Read Frederick Hess’s NPR blog on the irony of promised transparency by the Obama administration and the concurrent undisclosed identities of the selected judges who will likely pick only a small handful of states to win funding out of the 40 applicants.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123102353

What I read:
http://mathforum.org/

The Math Forum is a web site from Drexel University in Pennsylvania. Their slogan is “People Learning Math Together.” This site is intended for all people interested in math to come together to enrich and support the learning, sharing, teaching and communication of math topics. My immediate as well as overall impression of the site was that it is extremely professional as well as warm and inviting. I appreciate that very much since many people (myself included) can be scared off from a site if it seems to belong to people who know more than I. This site is welcoming to students, teachers, parents, researchers and interested citizens. So go forth fearlessly!

The LowDown

1. Fun games, puzzles, math problems & tutoring for students
2. Resources, homework help, math library & answers questions for parents
3. Lesson plans by grade level, discussion forums, education policy topics & professional development for teachers
4. Weekly newsletter that includes sites to visit, key issues in math education and tips
5. 6-week online continuing education courses on multiple topics for only $149 (1.5 CEU certificate)
6. Ask Dr. Math forum and books
7. 2010 Math Games your class can participate in (Make 1-100 using only #’s 2010 using operations)
8. Free 21 day trial class membership for Problem of the Week (PoW)- individual available too
9. Links to interactive math tools
10. Active, interesting, focused and timely discussion forum

I would recommend reading the About page first for a good overview. There is an easy to find search button and some of the information is in more than one place for ease of use. The web site is very fluid with two exceptions. First, the site doesn’t have a back button, you have to use your browser’s. Second, the discussion forums don’t seem to take advantage of using threads to post. For example, I found an interesting post but had to search back several pages to find the original one that it was responding to. I love that the site is current. Discussions posts were from today. Pictures of staff were fun to look at, they seem very friendly. The advertisements on the site were math related only which is refreshing. If you are thinking of taking an online workshop, check out the description first. Some of them require you to be a member of the PoW at the class level which means during the class you either need to have just ordered the free trial or you need to spend $119 more. If you are a current teacher however, this seems like a worthwhile expenditure because you and 36 students get access to the PoW archives.

I signed up for Math Forum’s newsletter today and was particularly enticed by the online workshop possibilities given that the cost is extremely affordable compared to other online classes I’ve seen, as well as the discussion forums which I am going to have to go back to and spend an hour or two just reading them. Compared to the A to Z Teacher Forum and other such online teacher discussion boards, this one seemed focused and interesting. Posts were on topic (math) and some shared very interesting information such as the history of math and other out of the ordinary math topics as well as the typical ones. If you are looking for an answer to your math question or feedback on your lessons or ideas, the Math Forum seems like an excellent place to exchange those ideas or just ask Dr. Math. I’ll have to think of a good question for her or him or…actually there are over 300 volunteers who answer these questions. Questions can come from any age learner and will be sent to a Dr. Math who can (hopefully) answer your question.

So, click on Math Forum now or bookmark it for later. You can also find the link to the right of this blog in the Mathematics Links box.

Teacher Resource
http://mathforum.org/teachers/

NEXT: Secretary of Education Arne Duncan

Today I read a book entitled Math Lessons for Elementary Grades. Its author is Dorothy Harrer and it is published by the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America (AWSNA). It’s a short little book of 131 pages. After an excerpt from Rudolph Steiner (The founder of Waldorf education) and an introductory chapter on teaching arithmetic in general, the remaining chapters and the bulk of the book are dedicated to sharing mathematics lessons from grades one through six.

I am adding a new section to my posts called The Lowdown. This section will be just the highlights or just a summary of the blog given in a list from 1-10. Given my blog entries tend to be verbose (though clear I hope!), I wanted to give you, the reader, an option of just getting a quick snapshot for when you don’t have the time to read a whole entry. Say no more here it is:

The Lowdown

First let me say that I absolutely want to re-read this book in order to actually do the problems presented in the book. Being a teacher, I know how important it is to actually do the problems you are presenting to your students so you can see what sorts of questions or problems they might have. It is also wonderful to challenge yourself to do every problem more than one way (like hopefully you ask of your students).

General ideas to keep in mind
Children who are weak in math should have extra time to do movement exercises that include counting forward and backwards, moving a staff around the body, walking and running. Why?

“What lies at the root of arithmetic is consciously willed movement, the sense of movement (and it) will have the effect of bringing the child’s arithmetical powers to life.”

