(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
Tag: Teaching
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
Story Tables in Middle School
In a recent post, I discussed story tables, mostly in the context of teaching about functions in high school, and as a springboard to discuss priorities in tool selection. I first heard about story tables from Shira Helft, who I believe was the first to appreciate the power of that representation. Today, a conversation with Shira.… Continue reading Story Tables in Middle School
Teaching Trig
I taught high school math for 32 years, Algebra 1 to Calculus, plus a few electives. In this post, I will summarize my department's approach to trigonometry. When I started there, we had a one-term trigonometry course, which became more engaging and comprehensible when we started using the now out-of-print Trigonometry: A Guided Inquiry by Chakerian,… Continue reading Teaching Trig
Asilomar Notes: Story Tables
In my last post, I shared notes from the California Math Council meeting last weekend. I focused on a couple of talks about the use of technology (Asilomar Notes: Tech). Today I write about a different sort of tool, the story table. Shira Helft and Taryn Pritchard’s Asilomar workshop introduced us to this powerful representation of algebraic expressions,… Continue reading Asilomar Notes: Story Tables
