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Math Class Needs A Makeover (TED)


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I plan to steal his ideas.

 

 

Dan Meyer's blog: http://blog.mrmeyer.com/

 

Thoughts?

:bigear:

 

I'm in. How? :D :confused:

 

This is the kind of talk I find both inspiring and intimidating. It makes me so glad that I pulled dd from ps. It makes me grateful for interesting, thought provoking math curricula (like MM), that don't follow this formula-example-practice model to the extent that the ps texts do. It makes me dislike TT even more, at least as a sole or primary math curriculum (maybe I should delete that? I'm not trying to derail this into a TT bashing/defending thread, it's just been on my mind *a lot* lately).

 

But, it makes me realize that *I* am part of the problem. You can take the kid out of the school, and away from the text, but if I don't *teach* differently, we aren't really where I want us to be. I know, for example, that I help too much, too quickly. I am really really trying to work on this, and to let her sit and struggle with solving problems, and she's doing really well. I have complained that she doesn't deal well with the frustration of struggling with hard problems, but I'm seeing more and more that I am part of that problem, and in order for her to develop these life skills, I need to really back off in my "helping."

 

So, how do you improve yourself as a teacher? How do you lead kids to formulate problems, as well as figure out how to solve them? Is it about presenting the right kind of problems, or about how you present the problems? What level of struggle without help is the right amount? How does one apply some of the problem-solving techniques demonstrated by great math teachers to a one-on-one situation? Just some of the questions I'm grappling with, and that this presentation reinforced.

 

Thanks for the thought-provoking posts, as usual, Beth :001_smile:

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