A young man sits at his desk. Furrowed brow, furious scratchings on paper, shoulders hunched, one hand gripping the desk. He struggles with the concept, working and reworking the ideas. Realization begins to creep across his face. He follows the path. He looks up. Our eyes meet, and his hand shoots into the air. We share a knowing smile. I nod, playing casual. The class waits, ready with either admiration or disgust, depending on where they are in the food chain. Read more
My mom life has recently begun to get a little more hectic since my son added school sports to his already demanding schedule of competitive soccer. We have always advocated that he use his class time as efficiently as possible so that we don’t have to deal with the homework issue that often. However, I do appreciate there are times when stuff needs to or should come home, and I’m delighted when I can engage with my children about their schoolwork. After all, it’s what I do. I’m not much of a ”milk and cookies” mom, or “playing with Barbies” mom, or (God help me) “arts and crafts” mom, but I am definitely a kick-butt “help with homework” mom. Read more
Whoever would have thought that being able to count would have been a survival advantage? Or that using our fingers to count would have implications for how our brain developed? I’ve been reading How the Brain Learns Mathematics (David Sousa), and there are some interesting tidbits that support the recent changes in approach to how we teach math. Read more
