Denise Gaskins' Let's Play Math
Helping families to learn and enjoy math together.
The Carnival of Education: Week 137…er, 138?
Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival – First Edition
And what goes together better than homeschooling, families, and frugal living?
The 93rd Festival of Frugality takes the cake!
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After a hectic couple of weeks, I finally found a little time to sit at the computer and browse — and boy, was I amazed to see what I had missed! If you have not yet read Dave‘s interview with Prof. Lynn Arthur Steen about the state of math education reform, click over and check it out: Part I here, and Part II here.
According to the intro, Prof. Steen “has been a driving force for the reform of school mathematics for many years and was on the development team that produced NCTM’s Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics. For the last few years, he has been involved in Achieve’s commitment to developing world-class mathematics standards for K-8 and ADP’s similar commitment to secondary mathematics.” He has some interesting things to say, although many of his statements are open to various interpretations, and at times he seems determined to provoke a hot-headed response. For instance:
Dave at MathNotations was up early today posting the 17th Edition of the Carnival of Mathematics. 17 is sometimes called the most “random” number, although one (not very scientific) test has shown 3 to be even more “random.”
Did you know there are only 17 ways you can design wallpaper? The 17 Wallpaper Tilings has animations of each pattern.
[Photo by Betsssssy.]
Do you ever take your kids’ math tests? It helps me remember what it is like to be a student. I push myself to work quickly, trying to finish in about 1/3 the allotted time, to mimic the pressure students feel. And whenever I do this, I find myself prone to the same stupid mistakes that students make.
Even teachers are human.
In this case, it was a multi-step word problem, a barrage of information to stumble through. In the middle of it all sat this statement:
…and there were 3/4 as many dragons as gryphons…
My eyes saw the words, but my mind heard it this way:
…and 3/4 of them were dragons…
What do you think — did I get the answer right? Of course not! Every little word in a math problem is important, and misreading even the smallest word can lead a student astray. My mental glitch encompassed several words, and my final tally of mythological creatures was correspondingly screwy.
But here is the more important question: Can you explain the difference between these two statements?
Mathematics is a vast adventure; its history reflects some of the noblest thoughts of countless generations.
Mathematics is a world created by the mind of men, and mathematicians are people who devote their lives to what seems to me a wonderful kind of play!
Homeschooling Carnival: Autism edition
Learn about autism while browsing a wide variety of educational and family-oriented posts.
The Carnival Of Education: Week 137
From edu-policy to classroom teaching tips — as always, plenty of good reading.
Want to help your kids learn math? Claim your free 24-page problem-solving booklet, and sign up to hear about new books, revisions, and sales or other promotions.
