In the U.S. we’re accustomed to the bashing that the American system of teaching math receives from critics at home and abroad. Despite reservations about whether we’re comparing the wide spectrum of American population with the elite populations to whom… Read More ›
Teaching & Learning
Preliminary thoughts on benefits of CSA
As reported here at various points, a frequent topic of discussion at Weston High School is the achievement gap — as seen in Weston and elsewhere. In its starkest form, standardized tests show that white and Asian kids from upper-middle-class… Read More ›
Geolinguistics?
One Saturday last month, when I walked into the Saturday Course wearing my map jacket, the director brought up the idea that I should consider teaching a geography course. I was lukewarm to that idea, primarily because I couldn’t imagine… Read More ›
What (if anything) do Harvard students learn?
How do you know whether students at Harvard are actually learning anything? Some people would think that’s a ridiculous question: of course they’re learning something, or they wouldn’t be at Harvard! But that doesn’t follow; perhaps their presence at Harvard… Read More ›
What does an A mean?
We had a very interesting discussion in a 6–12 Math Department meeting. (That’s 6–12 as in 6th-grade through 12th, not as in a six-hour meeting.) The big question was what an A means. For example, if you get an A… Read More ›
Mao: what are the rules?
When classes ended at 2:50 this afternoon, one of my students asked me if I would like to learn how to play Mao. I said that I didn’t know anything about it, but I was indeed available after school. “What’s… Read More ›
But we're only a mile from Dorchester!
At the Saturday Course in Milton — frequently mentioned in this blog — we teach students from many different cities and towns, including Milton itself and Boston. So we were wondering why we don’t have a more diverse student body,… Read More ›
Her students don't know how to work with percents!
Rudbeckia Hirta reports that her college students don’t know how to work with percents. I would like to say I’m surprised. I would like to say that all Weston High School students know how to work with percents. I would… Read More ›
An Inconvenient Truth
As I reported yesterday, part of Weston High School’s Earth Day observances was a screening of An Inconvenient Truth. This event was attended by everyone — students and teachers alike. (Almost everyone, actually. A few kids skipped out, and some… Read More ›
Earth Day in Weston
We observed Earth Day today at Weston High School (since the real Earth Day will come right after April vacation). Classes were shortened to 55 minutes to allow time for a screening of An Inconvenient Truth, and we had guest… Read More ›
The Children of Room E4
In my post of February 23, I quoted from an NPR interview with Susan Eaton and said, “I’ll have to read the book.” Not surprisingly, I wasn’t the first in the queue for a library copy of The Children in… Read More ›
The Shape of Space
Consider what we teach in high-school geometry: There’s a lot of content from various two-dimensional topics, such as congruence, similarity, angles, polygons, and area. Much of this rehashes what was already done in middle school, though (we hope) in greater… Read More ›
Non-violent video games?
My Saturday Course students are designing and programming their own video games. These fifth-graders participate in an intensive introduction to programming, but their “Create Your Own Computer Game” course is also billed as a class in which kids create their… Read More ›
Meridian Academy photo show
A small but excellent exhibit of photographs by middle-school students at Jamaica Plain’s Meridian Academy was on display for the past two weeks at the JP Art Market. The official description read as follows: Meridian Academy students will show their… Read More ›
Math is hard at the Home Despot
On the way home from work yesterday, I stopped at the local Home Despot — er, I mean Home Depot — in South Bay in Dorchester, in order to buy some plywood. I picked out a nice sheet, measuring the… Read More ›
The one worst method
All right, we know that there isn’t any “one best method” of teaching. That’s one of the reasons why teachers need to be life-long learners: aside from being models for our students, aside from the continual need to learn new… Read More ›
Ends, means, and the content of high-school geometry
Interesting post today in Professor Hirta’s blog. Here are a couple of excerpts: Got a phone call today from a high school teacher. He was told by his supervisor that he needs to use more manipulatives in class, so he… Read More ›
Global Awareness Day
Speaking of professional development…yesterday was Global Awareness Day in the Weston Public Schools. Unlike Art Day, this was an eight-hour endeavor — very elaborate in planning, development, and conception. We began with a presentation about the forthcoming visit to Weston… Read More ›
Pi Day
Three days ago was Pi Day (3/14). Or maybe I should say 3.14 days ago, since that was Pi Day. Anyhow, a lot of the Weston math teachers celebrated it one way or another with our classes, and Kelly of… Read More ›
When is a math issue really a reading issue?
It was one of those Jungian synchronicities. My department head returned this morning from yesterday’s all-day conference, and he told us about a talk that ascribed many students’ difficulties with math questions (and questions in other disciplines) to difficulties in… Read More ›
Learning Strategies 