Math(s)

Hi all, I've just donated $90 to my own donorschoose project, so it will be matched by Samsung and my project will be funded.  I asked for a chromebook and a wacom drawing tablet, and the project has been partially funded for months.  A few people gave, but I'm frustrated with asking my friends and family for resources that ought to be given by the district I teach in, which shall remain unnamed.  I am fortunate to have the extra money to do so, but I shouldn't have to bring my own resources to bear in my classroom. So I gave to my own project . . . . which is nice I suppose, but I think it's also part of a systemic problem with our culture and our society.  We shouldn't have to beg for educational resources that our taxpayers already pay for.  But instead of giving the money to the teachers and students who deserve it, we waste the money on layers of superintendents, coaches, and downtown folk that nearly never interact with students.  Each of these positions p

Hi all, Here are some tools I use with my students to help them understand math better: WabbitEMU - an android app that simulates the ti-84 calculator.  Makes your android into a perfectly functioning graphing calculator, and more importantly, helps students learn the graphing calculator so they can use that tool during tests, even if they don't have a graphing calculator of their own. Khan Academy - For anybody, at any age range, the SAT study guide is perfect.  It will track what you know and adjust, and show you what you still need to know.  I plan to use it to take the graduate tests I need to take in the near future, because it will diagnose if I need to re-remember anything and then give me the things I need to know. Desmos.com - a great graphing calculator for any browser, any operating system.  It graphs in color and makes graphing easy.  One warning - students become a bit dependent upon it, so make sure you help them with graphing calculators too because they can&

Hi all, Hope you're having a good day.  I'm planning my lessons for today, and I realize that what made me fall in love with math - as a subject, a discipline, and finally as a subject to teach - was how it was used in real life.  I wonder if I can present my content in such a way that students can fall in love with problem solving and math.  I try - but usually the "word problems" don't get rave reviews.  Instead, students want the easy, sequential steps to get the answer. However, life problems are almost never that easy.  That's what makes life interesting.  We have to make decisions based upon partial data, uncertainty, and sometimes nearly no information.  These decisions have large consequences - like financial issues, how the class will go (for teachers), what life looks like in 5 to 10 years, when we can retire, etc. I wonder what it would look like if problem solving were as highly prized as reading.  No one would ever admit to not being able to