Tag: curriculum

  • Different Cooperative strategies

    In my last post, Why I won’t use Direct Instruction, I was provocative and challenged some of the typical thinking about math instruction. The post generated some terrific conversation, both here and on Twitter, and although I have not changed my mind for my own classroom use, I do admit there may be times when…

  • Math on the Move

    I had the opportunity to read a preprint edition of Malke Rosenfeld’s new book, Math on the Move, and here are my thoughts. First off, let me start off with what this book is not. As educators we have probably sat through a professional development where someone told us that in math class, we can…

  • No more broccoli flavored ice cream

    The struggle to understand why we teach K-12 mathematics in the order we do, and the content we do is real. I have wondered about this for a long time, and really have never found a good answer. I threw out the idea of teaching y=mx+b as the only way to write lines (even though…

  • Teaching machines never will go away

    #BlAugust Continues with my Knowing and Learning posts I was sitting down this morning at 7:30 to do today’s post, and I was stymied. What to write, what to write? So I opened Twitter for inspiration and Christopher Danielson had re-tweeted this:   HULK SUGGEST DITCHING SENATOR FOR SPEAK & SPELL! JUST AS INTELLIGENT! AND…

  • Knowing & Learning: setting the tone

    Continuing on the #BlAugust train! Yay. To help set the stage for the Big Questions of Knowing and Learning, I will be using the results from this survey. I asked on Twitter for teachers to take it, and it will be required for my learners to take it. (Same questions, but a different set of…

  • Knowing & Learning Syllabus

    Another #BlAugust post. Staying strong on building the habit of writing in the morning. I finished my syllabus for Knowing and Learning. I have all the questions written for each reading section (a huge thanks goes out to Walter Stroup at UT Austin for his course site that has his questions on the readings). The…

  • Questioning in a Theory class

    Hitting number 5 for #BlAugust on the 5th of August. Excellent. So far so good! Transitioning from teaching mathematics to teaching theory is difficult. Not because of the content, that is just reading and understanding what I read. No, it is difficult because of how I define teaching. Telling isn’t teaching. I decided a long…

  • Assessment conversations

    So far, doing well on the BlAugust posts. And talking through the justifications for my ed theory class is helping me. So the second through fourth day of the class is all about Assessment. Why do I start with assessment? What am I having the learners read? The justification is a paraphrase of this quote: Mathematics…

  • Day 1- Starting the conversation

    Day one of my Knowing and Learning class will be about the syllabus, the 4 major assignments, and starting the conversation regarding what it means to Know something or Learn something. There are going to be 4 major assignments. Two interviews, a midterm, and a lesson plan for the final. The first interview is a…

  • Teaching as political activity

    Brian Lawler posted this today: Teaching is a political act. We r either recreating what is, or critically evaluating our world & knowledge; we teach 4 conformity or agency — Brian R Lawler (@blaw0013) July 27, 2016 This statement hit me in the feels, as it is intended.*** Then my brain took over. I realized…