When phrasing math problems, do say  ”I have 7, how much must I take away to get 3?” Don’t say “What remains over if I take 4 from 7? In the first example you are dealing with concrete things: what you have and what you need to get. This sort of thinking is easier for children to access. In the second example, the phrasing is abstract, making the problem more challenging to access.

Since multiplication is just repeated addition, they could and should be taught together. Not only that, but the the author claims it is much more efficient to teach all four processes at the same time without lingering too long over explanations and then just move into practicing all four. In this way I suppose, children are more likely to see the relationships between numbers and their functions, a skill which tends to be lacking for many students.

Children, especially 6-7 year olds are quite imaginative and active. As a teacher, you should reach the child using these same ideas. Use pictorial lessons for helping students access their thinking powers and rhythmic activity for memory. Dramatic acting out also helps set things to memory.

1st grade- Lessons include rhymes for numbers, shapes, a Gnomes and Jewels math story and pictorial representations of the four processes (+,-,x,/) using gnomes.
2nd grade- Story to introduce factors, active arithmetic for learning about even and odd, fill in the blank stories with math problems, a game where kids act out characters such as “Treasure Hunter,” stories for various times tables, skip counting rhythm exercises and pattern making.
3rd grade- Story about math in our lives, finding patterns in number tables, practice in written and oral skip counting, measurement stories discussing liquid and dry measurements, weights and time.
4th grade- Story introducing carrying and borrowing, traditional algorithms, area measurements, fraction tree, four processes with fractions, expanding fractions, active studies in squares, ten as a helper number, order of operations.
5th grade- History of numbers, story Pythagoras,  square, triangular and oblong numbers, chart of equivalent fractions, extend and reduce fractions, “secret” divisor, manipulating numbers when dividing and multiplying fractions, decimal practice, fraction to decimal conversion list for memorization.
6th grade- Convert fractions to decimals, percents, mills, interest, principals, rates (of loans, rent and fares) , time, simple and compound interest, commission (retail & wholesale), net proceeds, special sales & discounts, taxes (city, state and federal and why we have them), ratio equivalents

I am so impressed with what Waldorf students must be doing in 6th grade math. I didn’t learn most of this stuff until much later and some of it like rates of payment, interest and loans I don’t remember ever being taught in school….though I do remember they were problems I couldn’t do on some of the tests I took. Although I don’t agree with all of Rudolph Steiner’s philosophies, it is apparent from this book that the teaching content and methods within this book are written to be developmentally appropriate. In constructivist teaching, a teacher is there to guide each student through their own process of learning. Put another way, the teacher helps students construct their own learning as opposed to telling them what to do and often how to do it. I may have to do a whole blog on constructivism given there is a lot of semantic disagreement among educators and critics.

I read once that mathematics is the true language that can explain our Universe. My first reaction was, “Cool, so how does it work?” Most of the people who surround me have incredible math anxiety so trying to get people to even enter into a creative and abstract conversation about mathematics proves to be extremely difficult. So, since my friends who are mathematicians are extremely busy teaching or running for public office, I decided to investigate this one on my own. (If any of my mathematician friends reads this and would like to chime in with your perspective, please do so!)

Normally, we describe the world around us by using our senses. They sky is grey and blue. The air smells of sod and rainwater. The sun is setting atop the mountain in the horizon. Well, that last one we know that the sun isn’t the sphere setting, it is our earthly sphere that spins. In addition to describing the world using our senses, we also describe it with reason, that is, what we know to be mathematically true. If you were to ask ten different people to describe the sunset, you would likely get ten different answers. That is because people have different perspectives, they notice different things and they disagree on many ideas and descriptions as a result. All of these ideas and descriptions are based on differently people’s perspectives and can therefore be called “variables,” or, things that change. In order to be sure we communicate exactly what we intend to and in order for everyone to describe something the same way over great expanses of space and time, we need to use “constants,” or things that don’t change. Almost everything in our world changes except mathematics. 7+4 has always been 11 and in 1,000 years it will still be 11. For a clearer understanding, here is a quote from a most intriguing and thought-provoking book I’m reading by Jostein Gaarder called Sophie’s World: A Novel About the History of Philosophy:

“Plato found mathematics very absorbing because mathematical states never change. They are therefore states we can have true knowledge of. But here we need an example.
Imagine you find a round pinecone out in the woods. Perhaps you say you “think” it looks completely round, whereas Joanna insists it is a bit flattened on one side. (Then you start arguing about it!) But you cannot have true knowledge of anything you can perceive with your eyes. On the other hand, you can say with absolute certainty that the sum of the angles in a circle is 360 degrees.” (pp 86-87).

