A teacher who doesn’t collaborate works on an isolated island. When this lack of collaboration permeates an entire school, teachers more closely resemble independent contractors than colleagues. I’m growing increasingly concerned that this is becoming more, and not less, common. Consider the highly shared and liked tweet below from Heather Kohn. At a very collaborative…
My letter to the editor on the need for more teacher-friendly math professional development around math progressions was published in this week’s issue of Education Week. It focuses on the strange combination of teachers requesting less training on content standards but more training on how to connect key math topics and concepts across grade levels. What…
Only a few months ago, I used the words “complex” and “complicated” interchangeably as synonyms for “difficult.” Recently I learned about the differences between their meanings and I now see their significance everywhere, especially in math education. Specifically, I am concerned about Depth of Knowledge (DOK) being viewed as a complicated issue when it is really…
A letter to the editor I submitted to Education Week was published this week. It addresses the nature of change in education and how the global network of math educators, known as the MathTwitterBlogosphere (MTBOS), can make coping with this change easier. Check it out here: http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2015/08/26/as-math-education-changes-social-media-play.html
I want to start off by making this post’s intention clear: my goal is to level the information playing field which will enable us to improve math education conferences for speakers and attendees. Working together we can create something better than any one of us could have created on our own. A key component of…
When the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for Mathematics were written, the authors defined three shifts (coherence, focus, and rigor) to articulate “how the standards differ from previous standards—and the necessary shifts they call for.” The shifts are useful in articulating the big picture as to how things have changed. This blog post delves solely into…
How do the Common Core State Standards‘ (CCSS) description for how students are expected to demonstrate their mathematical understanding compare to the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills‘ (TEKS) description? I wondered about that question as this summer I will be doing my first workshops and presentations in Texas. As I primarily work in California where…
Articulating why the Common Core State Standards are such a big change for mathematics can be challenging, especially if your audience is unfamiliar with them, like parents and other non-educators. After all, isn’t it just changing the standards? Fellow educators also feel the stress, but may have trouble stating exactly why that is. How do…
Several years ago I had a profound moment that led me to completely rethink what it meant to understand mathematics. I was still in the classroom and had been working with 6th graders on adding and subtracting mixed numbers. My formative assessments and observations showed that most students were proficient, and I felt pleased. To…
The Missing Link in Algebra Policy Analysis: a Case Study of Placement in 8th Grade Algebra, a report that analyzes how schools use data to make educated student placement in math classes was accepted for publication by the American Educational Research Association (AERA) at their 2013 Annual Conference in San Francisco. The paper was co-authored…
One of the most challenging professional development tasks is helping teachers improve the questions they ask students. Teachers are aware that some questions require students to think more meaningfully, yet research shows that these questions are rarely asked. “About 60% of teachers’ questions require students to recall facts; about 20% require students to think; and…
The Common Core’s Standards for Mathematical Practice significantly progress efforts to articulate how students should demonstrate their mathematical proficiency. These standards “describe varieties of expertise that mathematics educators at all levels should seek to develop in their students” (Standards for Mathematical Practice, 2010) by giving expectations for the depth of students’ understanding, the skills students should…
My article on the interesting similarities shared by healthy eating and math education was published in Education Week (Vol. 31, Issue 33, Page 29) on June 6, 2012: The philosophies behind healthy eating and math instruction share interesting similarities that provide useful insight into the direction educational policymakers should take. Healthy eating means consuming the right…
I believe that, in general, educational policy makers begin with good intentions. However, the hopes and goals they begin with are often lost in translation by the time the policy reaches the classroom. It is very similar to a game of telephone which begins with an idea from the federal government, but then quickly loses…
Robert Kaplinsky and Melissa Canham’s article Practicing Questioning Skills as a Tool to Assess Student Understanding about an activity called Questioning Scenarios was published in the March 2012 issue of the California Mathematics Council (CMC) ComMuniCator. The Questioning Scenarios activity’s purpose is to give educators an opportunity to practice their questioning skills by role playing…