These past few weeks have been a bit busy for me. So much great stuff has been going on, but I haven’t had a chance to write about any of it. This week, I forced myself to sit down and write a little bit so I don’t forget all of it. One of the things …
I started the race at 7:54 am and crossed the finish line at 10:27 am. How long did it take me to run the race? This problems, often labeled as elapsed time problems, are difficult for students to solve. One reason is that students often have trouble coordinating between the two different units–hours and minutes. …
In March, I did a session for Global Math Department on drawing diagrams. If you don’t know about Global Math Department, you should check it out. They present free video conferences and webinars every Tuesday night and you can join in and participate that night or you can watch the recording later if you can’t make …
One of the things that is particularly interesting to me right now is how we help young students develop the ability to justify why things work in math. Often, kids know the correct rule but have no idea why the rule works. When I ask them to explain why a rule works, they wind up …
I’ve been spending a lot of time in schools and classrooms these past two weeks using diagrams with students and teachers. As a result, I’ve been neglecting this blog but I’ve been learning so much. Hopefully, I’ll start making more time to write about what I’m doing. Here’s the latest problem I’ve been tackling with …
Using Diagrams to Make Sense of Fraction Word Problems Read More »
People sometimes feel compelled to tell me how much they hate math. When I ask when this started, many point to algebra (the rest say fractions, but we can talk about that another day). We know that many students struggle when they get to algebra. Researchers have been studying how to ease this transition through …
Using diagrams to ease the transition to algebra Read More »
I’ve been working with K-5 teachers on how to use tape diagrams to solve problems. During one of these workshops, a first grader peeked in and asked, “Teachers have to go to school too?” It got quite a laugh, but it’s true. We need time to sit with our peers and try new ways to …