Another enlightening book I found is a mystical, historical and scientific view of mathematics. It is a fascinating book authored by Michael S. Schneider called A Beginner’s Guide to Constructing the Universe: The mathematical archetypes of nature, art, and science- A Voyage from 1 to 10. Schneider takes the reader on a journey through each of the numbers 1-10. For example, chapter five is entitled “Pentad” the Greek philosophers term for the number five. The reader discovers connections from the number five to Fibonacci numbers, the golden mean, pentagonal symmetry in architecture, religion, ritual and more. Slice open an apple and you will see five seeds in the shape of a star. More living things from nature have pentagonal designs such as a sand dollar, starfish, sea cucumber, human body and a microscopic radiolarian skeleton. This book is stuffed to the brim with information that aids the reader in thinking about mathematics in a whole new light and understand in a deeper way, how mathematics describes the universe (and vice versa!).

One of the popular debates about mathematics is which came first, mathematics itself and then humans “discovered” it, or was it non-existent until a human thought it up and developed from that idea into what it is today?

E-mail me with your thoughts or make a comment below if you have something to add.

Three worthwhile articles:
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2009/02/08/a_talk_with_mario_livio/
http://www.fdavidpeat.com/bibliography/essays/maths.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematics_as_a_language

What I Read:
http://www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop/index.html

On November 18, 2009, the U.S. Department of Education and President Obama invited state applicants (Governor’s only) to apply for part of a $4 billion grant, with the applications due on January 19, 2010. This news sent many on a mad scramble for their slice of the pie, including state governors, school districts & programs, the American Library Association and  the Bureau of Indian Education Schools (the latter two were not invited to submit grant applications).

This “Race to the Top” grant is a result of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) Sect. 14005-6, Title XIV (public law 111-5). There will be 2 rounds of funding. The first deadline has already passed (January 19, 2010). The grants will be awarded to states who advance education reform by:

1. Adopting career-ready standards (The Common Core State Standards Initiative is the main one)
2. Building data assessment systems and using them
3. “Recruiting, developing, rewarding and retaining effective teachers and principals.” (ed.gov)
4. Reversing trends in lowest-achieving schools

ED.gov states that the states who will win these competitive grants are those who have “ambitious yet achievable plans for implementing coherent, compelling, and comprehensive education reform.”

Two states, Texas and Alaska have declined to submit applications for any of the grant money. Texas Governor Rick Perry is quoted in a NY Times article:

“We would be foolish and irresponsible,” Mr. Perry said, “to place our children’s future in the hands of unelected bureaucrats and special-interest groups thousands of miles away in Washington.”

Texas State Education Commissioner Robert Scott says, “Even if we won the full amount, it would only run our schools for two days, so for that we weren’t going to cede control over our curriculum standards.”

Texas stands to gain up to $700 million. Alaska stands to gain up to $75 million (grant amounts are dependent on state populations). It is unclear to me why Alaska is declining this money as I was unable to find any press releases or news statements on the issue. I have emailed Governor Parnell with my questions.

However, it is not to late for any state to still apply in the phase 2 portion of grant dollar releases. If a state failed to meet the phase 1 deadline or if a state’s application is turned down, that state may re-apply (or apply for the first time) by a June 1, 2010 deadline with winners announced in September. Current applicant winners will be announced in April 2010.

Articles/Opinions on Race to the Top Grant Money:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/14/education/14texas.html
http://educationalissues.suite101.com/article.cfm/race_to_the_top_grant_challenging
http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/other-views/story/1428370.html
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2009/09/all_states_now_eligible_for_ga.html
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6687154.html?industryid=47062
http://www.jordannews.com/community/mathias-baden/race-top-needs-include-bureau-indian-education-schools

Teacher Resource:
Math sites and free resources
http://www.free.ed.gov/subjects.cfm?subject_id=33

NEXT: Web Site Review of mathforum.org

The Abacus is an ancient calculator and the world’s first computing system made simply of wooden beads in a rectangular frame. Back when the Babylonians, Egyptians and Romans were carving out numbers into stone tablets and using pebbles in the sand, somebody out there was inventing abaci, the plural of abacus. Most historians believe the abacus was invented in Central Asia and only later traveled to China (which embraced it and improved on it) and to Europe (which preferred pencil and paper and therefore ignored it).

