Greenhaus Education and Other "Effects"

In the first post of my Common Core series, I discussed the importance of really looking at the Standards of Mathematical Practices (SMP), because the title alone is not enough. You cannot assume that each title of the 8 SMPs gives enough information to truly know what students should be saying and doing to enhance their mathematical understanding. The descriptive narratives for each practice are necessary reading to clearly make good instructional decisions that will truly support student understanding of mathematics My last post focused on SMP #4, Model with Mathematics. In this post, I'd like to choose another of the SMPs, and be a little more explicit in breaking down the structure to show how both the title and the narrative help inform instruction. Then, hopefully, you can do your own investigation of the remaining SMPs.  This is a great exercise to do with collaborative groups of teachers - maybe your next team/faculty meeting?! All of this is from work I have done bei...

This will just be a short post today...just some thoughts on a multidisciplinary problem. I am in Edinburgh, Scotland currently...here for the Learning without Frontiers conference in Olympia,UK next week and taking the opportunity to explore prior to the conference. Walked around the city today, which is so beautiful, especially the view from the castle . Just taking in the gorgeous scenery and getting a feel for the incredible history that is here. Quite amazing. As I climbed the hill to the castle, I couldn't help but be awestruck as I looked up the cliff at the intricate stone wall , built right on the edge of these steep rocks. The natural question is, how the heck did they do this so many hundreds of years ago, especially without the convenience of the modern day construction tools? It's really just mind boggling to think of the sheer man power, time, and mathematics that went into constructing this castle. Yes, even on vacation, I have to think about the math! ...

Didn't think I would have a chance to write today. I am sitting in my parents house, surrounded by 42 years of 'stuff', as I help them pack up for their move to a retirement community.  Two days left to finish cleaning out years of accumulation. Emotional, stressful, and overwhelming to think about the amount of things we acquire over time. And as you sort through it, what do you take and what do you throw away? (If my mother has her way, NOTHING will be thrown away!) So - my contribution for the day is a  'real-world' problem related to moving. Just a few thoughts as I gather my sanity before the next closet clean out. If you saved every National Geographic magazine since 1969, how many magazines is that and how many pounds would it weigh? And, if you now have to take this to the recycling bin, how many trips will this take? You might ask your students what additional information might be needed (see list below):  How many magazines are printed in a year? Wh...