I know this is a math ed blog, but we need to talk about writing. Humans communicate through language. Language involves receptive processes (listening and reading) and productive processes (speaking and writing). We math teachers tend to focus on speaking to communicate thinking over writing. I’m not talking about communicating answers, I’m talking about communicating … Continue reading 180 Ideas #9: Writing Expectations
We shouldn’t just measure content knowledge, we also need to know about our students affection for (or lack thereof) mathematics. Continue reading 180 Ideas #8: Measuring Affection
An easy activity to get to know your students at the start of the year. Continue reading 180 Ideas #7: See Them Say It
Start the year out right by developing and sharing norms with your students. Continue reading 180 Ideas #6: Norms
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
