I’m on my way to participate in the NCTM Regional conference in Baltimore, Maryland. My presentation is first thing tomorrow morning, and it will be on the topic of Singapore Math model drawing. The session is 75 minutes long, enough for a taste of several types of model drawing. Hopefully the participants will come away with some understanding of the power of model drawing and will be able to put it to use. If you are there, come by and see me after the presentation, from 11:00 AM on, at booth 614, with SDE!
Bill Jackson, the Scarsdale Singapore Math coach who is making waves nationwide, wrote an interesting series for The Daily Riff. The first article lays out how he got interested in Singapore Math. Here is a quote from his experience working with Japanese math teachers: When I began working with the Japanese teachers, I soon realized three important reasons why they were such good math teachers: (1) They had a high level of math content knowledge. In fact, I felt that their first grade teachers knew more about math than I did as an 8th grade teacher! (2) They used thin,…
A new reality show called Teach premiered on A&E on October 1. It follows Tony Danza as he enters the teaching profession as a high school literature teacher, with no prior teacher training. I was fully prepared to dislike this program, as the preview indicated it would be another feel-good show about a former actor getting a chance to make a difference in young people’s lives. Why, I thought, aren’t they featuring an excellent non-celebrity teacher? But I was pleasantly surprised. Teaching is a hard profession. It’s even harder if you want to be good or excellent at it. The…
Following on from last Friday’s New York Times article, the NY Times blogs ran a brief follow-up article titled, “A Slower Approach to Math,” with the opportunity to add your own comments to it. There were some pretty interesting thoughts there, which inspired me to add the following comment: As a teacher experienced in teaching Singapore Math and training other teachers to use it, I am constantly learning about the state of education around our country, especially in math. I see Singapore Math has many strengths as a curriculum and approach, and more of these are being adopted into our…
Are you looking for ideas about how to engage students in math, or show them how it applies to the real world? Here is a fun one for sports lovers. John Roach at msnbc.com recently published an article called “The Math and Science of Baseball.” It outlines various ways in which math and science have been applied to the sport. We all know about batting averages, but did you know scientists have analyzed everything from how likely it is that the best team will win with the current number of games vs. the ideal number of games per season, that…
Good news! The virtual classroom for our awesome YWP program is up and running. As soon as participants are fully signed up, they will receive login information. I have received a number of inquiries about the location of the program. The answer is: it’s up to us! Some people are north, some are south, some are middle… we will make it work, even if I travel a couple of times a week. Carpooling can help too. Remember, if you want to facilitate this, we would love your help. Let us know if you have good meeting places, and what dates…
Last Friday, this New York times article about Singapore Math appeared. The premise of the beginning of the article is that by studying one number at a time slowly, students learn more thoroughly and therefore build a better mathematical foundation. This is true, even if it is an oversimplification of the curriculum. Here is a quote from the article: Principals and teachers say that slowing down the learning process gives students a solid math foundation upon which to build increasingly complex skills, and makes it less likely that they will forget and have to be retaught the same thing in…
Watch the video below and see if you can identify which of the concepts Pa and Ma are missing. Then take the quiz below to find out if you identified the concept. Learn more about these important concepts in my book!
An article appeared in the Lowell Sun yesterday, and this article triggered more questions than answers in my mind. Among other things, the North Middlesex Regional School District found spotty improvements in math test scores. The article said: Brady and Muir discussed how the district’s use of so-called Singapore math is problematic. “We think Singapore math has taken us as far as it can,” Brady said. Muir added that Singapore math does not align with MCAS frameworks but that the district is looking at other textbook publishers. This raised some red flags for me. Singapore Math took them as far…
I came across this video from a Singapore tutor in my browsing today. It explains how to simplify an algebraic fraction problem. Interestingly, I solved a similar problem with my one of my algebra students last week. I like how this blogger breaks the steps down, but I would like her to explain more why the students made the mistake they made in the beginning. Question: do you know why? What is their misconception? Add a comment with your thoughts!