While there is a Japanese version of the abacus, the soroban, the modern chinese abacus, the suan pan, is to me, more useful given a crossbar that runs horizontally across the abacus dividing the “one” beads or “earth” beads from the 5, 10, 50, etc. beads or the “heaven” beads. If you look carefully at the photograph at the beginning on this blog, you can read the number 628. In the far right (ones) column, one heaven bead and three earth beads are represented. In the column second from the right (tens) you can see that two earth beads are represented which means twenty. Finally, in the third to the right column (hundreds), one heaven and one earth bead are shown giving 500 + 100 or 600 altogether.

There are few books and resources available in the west on how to use an abacus, let alone how to teach mathematics with it. Sluggishly however, the abacus is cropping up in various schools and educational organizations. For example, in Beaverton, Oregon (outside Portland), the Japanese Abacus Math School (JAMS) opened its doors in 2001. JAMS teaches children abaci functions and mental math. Their web site, http://www.jamsportland.com/index.html, says of using the abacus in education:

“Learning the abacus provides all of these skills and abilities. Children who learn the abacus generally achieve higher academic performance in all subjects because of the concentration skills the Abacus teaches them. They are simply more capable of looking at a problem and working it out mentally, before diving in. When this happens they become more confident and successful in all areas.”

With the abacus you can count, add, subtract, multiply and divide. You can also work with square roots and decimals. Lastly, one of the amazing functions you can do with a Chinese abacus is to work with binary numbers since it is separated. For binary applications, only use the top two beads for the (the heaven beads) zero and the one. Using the Chinese abacus for binary functions was invented much later than abaci were, it is merely a delicious by-product. Children in Japan, China, Malaysia and other countries generally begin learning the abacus at age seven (second grade). The abacus is an extremely tactile instrument that can be used in a basic way for young children beginning with counting and in a more sophisticated way as a child grows in his/her understanding of the base ten system and improves upon her/his ability to construct and deconstruct number (i.e. use mental math).

“As in the case of the abacus, a fine grained analysis of the origin and development of instruments may give insight into the dialectic relationship between practice and theory in the construction of mathematical knowledge (Bartolini Bussi & Mariotti, 1999, 1999a), and provide interesting suggestion at the educational level.” (Authored by Maria Alessandra Mariotti in her article, “Influence of technologies advances on students’ math learning.”

If you or someone you know currently uses an abacus in the classroom for teaching mathematics to children, please let me know about your experience. If you’d like to begin but don’t know where, check out the links I’ve posted below. There are books and online tutorials for learning how to use an abacus (then it takes consistent practice to be fluid), there are workbooks for children that give them structured practice and there is a link on where to buy a Chinese abacus.

Books on using the Chinese Abacus:
How to Use a Chinese Abacus: A step by step guide to addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, roots and more ($25)
This is the book I want to buy. It has very good reviews and gets into roots and more in depth calculations and explanations.
http://www.amazon.com/CHINESE-ABACUS-step-step-multiplication/dp/184799864X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1264619509&sr=1-1

The Abacus: The world’s first computing system: Where it comes from, How it works, and How to use it to perform mathematical feats great and small
This is the book I actually bought because it includes a small working Chinese abacus. Very good beginner book, limited information.
http://www.amazon.com/Abacus-Worlds-Computing-Perform-Mathermatical/dp/031210409X/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1264619688&sr=1-3

Buy a Chinese Abacus ($6 + $10 shipping)
https://www.chinasprout.com/shop/A948

Teacher Resources:
Online Java Abacus with built-in tutoring:
http://www.tux.org/~bagleyd/java/AbacusApp.html

The Abacus: The Art of Calculating with Beads and more!
http://archives.math.utk.edu/popmath.html

Order Abacus Workbooks
http://www.my-rummy.com/Abacus_for_Primary_School_Children.html
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=abacus+workbook&x=0&y=0

What I read:
http://www.corestandards.org/
http://www.edutopia.org/poll-common-core-state-standards-initiative (comments section)

The Common Core State Standards Initiative (CCSSI) is a joint effort by the National Governor’s Association (NGA) and The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) to embed common standards of achievement in both mathematics and English language arts (i.e. primarily reading).  Its purpose is to prepare all K-12 students for college and career success. Success in this case seems to be defined as being competitive and making money. The CCSSI is being called the College and Career Readiness Standards.

At the website http://www.corestandards.org/, the authors in charge of explaining and validating this initiative seem to imply that the purpose of education is to mold young children into business men and women ready to compete in the global economy. I cringe at the use of such forceful, economy-centered language and maintain that the ultimate purpose of education is an ethical task that demands we teach the next generation to pursue knowledge and truth (not money and power).

