Today in my Math Mavens program, we opened the book You Can Count on Monsters by Richard Evan Schwartz for the first time. This is a book I bought because I heard glowing reviews of it on NPR. The concept of the book is teaching prime and composite numbers through colorful, geometrical monsters. It is […]
Among my students are three brothers in middle school whom I tutor in writing. They are all honors students whose parents hired me as a tutor for enrichment. One activity I’m doing with them is to write a letter to the president. It’s simple enough to do: the White House website has an easy-to-use contact […]
Scarsdale, NY is a model district in terms of scores and success. They attribute this success to five building blocks in their curriculum: Singapore Math, inquiry approaches to science and social studies, fluency in information technology, and creative arts. Yet they are having to cut teachers and programs due to budget constraints. They contrast this […]
We hear plenty of talk about teaching and reinforcing basic skills in math. Yes, these are very important, but computation skills aren’t what lead to breakthroughs and new discoveries; new ways of thinking do, right? This young woman exemplifies real creativity in mathematical thinking. I find this so inspiring. Investigating mathematical principles through art: what […]
A new app for iPhone/iPod, called BugMath, came out recently. It claims to teach young children math skills based on Singapore Math methods. To experience it, I played my way through the various games, which are fun and have cute graphics. I saw how they can reinforce counting and memory skills. However, I don’t see […]
Singapore Math summer programs come to Westchester, NY! Do you have children who would benefit from a summer experience learning math in the proven Singapore Math way? Send them to the brand new program offered this summer by experienced Singapore Math teacher, instructor and trainer Susan Midlarsky. Not only will they learn a lot, but […]
An article published by the Rodel Foundation of Delaware describes how Kuumba Academy took a serious approach to remediating the problem of poor math achievement. They adopted a Singapore Math curriculum, and with it, they gave their teachers “intensive, on-going professional development to deepen teachers’ understanding of math instruction at the elementary level.” The school […]
It snowed today – a lot – canceling all my plans and making it a perfect day to get things done at home. So I created the short movie below. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making it! This one was taken – and highly modified – from a joke told […]
How do you explain the concept behind the formula for the lateral surface area of a cylinder, which is 2?rh? I ran into this question when tutoring a student to prepare for the New York State Integrated Algebra Regents exam. (For some reason, this exam contains a lot of geometry.) The lateral surface area is […]
The author of Social Media for Trainers and I have been having an interesting debate about the place of higher math education in schools. I had read her book and found it useful, so I looked up her Facebook page. There, under the heading, “Stop teaching math,” she placed a link on her Facebook page […]