Greenhaus Education and Other "Effects"

My last two posts focused on the structure of the Common Core Standards of Mathematical Practice.  The big idea of those posts was the title of the practice is NOT enough - you need to read the narrative to get to what students should be doing and saying. The theme of this post is much the same - the Common Core Math Content standard alone is NOT enough to truly understand what it is students should know and be able to do if they have mastered the content. The content standard, which is often what is posted in textbooks or put on the board, is in fact, a small part of the big picture and without seeing the big picture, we end up teaching isolated skills and facts. Understanding the structure of the content standards provides a big picture at each grade level (focusing on K-8 right now) of where students are going, and how the standards, as a whole, are continuing to develop and expand mathematical content knowledge. It is a "learning progression".I am going to focus on K-...

Clearly, I am harping on a theme this week!  Found another great Ted Talk that ties in very nicely with my theme about providing relevant math.  It's a little long, but really interesting, and Conrad Wolfram is talking about using technology as part of teaching math, so I am a big fan of that.  He makes some great points, one of which "math does not equal calculating".