A Classroom has a Soul
When I was in seminary, I had planned my master’s thesis around the title “Psyche and Spirit in the Classroom.” I see now that this was a skew frame, at an awkw...
Category: Teaching
Both the practical day-to-day and the wider context of education. The classroom as a place of sense-making and meaning making. All teaching is political, and contributes to moral education, no matter what the teacher says.
On listening in math
I met with a student for extra help. Call her K. K is in 9th grade this year, is new to the school, and has returned her last two math quizzes blank. To her cre...
Confronting Whiteness with White Students
In January of 2020, I co-facilitated a two-day workshop on whiteness, race, and racism with a group of white high school students. I had designed the workshop w...
The Math Koan, or: Zen Problem Solving
I wrote an article that the good people at Lion’s Roar published. You can find it here!
Anxiety and Frustration in the Math Classroom: My NCTM Presentation, Fall 2018
It’s been a while! Playing a little catch up. First: Below is the slideshow I presented at the NCTM Regional Conference this past November in Seattle. It’s spar...
Math as Witness: who counts? who doesn’t?
I ended the school year with a surprising burst of energy after the students left for the summer. I slogged my way through two straight days of comment-writing....
Social and Emotional Factors in the Math Classroom (a few initial notes)
I’m trying this thing where I write a quick blog post after an energizing conversation. Wish me luck! This year at open school night, I gave my students’ parent...
Skillful means for math students and showing up for teacher work
Dear Reader, it is late August! School is beginning soon! For me, that means it’s time to reflect on my goals while I still have the bandwidth to do so. I ended...
Teaching and Skillful Means
The end of the school year is the best time to think about the next school year, since obviously I’ve got nothing else going on. I’m working on a few things to ...
Math, in search of meaning
What does math mean? And what should it mean for my students? The answer to both these questions is up for grabs and not initially apparent. It requires an inte...