Other than my shameless promotion of the Numberbet song that I just posted yesterday, I have not posted in several years. Why? Well because I was writing a book with my colleagues Patricia Marshall and Lee Stiff. This book builds on the themes from the Opportunity Gap video I posted a few years ago. From […]
Latest News
Vote for the Numberbet Song
NCTM is having a Song Contest. And so, of course, I have entered the Numberbet Song. Please go to https://www.nctm.org/NCTM-Song-Contest/ You will see a bit down the page that you have to attest to your age. Once done you will see the word VOTE. Click that and then look for the Numberbet song. The video […]
The Opportunity Gap in Schools
I recently gave a short talk at NC State as part of a new event called TUFFTalks*. Here is the video of that talk. It is 16 minutes long and is a shorter version of a talk I have given at many schools. At the heart of this talk is the question about our assumptions […]
Multiplication and Arrays – Does order matter?
Happy New Year to everyone. My resolution is to write more blog posts. I am shooting for 2 per month. I get asked questions through email frequently and I am going to start using those questions and responses as blogs. I hope that helps keep this material relevant to all of you. This first one […]
These young teachers are pretty amazing – NC State Grads in the news
It is graduation week and I could not be more proud of my undergraduate students from the classes of 2012 through 2015 who are now fully established or just beginning their careers as teachers. I have 280 of them out there now and they are all pretty much as terrific as these two. This week […]
On giving teachers time…
My job now is to prepare, inspire, and support pre-service teachers as they embark upon the greatest career in the world: Teaching. I have heard that, in China, teachers are called ‘culture makers’. There is little more important than that. And teaching is both intellectually challenging and emotionally challenging. I want the amazing pre-service teachers […]
The Numberbet Song
Recently, my first-cousin-by-marriage-once-removed, Henry, asked his dad an important question. While watching a football game he said: ‘Do they use all the numbers in the numberbet for the football jerseys?’ Wow. That is fun on several levels. How would you answer this 4-year-old’s question? My first thought was ‘no’ as I interpreted the question to […]
Language and Math Article available!
Good News! My article (spread sheet really) on mathematical language (Why the common core changes math instruction) has been published by Kappan magazine. Thanks to reader interest, they have made the link available to all through spring of 2015. Open Access! Enjoy! Link to Article on Math Language: Why the common core changes math instruction. […]
Equality is not ‘the same as’
Okay, let’s start at the beginning. For some reason, we have decided to screw kids up by saying that ‘equality means the same as’. If you are a parent or a teacher or an aunt or an uncle, or anyone who is talking to a kid about math – re-think. Equality does not mean the […]
Are you a Math Person?
Are you a Math Person? Are you Not a Math Person? Those are the questions I posed in my TEDxNCSU lecture from 2012. In my experience, people in the United States don’t think twice about this question and they see this as a legitimate construct. I actually think the question itself makes no sense! (And […]
math club 