Thoughts on the teaching and learning of mathematics
I’ve been having a lovely summer break and hope you have as well. I’ve also been busier than normal for a summer with conferences (seriously check out TODOS), the revision and acceptance of a beastly manuscript (that I am super proud of), and celebrating a large milestone (I earned tenure and promotion at the University … Continue reading Next up for 180 Ideas
An idea for what to do when a good lesson goes bad Continue reading 180 Ideas: #5 Stop, Collaborate, and Listen
As a teacher, sometimes I was pretty good at showing students lots of different ways to solve a problem. I often wasn’t so good at asking them to make sense of when to use these strategies, hence Idea #4: Choose your own strategy. Once students have developed some understanding of different ways to approach a … Continue reading 180 Ideas: #4 Choose your own Strategy
When students are learning a new concept we tend to define the concept and give some examples. Consider right angles, we might first define them as angles that are 90 degrees and then show some examples like these: This idea is all about going just one step further by adding in some creative non-examples. Non-examples … Continue reading 180 Ideas: #3 Creative Non-Examples
A small idea to celebrate wrong answers in the mathematics classroom. Continue reading 180 Ideas: #2 Ask for a Wrong
When I was a new teacher I planned my year out with the help of my district and textbook pacing guides. I knew I needed to get through X number of chapters in X weeks. I typically started by mapping out how far I needed to get through by midterm, then I put in the … Continue reading 180 Ideas: #1 The Flex Day
I taught high school mathematics in Orlando, Florida. My first day in the classroom was literally my first day in the classroom. I had earned a B.S. in mathematics with a minor in anthropology at the University of Florida. As a first generation college student, I knew I should go to college, but I wasn’t … Continue reading 180 Ideas: The Premise
