Tag: Teaching
Hyper-acceleration
In some schools and communities teachers face a tremendous push for hyper-acceleration of certain students. As I mentioned in my previous post the pressure comes largely from parents, but they are often supported by students and administrators. Many parents believe that hyper-acceleration will help their child's college applications. Many students' self-image is intimately related to… Continue reading Hyper-acceleration
Acceleration
This is the first of a series of posts on the topic of acceleration. I have combined them and edited them into one article on my Web site. Read it there!I remember one student who managed to take my Geometry class in 9th grade even though (unbeknownst to me) she had already taken a traditional… Continue reading Acceleration
the function dance!
A friend on Google+ posted this image:<a href="data:<img alt="" border="0" src="data:I have often performed "the cubic dance" (see above!) for my students. I've also often asked them to "air graph" various functions.One complication is the fact that left and right are reversed for the person watching you, and while I try to perform things "backwards"… Continue reading the function dance!
New Practical Advice Document
Some time ago, I wrote about various techniques for extending student exposure to concepts, without allowing one's class to bog down. (See this post, and follow the links therein.) One key ingredient of this strategy is "lagging homework." The basic idea is that today's homework should not be about today's class work. It should be… Continue reading New Practical Advice Document
Egyptian Fractions
I had a great time at the Julia Robinson Math Festival the weekend before last. Hundreds of kids attended, most of them girls, it seemed to me. The setup: many, many tables; at each table, one or two adult guides, and a math problem that combines access and depth. Students choose a table, and work… Continue reading Egyptian Fractions
Saturday workshop
I will present a workshop at the the Math Teachers' Circle in Palo Alto (at the American Institute of Mathematics.) The topic is area on a lattice, which we will explore on geoboards and dot paper. We will discuss "curricular" classroom applications (the Pythagorean theorem, simplifying radicals) as well as Pick's theorem and its proof,… Continue reading Saturday workshop
The Common Core
Now that I'm a freelance math education consultant and curriculum developer, I need to pay attention to the Common Core State Standards as they affect everything I do in my professional life. Merely listening to talks about the standards, and reading angry posts about them did not provide a lot of information. On the other… Continue reading The Common Core
A Curriculum Model
The above map is an attempt at a curriculum development model. Traditional pedagogy stays at the top, as it is based on the belief that skills practice and teacher explanations are sufficient to build student understanding. Understanding acquired this way, plus the skills, allow the student to apply the ideas.Would that it were that simple.In… Continue reading A Curriculum Model
Geoboards and Dot Paper
If you are familiar with my curricular creations, you know that I often use the geoboard as a microworld to introduce interesting problems and important concepts. This is in line with my call for a tool-rich pedagogy. (A geoboard is a square lattice pegboard on which students use rubber bands to create and investigate geometric… Continue reading Geoboards and Dot Paper
Henri's Math Education Blog 