Susan Midlarsky

author • consultant • tutor | inspiring excellence

NCTM Baltimore: Final Report

My first trip to NCTM is over, and I’m glad I went. Although the setup had a few glitches, like an LCD projector that didn’t want to project from my laptop, my presentation on problem solving using model drawing went well, with close to 180 participants. Many of them came back to the booth, interested […]

Math Jokes

After a long day of arriving and helping to set up the SDE booth, I had a little time to look around the NCTM bookstore. (NCTM, in case you don’t know, is the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics and the host of this conference.) There were some interesting books, but the one I just […]

NCTM Baltimore: Day 1

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 […]

The Daily Riff: Singapore Math Articles

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 […]

Teach Show on A&E: Educational

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 […]

Comment: A Slower Approach to Math

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 […]

Math and Baseball

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 […]

Math & Science Professional Development Grants

Teachers of grades 3-5, are you interested in a grant for professional development in science and math? Parents and students of a 3-5 grade teacher, are you interested in helping your teacher have a great opportunity to learn more math and science? The Mickelson Exxon-Mobile Teachers Academy is accepting applications through October 31. Be sure […]

Brief Review of Pubit! New ePublishing Service by B&N

Barnes and Noble launched its new pubit! service today, where authors can upload their manuscripts and have them automatically converted to ebooks. While I’m not crazy about the name (as I had my concerns about the iPad name initially), it looked like it might be easier to use than the Amazon Kindle service. I published […]