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...
Tag: math
sense-making
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...
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....
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...
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...
Theological values in secular math education
Before continuing to look at math education in the light of, on one hand, a drastically uncertain future, and on the other, values inherent in that work that we...
Math for the End of the World (Part I): Rising Seas, Hope, and Math Education
…or, Eschatonimatics? Apocalyptic Curves? Oh these are truly terrible. When I last wrote about the PBL method of teaching math, I said that I often thought of t...
To teach the right answers for the wrong reasons/my own experience is not for all seasons
(With apologies to T.S. Eliot…) My students sometimes ask if I actually like math, or what brought me to be a math teacher. I have struggled to answer, and for ...