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: mathematics
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...
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...
Math Class for America
So the election happened. Today, the students at my school felt scared, sad, angry, anxious, and confused, but gave such energetic and clear expression to so ma...
PBL: Peoples’ Math and Not-Knowing Math
Yesterday, I had my first meeting with colleagues preparing for the new school year. I am still happily entrenched in the pace of the summer (the only tolerable...
Teaching for modes of being — play and monasticism
I was pretty ambitious, and notably abstract early on. And come to think of it, I will continue to be. BUT, now I have something a little closer to experience. ...
Teaching Math at Sing Sing
I spent a year teaching high school math at Sing Sing Correctional Facility, a maximum security prison some 20 miles north of New York City. I was a graduate st...