it here.) Once again, I walked away from the workshop… Continue reading Learning from Teaching (cont.)
Taking Notes vs. Doing Math
Some time ago, during a professional development workshop, a participant asked how I teach students to take notes in math class. I explained that I didn’t think students can simultaneously do math, and take notes. It’s really one or the other. The teacher gave me a contemptuous look that made clear she disapproved of my answer. Later in the… Continue reading Taking Notes vs. Doing Math
Learning from Teaching
Now that I’m retired from the classroom, summer tends to be my busy time. I just taught the grades 6-9 version of my Visual Algebra workshop. There were quite a few familiar faces among the participants. Some had seen me present at the Asilomar (California Math Council) conference, others at NCTM, yet others at a… Continue reading Learning from Teaching
Geometry: A Guided Inquiry
In my last post, I discussed Every Minute Counts, a book that influenced me early in my career as a high school teacher in the 1980’s. It was mostly useful because of David R. Johnson’s suggestions on how to run a class discussion, and his insistence that the teacher needs to hear from every student, not just the… Continue reading Geometry: A Guided Inquiry
Every Minute Counts
I’ve learned much of what I know about teaching from colleagues, but when I started teaching high school, there is one book that I found extremely helpful: Every Minute Counts, by David R. Johnson (1982, Dale Seymour Publications, with great illustrations by cartoonist John Johnson). In the 37 years since the book's publication, society has… Continue reading Every Minute Counts
