I’m not sure who came up with the idea of “Menus” as a math teaching device, though I first saw them at a workshop from the folks at MEC. Menus are essentially modified stations, designed to be a several-day structure that puts kids [...]
I’ve been taking some time to write up some lessons, and I’d love to get some feedback. You can click here for a pdf of this lesson on 1-2 Nim. It’s one of our favorites: a surefire way to get students of any age playing and [...]
“… at this point, it’s in the hands of people who are mathematically inclined.” —Stephen Hsu The January 6th New Yorker contains an article on B.G.I., a Chinese company seeking to do major work in the field of genetics. According [...]
The good thing about teaching percents is that they connect to the real world, particularly with money. The bad thing is, it can be hard to find really dynamic problems. Too [...]
One of the beautiful results in mathematics is the proof of the divergence of the harmonic series. What it tells us is that the infinite series of fractions 1/2 + 1/3 + 1/4 + 1/5 + 1/6 + … gets infinitely large. Recently, I got to [...]
The grails of math activities, for me, are those that involve almost no special knowledge to get into, but have near-infinite depth. (Like this one.) We sometimes describe them as having a short barrier to entry, and no ceiling. (A common [...]
I’ve been immersed in puzzle and lesson creation lately, and I thought I should take advantage and throw some of them out here on the blog. Please take, solve, use in your [...]
I just read this wonderful interview with Tom Zhang, who made recent, important progress on the Twin Prime conjecture. It’s a strange, quiet interview, and a lovely departure from the world of the fame-obsessed. Another thing I like: he [...]
I was just observing a third grade class learning/reviewing basic fraction to decimal conversion, and I overheard a great remark. A girl, reading a word problem, said to her table [...]
Reading an Alfie Kohn’s article on what kids learn from failure made me think of the most common question I hear from teachers about the Common Core Practices: “How can I [...]
Those who believe the Common Core Standards are a good thing should take notice. The next year or two will probably make or break them, and the criticism is already starting to mount. This matters. Reforms only work when the people who [...]
When I try to describe great teaching, I notice a certain phrase pops out of my mouth again and again. Productively stuck. As in, the goal of the teacher is to get her students productively stuck as soon as possible. As in, we want to hook [...]
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