Do the impossible
Posted in everything else on May 19th, 2010
I’ve been still trying to wrap my head around factoring, and I think I’m approaching a much reasoned presentation. The work I gave out today in both Algebra classes was more successful than it’s been before. In one class I gave them a very much scaffolded set of problems and explanations to help them tie [...]
Posted in everything else on May 18th, 2010
My Geometry class is entering the 3-d part of the year. But instead of watching Avatar, we’re studying Area, Surface Area and Volume. Or at least that’s what the last three chapters in the book are. Thing is, in some ways the book throws a ton of easy pitches to the kids: Find the surface [...]
Posted in everything else on May 9th, 2010
I haven’t taken the time to write, and I’ve barely been keeping up with all the great posts being written these days. Very big thanks to Dan for summarizing the many sessions at NCTM and NCSM. I’m enrolled in a class titled Problem Solving for the MS Math Teacher. The class is great. We get [...]
Posted in everything else on Mar 28th, 2010
It’s the end of Spring Break, and I’m just finishing up my Algebra plans for the coming week. The backstory to this post is the week before break I began exponent rules with the Algebra classes and successfully confused lotsa kids. Woosh. I’ll take responsibility for some of it, and I think I know what [...]
Posted in everything else on Mar 14th, 2010
A few weeks ago I asked students in my Algebra class a problem akin to the typical A car leaves Philly for DC at 3 going 60mph and another leaves DC for Philly at 4 going 65mph, if the two cities are 138 miles apart how long until they cross paths and how far from [...]
Posted in everything else on Mar 10th, 2010
Having spent a good chunk of my evening reading over Shawn Cornally’s fantastic blog “Think Thank Thunk” I’m engaged. I enjoy so much having a window into how teachers make decisions around their curriculum and class design. Knowing how someone chooses to introduce concepts and motivate students is a big bonus, and something Cornally communicates [...]
Posted in everything else on Mar 5th, 2010
Having had the luck to attend two of his seminars, I eagerly read through the NYT article on Building a Better Teacher. At his presentations he had a list of simple behavioral choices that improved teachers’ effect. I walked away from both presentations with lots of ideas of concrete changes to make in class, and [...]
Posted in everything else on Feb 22nd, 2010
I took Maria’s MathType vs. LateX equation challenge. Partially out of curiosity for how long it would take and also to put out an example of how I use emacs and LaTeX on a regular basis in my planning and in the creation of materials. If you’re having trouble falling asleep, let me recommend this [...]
Posted in everything else on Feb 17th, 2010
Here’s what I did. I taught this lesson today, and I had mixed results. For the record I’d say that kids in the second group that got the lesson where really into it, whereas the first group gave it a “so-what-else-did-you-cook-up-for-us?” rating. I started this post thinking I’d tell you what I did, but I [...]
Posted in everything else on Feb 12th, 2010
Thanks to Dan for posting a great setup and a problem that turned out interestingly. I worked the problem on paper last night. Then this morning, I came in and re-worked the problem with a few students, and finally read Alex’s algebraic solution. The handout I made from last night is below. Ws Office Boxcorner [...]
I don't speak for my school district.
