What is the answer?

-
The Hows:
How do we fix math education?
How do we address issues of equity and access?
How do we improve test scores?
How do we choose curriculum materials that encourage inquiry, exploration, problem solving, and application?
How do we improve number sense?
How do we make math fun, relevant, engaging, and meaningful to students?
How do I set up positive norms in math class?
How do I address math anxiety of my students? parents? other teachers?

The Whats:
What is the best curriculum?
What interventions are best?
What approach is better?
What is the purpose of math education?
What are we doing wrong (or right!)?
What will get us the biggest improvement the fastest?
What do teachers need to improve their teaching?
What do students need to improve their learning?




These are just some of the questions I think about, am asked, or read about daily. Daily! The longer I'm in education, the longer my answers to these questions become. I see peoples' eyes glaze over as I try to explain how there isn't just one factor that plays into any of these complex questions. I know, it would be so much easier if I could name a curriculum, program, app, webinar, keynote speaker, blog, or website that contained the answer. 

I'm still hopeful that there are answers. It's just not a quick fix.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Valentine's Day: I Heart Math

-
Image
If you teach middle school, brace yourself for the craziness that is Valentine's Day celebrated at school tomorrow! Heart shaped suckers, teddy bears, chocolate, and a few (hopefully minimal) tears. Instead of fighting it, embrace the mathiness that can be squeezed out of this heart-filled holiday! Here are a few resources to use: 1. Send a Math-o-Gram . Love math? Love Desmos? You can send your students (or friends) a heart themed graph! 2. Make a Mathy Valentine Use transformations to rotate your way to your students' hearts. 3. Check out these other heart-shaped graphing activities I found these NCTM Illuuminations graphing actives a few years ago. 4. Graph this equation in Desmos : (this was a fun one for my 6th graders... just to figure out how to type in the correct symbols!) 5. Mobius Strip Hearts ?! Yes! Happy Valentine's Day! <3 Update: More Valentine's Day Activities Added: Early Childhood Ideas: Spark a Lov
Read more

Block Schedule Planning

-
Image
I had an opportunity to teach on a 45-minute traditional class period schedule and a 90-minute block. Both models have their pros and cons. I think my own preference is block schedules because you have so much more time to dive into content. There are fewer transitions and it just seems calmer and more conducive to learning. However, one major challenge is finding purposeful ways to fill that block. If you notice that you are doing one activity for a long period of time, it might be important to think about chunking. What I mean by chunking is thinking of you period in 15-20 minute chunks of time and planning activities within those chunks. I find it's difficult to keep students attention if something lasts longer than 20 minutes, so that was my maximum for any activity (except an assessment). I developed the following sample block plans based on 85 minutes. So, if you have 60 minutes you can think about cutting out one of these pieces. If you teach 90 minutes, add 5 minute
Read more

Why I Don't Use Keywords (or CUBES)

-
Image
Teacher confession time: I used to teach my students about keywords in math class. I did not create this poster, but I could have. In fact I had one very similar hanging in my classroom from 2007-2012. I even wrote one of my National Board portfolio entries about a lesson designed around keywords ! This brings be to CUBES. A problem solving strategy I've seen quite a few times in classrooms. I never used it, but mostly because I didn't hear about it. I probably would have been all over that. If you aren't familiar, here is the strategy: C- circle the numbers U- underline the question B- box the keywords, or math action words E- evaluate the steps you should take S- solve and check You might be wondering why I stopped using keywords in math class in 2012. Honestly, I was pretty stubborn. I mean, kids  got the right answers  when I taught key words! I thought I was helping them. Students liked them. Parents understood them. There are actually several reasons I
Read more