The CCSSI is (an):
“opportunity for states to collectively accelerate and drive education reform toward the ultimate goal of all children graduating from high school ready for college work, and success in the global economy.”

“to maintain America’s competitive edge.”

“to compete with not only their American peers, but with students from around the world.”

Another sort of weird power thing coming out of the CCSSI is that there is a Validation Committee already chosen who will verify that states have “accurately adopted the Common Core State Standards.”

I do have to give credit where credit is due and I have to say I was very much impressed with the CCSSI’s assessment statement. Assessment “will include multiple forms of assessment so that what a student knows and can do, not the form of the assessment, determines performance.” This leads me to hope that, as a nation, we are at long last, steering away from assessing knowledge and skills based on a single, primarily multiple choice, test.

However, the CCSSI is not actually taking on the task of assessment. Instead, it leaves this task to States to implement on their own. It also does not show any clear view of what the common standards are at any given grade level. It claims that the standards are for K-12 and not including pre-K. However the initiative as written, seems to be written for the graduating high school senior. The CCSSI math standards draft includes the following content:

1. Math Practice
2. Numbers
3. Quantity
4. Expressions
5. Equations
6. Functions
7. Modeling
8. Shape
9. Coordinates
10. Probability
11. Statistics

Given that a graduating senior should know both basic and advanced content and skills in statistics, where does that leave a third grade teacher for example? Additionally, I have grave concerns over who is going to give the teachers professional development time and access to this information? Theory and Practice are such very different animals, one doesn’t necessarily follow the other.

Other information I think you ought to know: Participation by states is optional but participants are more likely to receive federal (Race to the Top) money. The CCSSI is flouted as a state initiative but truly the National Governor’s Association is a National Organization based in Washington D.C.. Those declining to participate in the initiative are the states of Alaska and Texas, the territories of Guam and American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. If you know why any of these groups are not participating, I would love to hear from you about what you know.

Teacher Resource
Get a free trial Edutopia magazine, join discussion groups read education blogs and more!
http://www.edutopia.org/

NEXT: Race to the Top

What I read
http://www.nctm.org/standards/content.aspx?id=264 +Q&A and other focal point topics

If you are not yet familiar with The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics’ (NCTM) Focal Points, now is the time. To summarize, Focal Points are a smaller number of standards emphasized at each grade level of pre-K-8th grade. It is important to note that these Focal Points do not aim to replace any current standards. They do aim to build on NCTM’s current standards. The Focal Points information on the web site show that NCTM believes that learning math is cumulative and the foundations in one grade are building blocks for the foundations in the following grade. The small key emphasis areas allow students time to develop deeper understandings of concepts, fluency in procedure and the ability to generalize (which shows the student can see the big picture). Fewer content areas also allow students time to practice problem-solving, reasoning and critical thinking.

In selecting which key areas to emphasize, the Focal Points had to “be mathematically important,” “fit” with what is known about math, and “connect logically” with previous and future grades. Focal Points are intended to be used however teachers, school districts, states, textbook companies, etc., decide to use them.

I see the Focal Points really emphasizing the nature of mathematics teaching in the following quote:
“Focal Points should be addressed by students in the context of the mathematical processes of problem solving, reasoning and proof, communication, connections, and representations.” (NCTM Web site)

Despite my distrust of standards and the completely unpalatable sensation I get in the pit of my stomach, I truly appreciate these Focal Points, all the work that was put into creating them and the fact that mathematical content should be addressed through solving problems in the classroom.

Lastly, I want to share a short timeline of Standards that I gleaned from NCTM’s web site alone.

1980′s- An Agenda for Action was published, starting the Standards Era.
1989- Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics
2000- The same publication was updated and re-named Principles and Standards for School Mathematics
2005- Standards and Curriculum: A View From the Nation, a document declaring the state of mathematics in the U.S.
2006- Curriculum Focal Points for Pre-Kindergarten through Grade 8 Mathematics: A Quest for Coherence
2006- Navigations, a series of teaching books seeking to expand and illustrate the vision of math instruction using Focal Points
2009- Focus in High School Mathematics: Reasoning and Sense Making

You can purchase the Focal Points (or any of these publications) through NCTM’s web site as a paper publication or as pdf files. You can purchase the whole publication or just your grade level. I am ordering the full paper publication so after I receive and read the entire publication, I may post an update. I would highly recommend purchasing your grade level as a pdf document. It is very affordable, only $2 (non-member) or $1 (member) for one grade level.

