Teaching

Gotham Schools recently ran a nice piece on Math for America’s inaugural Master Teachers on Teaching (MT^2) conference, which focused on mathematical modeling in the classroom.

The piece, found here, discusses the many different ways MfA teachers are bringing modeling into their classrooms, and engaging students in the mathematics of real-world, open-ended problems.

My talk, “g = 4, and Other Lies the Test Told Me” is featured in the article, as it addresses how our desire to teach and practice modeling often “is at odds with the way that the city and state assess students”.

Thanks to Gotham Schools for helping to spread the great work of MfA and its teachers!

As part of  Math for America‘s inaugural Master Teachers on Teaching  symposium, I gave a talk titled “g = 4, and Other Lies the Test Told Me”.  Video of the talk can be seen here.

The theme of the symposium was modeling, and my talk focused on the ways that standardized testing can undermine the teaching and learning of modeling.

By looking at a series of poorly-conceived state exam questions, I discussed the  ramifications that these questions have on student’s conceptions of mathematics and modeling, and on the teaching that goes on in the classroom.

A nice consequence of maintaining a blog is that it makes reflecting on the year easy and convenient.  And 2012 was quite a busy year!  Here are a few math and teaching highlights.

In March, I ran a workshop at the Celebration of Teaching and Learning that focused mathematical writing.  I wrote a piece for the CTL blog, and was inspired to put together some additional resources on getting students writing in math class.

In April, I spoke at TEDxNYED on creativity and mathematics.  My talk can be seen on the TED website here.

In July, I visited the White House for a roundtable discussion on President Obama’s proposed National STEM Master Teacher Corps.  I was even photographed with Secretary of Education Arne Duncan!

Also in July, I attended the Bridges Math and Art Conference, and I’ve posted a number of images of some of the beautiful artwork on display there.

In September, my piece “N Ways to Apply Algebra With The New York Times” ran in the NYT Learning Network.  The piece, a response to Andrew Hacker’s controversial OpEd “Is Algebra Necessary?”, generated a lot of great comments and ended up being the third-most-viewed lesson on the LN in 2012.

In October, I posted “This is Not a Trig Function“, which not only generated a lot of great discussion, but also caught the attention of a Fields Medalist!  I also briefly appeared in this Relatively Prime podcast on mathematics education.

In November, I ran a workshop at the TIME 2000 conference on combinatorial dancing, and I was honored to be interviewed over at Math-Frolic!.

And in December, I was named runner-up for the inaugural Rosenthal Prize for Innovation in Math Teaching by the Museum of Mathematics.

All in all, it was a fun, productive, and busy year!  I look forward to a great 2013, and hopefully a little more downtime.

Happy New Year to all!

Related Posts

• Years in Review