I’m thrilled to announce that my book has been selected as one of the Top 75 Community College Titles: October 2024 Edition on choice360.org. Choice is a publishing unit of the Association of College and Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association. My book made it into the Social and Behavioral Sciences category. What do you think about that? Let me know in the comments! Learn more about, and order my book, here!
-
-
Have you ever wondered if there is a better way to understand and remember mathematical order of operations than PEMDAS, BIDMAS, GEMA, or any of the other happy mnemonics that only go so far? It’s been a bugaboo for so many teachers over time. During a recent work trip to St. Croix, USVI, I realized I hadn’t written my thoughts about it in my book. So I wrote a chapter all about it. If you’d like to read the chapter, wonderful! Just sign up to my email list, and you’ll get a link to download it for free. Don’t forget…
-
In Chapter 2 of my book (in progress, soon to be sent to the publisher), I discuss the amazing process that happens in our brains when they make neural connections while learning. Here is a brief video visualization of a group of neurons building connections between them, the process that happens whenever we learn something or strengthen our learning. I hope you enjoy my book and how it can help you grow stronger neural connections about math!
-
Every now and then, when we make the space, our educators get a chance to shine. Sometimes this is when they work together in a way that is outside the routine. An example is one time I conducted an online workshop. As an introductory activity, the teachers went into breakout rooms. Their task was to collectively write a one-word-at-a-time inspirational, true saying about education. This involves the participants taking turns in a round to add one word to a saying that someone starts; it stops when the participants agree the saying is complete. Sometimes this activity goes nowhere, or it…
-
I’m so inspired about a new tool to enhance math education. A friend sent me the link to a TED talk (embedded at the bottom of this post) showing the evolution of the Khan Academy into something truly useful for – well, for just about anybody. I had come across the Khan videos some time ago, and I thought they were useful and well designed to teach more advanced concepts. Since they were not necessarily pertinent to my work, though, I didn’t return to them. Then I saw this video, and how the Khan Academy has evolved, and I got…
-
The more I travel and meet people, the more I find that most adults in the US have difficulty with math. I read a comment by a woman from Eastern Europe who found that while she was a mediocre math student in her home country, she was miles ahead of American students when she moved here. She couldn’t understand why, with all the time and finance poured into math education here, including an average of 1.5 hours per day of math class, her children were progressing in math far less well than she had when growing up. I think part…
