It’s midterm season here at Mizzou (and nationally in terms of politics). Reaching the midpoint of the semester is a natural time to ask, how am I doing? Whether things are going well or not so well, you should really reach out to students to get some feedback while there is still time to turn … Continue reading 180 Ideas: #10 Midterm Feedback
This is an essay I submitted to a journal that was not accepted. I enjoyed writing it so I still want to get it out so I thought I’d share it here. I hope that someone else will enjoy reading it! Motivation through my Shifting Inner Dialogue For the past 15 years as a teacher, … Continue reading Reflecting on What I do
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
A small idea to celebrate wrong answers in the mathematics classroom. Continue reading 180 Ideas: #2 Ask for a Wrong
