Introduction As you may remember (or not, because come on, it’s not like you commit to memory everything I write here), I have been using a binder system in Algebra II this year. I made it a conscious goal this year to teach organization, and to try to make homework more meaningful. The basic idea […]
In Algebra II, I am trying something that I find is working pretty darn successfully that I’m going to replicate it in all my classes next year. One of the things that aggrieves me more than anything is asking a student to take out a recent worksheet or assessment, and they reach in their backpacks […]
Last year I had this student who struggled in Algebra II. And then, one day, he decided he hated struggling. He was frustrated and didn’t want to be frustrated anymore. He wanted to get math. And so… he did. To the point where he was getting almost perfects on assessments. This was a student who […]
You know my philosophy about blogging… blog only when you want to blog. If you put pressure on yourself, it becomes a chore. And why would I make myself do a chore? More than that, it would be like a chore I created just to make my life harder. Like: every day, make sure you […]
The conference is here. The question of what’s at the rapidly beating heart of your classroom is a tough one. Let me rephrase that: for me, it’s tough, because it is totally evolving. Also whatever is at the heart of your classroom is your hidden curriculum — something that isn’t content, but just as important (if not more […]
So about a week or two ago, I started writing down all the ideas I have for next year. And they kept on coming, I got 20, 25, 30… And each time I came up with one, I threw it in my google doc. This is the current instantiation of my list. I wasn’t going […]
Sometimes I feel like a doctor who doesn’t take his own medicine. I spend a lot of time writing narrative comments on my students — in the hopes that students know that I do care about them and pay attention to who they are and what they do well. But also so they know places […]
