March 2018

MfA and Story Collider

I am excited to be taking part in a Story Collider event this April!

The Story Collider’s mission is to bring true, personal stories about science to life through their live storytelling shows, and Math for America is partnering with the Story Collider to create an evening of teacher storytelling.

I’ll be joining five other MfA teachers to tell our stories about our classrooms, professional lives, and journeys through teaching. This is yet another example of the incredible professional opportunities that Math for America creates for its teachers to learn, to lead, and to be heard.

You can find out more about the Story Collider here, including links to their podcasts and a schedule of upcoming events.

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By MrHonner, ago

What Will They Be Doing?

When planning a lesson, start with the question “What will the students be doing?”

I received this piece of advice as a pre-service teacher and it has stuck with me my entire career.

Before you get too excited, my answer to this question is usually pretty straightforward; most often, it’s “Working on a problem I’ve shared” or “Thinking about a question I’ve asked“. But making this activity explicit in the planning process reminds me to focus on those things that matter most in my lesson: the specific questions I want to ask and the specific problems I want students to engage with.

Asking myself this simple question also helps keep the focus of my planning where it belongs. Instead of starting from “How do I understand this?”, I start from “How will my students come to understand this?” This is a small shift that makes a big difference.

 

By MrHonner, ago

NCTM Annual — 2018

I’m excited to be heading to Washington, DC in April for the 2018 NCTM Annual Meeting!

NCTM’s annual meeting brings together thousands of educators from across the country to discuss mathematics, pedagogy, technology, and more. I presented at the 2017 Annual Meeting in San Antonio and had a great time, so I’m looking forward to this year in DC.

I’ll be presenting Statistics and Simulation in Scratch, a 60-minute session about using simple computer programming tools to make the study of probability and statistics more experimental and exploratory. We’ll look at ways teachers and students can use Scratch, the free, web-based programming environment designed by the MIT Media Lab, to model simple probability experiments, collect and analyze data, and create mathematically compelling projects. The technology tools we’ll be using are free and intuitive, and they open up a new pathway to probability and statistics for students and teachers. In addition, it creates opportunities to learn and apply fundamental computer programming skills in a meaningful context.

My talk is scheduled for Thursday, 4/26/18, at 3:00 pm, so if you’re planning on attending the NCTM Annual, please keep my session in mind!

Conferences like this are great opportunities for professional growth, but the logistics are often complicated for classroom teachers.  I’m fortunate to have received support from Math for America, which makes attending NCTM’s Annual Meeting in Washington DC possible. And I’m proud to be one of several MfA teachers presenting at NCTM! You can find a complete list of MfA presenters here.

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By MrHonner, ago

MfA Workshop — Exploring Modern Discoveries in Mathematics and Science

This week I will be co-facilitating a workshop for teachers, “Exploring Modern Discoveries in Mathematics and Science”, with Thomas Lin, editor-in-chief of Quanta Magazine. We will be running the workshop for a group of Math for America math and science teachers at the MfA offices.

In our workshop we’ll look at ways to connect students and teachers with modern science research and discoveries. We’ll focus on resources from Quanta Magazine, including recent reporting on advances in mathematics, biology, and computer science, as well as some of my Quantized Academy columns.

I’m excited to be working with Tom, who in addition to being the founding editor of Quanta, is also a former teacher. Tom’s desire to make the amazing work being done by Quanta’s journalists and writers more accessible to teachers and students led to the development of my Quantized Academy column last year.

Be sure to check out Quanta Magazine, and you can find my Quantized Academy articles here.

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By MrHonner, ago
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