A recent conversation at work centered around the power of teachers. We all know how much influence educators have on developing minds. We all carry vivid memories of our most loved and most despised teachers. Here’s an amusing example of this influence. Think about your online passwords. Think about the security questions you use to recover them. The questions are… Read more →
Here is a Differentiated Instruction strategy my PLC is sharing with the campus as part of our staff development day this week. Each PLC on campus is putting together some sort of static display describing how DI has impacted their classroom this year. We will than have time to visit the displays and learn from our peers. The 8th-Grade Math PLC… Read more →
Two interesting reads: To See Increases in Student Achievement in 1:1/BYOD Classrooms, Teachers Must be Given Curriculum with Technology Activities Baked in, from The Journal asserts that research shows that technology devices in the classroom will not improve student performance unless the technology is inherent in the curriculum — not just an add-on. Success requires “60 percent to 75 percent… Read more →
So I’ve been visiting with a colleague over some common challenges, and I’ve been impressed by what a deep thinker he is. Even when he’s talking about students’ behaviors, he’s really talking about the big picture and what that student behavior represents. During one of these conversations I complimented him on a really engaging lesson and he responded with a… Read more →
Today’s classroom goal was to build connections between the volume of a cylinder and its matching cone (same radius and same height) and the analogous prism/pyramid pair. There is a classic demonstration filling a cylinder/cone pair with water or sand. It takes three cones to fill the cylinder. An extensive youtube search shows only two videos of this demonstration: one… Read more →
It’s time to cover square roots in preparation for the Pythagorean Theorem. I’ve written before about some of the struggles I have teaching the concept of a square root. I believe that if a concept cannot be briefly defined to a student, then that is a signal that the student does not have the necessary foundation and is likely to… Read more →
My last post shared students’ writing about their grades. Now, in a lighthearted Christmas break post, here are some student messages in pictures. I sometimes ask students to draw what they look like in math class. The results are sometimes rich and insightful. Obviously, some students enjoy their math class:Students often show that they understand the strengths and weaknesses of… Read more →
This year’s campus book study is Doug Lemov’s Teach Like a Champion: 49 Techniques That Put Students on the Path to College. In a twist on our usual book studies, this year each teacher on campus has selected one of the book’s classroom strategies and filmed videotaped video recorded it in action. Watching the videos is a great way to… Read more →
This morning several students on campus participated in a panel, answering staff questions about learning styles and classroom environments. We learned a lot. At one point, students were asked about reading and writing in non-Language Arts classes. One of my students described an activity that we do, and he got all the major points. Made me feel good. Here’s the… Read more →
I propose a simple account of how we generate intuitive opinions on complex matters. If a satisfactory answer to a hard question is not found quickly, [the intuitive capacity] will find a related question that is easier and will answer it. I call the operation of answering one question in place of another substitution. -Daniel Kahneman, Thinking Fast and Slow… Read more →