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 […]
For my educator friends and colleagues, I have added a new multiplication chart lesson plan, complete with reproducible handouts, to TeachersPayTeachers.com. It is free to download and use. It can be used in a classroom, in a homeschooling setting, or in a special needs or remedial context. The lesson is aligned to the Common Core […]
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 […]
About two weeks ago, a post titled “Singapore Math Is ‘Our Dirty Little Secret’” appeared on the Core Knowledge blog. It criticized the New York Times article about Singapore Math that appeared on October 1. Apparently, the author believes that the poor state of math education in the US is due to what he calls […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]