Teacher Resource
Click on the link below for free math lessons in PDF for pre-K-5
http://www.nctm.org/resources/content.aspx?id=8768

NEXT: The Common Core State Standards Initiative

When I began this site not so very long ago, my idea was to offer online and printable resources for learners. That is, both teachers and students who wish to take charge of their own learning. The main reason for offering resources to various types of learners is to aid in the pursuit of knowledge and truth which has always been to me, the true and ethical reason for schooling.

Every school or district, whether public or private, offers a different slant on education, different emphases, and different forms of assessment and accountability. This lack of unity often results in some students being better prepared for college, some ready to change the world through compassionate actions and some so weary of school culture that they drop out. Simultaneously, there are “standards” that hope to gain equality in knowledge, process and skills for all children equally but quickly tire out a quality teacher who loses her or his creative abilities as well as losing the time and freedom to teach ones own passions. It seems that teachers, policy makers, testing organizations, tutors and educational organizations all have differing opinions on how children should be taught.

I feel passionately that students should become acquainted with their own history and learn new material in a way that makes sense to them based on what they know about the world. When I say student, I also mean teachers because so many of us go into teaching because we want to keep learning. In order for students to learn new material, their bodies and brains must be developmentally capable of doing so. In a constructivist learning environment, teachers prime their students for the new material, helping them be aware of their current knowledge that most relates to the new material. With brains primed, students are mentally prepared for the new learning. During this learning time, teachers must observe only and not teach! Observe how each student is thinking and how they attack a problem. Make a note of what might come next. Giving hints is okay if students are stuck. You can read more about this method which I attribute to John A. Van De Walle in Elementary and Middle School Mathematics: Teaching Developmentally. After the main lesson is time for thoughtful reflection and discussion with the classroom community.

So, why mathematics? I remember faintly, enjoying math as a young child. I could count and add, subtract, estimate, round, measure. There were easy rules to follow. From about 5th grade on up through high school and even college, I despaired. I lost confidence. Math got complicated because the rules were complicated. The procedures were difficult to follow. For the life of me, I could not “get” percentages or fractions. Memorizing the quadratic equation became the bane of my existence. I remember asking my math teachers in high school and in college specific questions about why and how the math works like it does. I was a question asker. However, when you are told to just memorize equations or the rest of the class sighs whenever you have a question, you “learn” to stop asking them. So, eventually, that’s what I did. I strove for B’s and C’s in my math classes. I gave up on math. I complained about it every chance I got, reinforcing my belief that math was too hard for me.

When I became a teacher in Juneau, Alaska, I was suddenly in charge of a multi-age class of 22 children (ages 7-9) and all their learning. Well, when a teacher loves a subject, kids know it. When a teacher doesn’t like a subject, kids know it, so I wanted to do my best to learn it and be excited by it. I soon discovered that the majority of children in my classroom were already math haters by the time they entered my class. Given the amount of questions, concerns and confessions that came from the children’s families in regards to math, it became clear to me that many parents pass on this distaste, distrust or anxiety of math to their children without even realizing it! I have spoken to teachers in both Alaska and Oregon who have less confidence in teaching mathematics than in any other subject. As a result, mathematics programs are mandated by most schools and the result is that teachers learn how to teach that particular mathematics program (and some are very good programs!) and supplement the mathematics curriculum with things they learned in school that are antiquated to put it mildly.

Now, there’s a difference between ignorance, which can be defined as lack of education, and apathy which can be described as an uncaring attitude. What I see out there, is a great deal of both ignorance and apathy of mathematics, including its history, computation, problem-solving skills and conceptual understanding. If, together, we could change that ignorance to learned, perhaps we could also change that apathy to love and if not love, then at least caring.

I am on a journey to do three things:
1. Discover how to teach constructivist mathematics
2. Analyze educational policy in mathematics today; and
3. Share the information I discover with you.

My goal, beginning today, January 26, 2010, is to post 2 blogs every week day for at least 6 weeks. One blog will be about the books I read or ideas I have about teaching constructivist mathematics. The other blog will generally be a response or review of an article or web content that discusses mathematics in America today. I will try to post pictures and links when possible. Please feel free to comment on any of these blog postings. Also, if you are a mathematics educator and would like to submit a blog entry that relates to your mathematical journey or mathematics in the U.S. education system, please find my email under “Contact.” I would love to include blog posts from guest bloggers to include many different viewpoints. Please also include a short bio. Thanks!

-Tia-