I am deeply fascinated by the leaps that artificial intelligence has made in the last few years. When I studied artificial intelligence at UCLA in the late 1990s, chat bots were about as sophisticated as AI got. Nowadays, it can make nearly unfathomable things. As a silly example, you can use a free AI…
I’ve recently upgraded my webinar equipment setup and I wanted to share more about what I did and how you can do the same. First, I need to share two important disclaimers: Setting this up comes with many hours of tech frustrations from trying to get it all working together, watching YouTube videos to understand…
I’m always looking to learn about new podcasts and so I wanted to share six of my favorites. In general, I like podcasts that teach me things I didn’t know or help me see things I thought I knew but really didn’t. Here they are in alphabetical order with a little about why I love…
I’m so excited to share that after years in the making, my book Open Middle Math: Problems That Unlock Student Thinking, Grades 6 – 12 is finally done! I wrote Open Middle Math to help teachers facilitate powerful conversations around engaging problems that help students understand and love mathematics. I wanted to tell you…
I’ve got some unsolicited suggestions for how the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) may be able to reduce expenses related to running its conferences. My hope is that by sharing these ideas publicly, we can get a conversation going that will make it more affordable to attend an NCTM conference. I am fully…
If you live in a state that uses the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC)’s assessment for the Common Core State Standards in math, then you want to make sure you avoid letting anyone make the score interpretation mistake I describe in this post. Take a look at the data that comes from a school’s 2016 scores in mathematics.
I was interviewed last Fall by Adrian Pumphrey for the MathEdOut podcast on topics ranging from depth of knowledge and Open Middle to problem-based learning and behavioral economics. The podcast lasts about 37 minutes and is available for free here. Enjoy! @robertkaplinsky @MathEdOut thanks! Fantastic interview. I want to submit some Open Middle activities now. —…
This post is the third in a series about the experiences I’ve had while participating on a National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) program committee. Part one covered what I learned at the initial meeting to prepare for my upcoming duties including evaluating conference proposals. Part two covered what I learned after reviewing hundreds of…
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…
I have a whole new level of respect for anyone who has ever worked on putting together a conference, especially if he or she had to review the speaker proposals. I just finished reviewing over 240 proposals for the 2015 NCTM Regional Conference in Nashville and I’ve learned quite a bit that I want to…
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…
I recently participated on my first National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) program committee which is tasked with selecting the speakers for the 2015 regional conference in Nashville, Tennessee. I had very little understanding as to how these conferences came together and I was excited to be a part of it as I had so much to…
The Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) released its practice test on May 29, 2013 and it will be available to the entire public (including parents and students) until the official test is released during the 2014-2015 school year. The test will ultimately be administered to grades 3-8 and 11 and there are separate practice tests…