The Coolest Math Class Ever. Seriously! June 6, 2011

I was lucky to get into Oliver Knill’s class Teaching Math With a Historical Perspective, one of the choices within the Harvard Extension School’s ALM in Mathematics for Teaching program.  It changed the way I think and the way I teach.  He explained complex topics, such as code breaking and non-verbal proofs, with such ease.  He was inspiring and made me look at math in a way I had never before – from a historical perspective!  His site is worth checking out, especially if you can not get into his class!  (Click on the red circle to go to Oliver’s site)

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My Harvard Math for Teaching Thesis: Complete! And ready to share… March 20, 2011

After many many years of jumping through many many hoops, I am finally graduating with my MA in Mathematics for Teaching in May.  My thesis, Negative Number Misconceptions in High School: An Intervention Using the ZeroSum Ruler is right now at the printers being printed and bound.  I don’t know about you, but that instantaneous feeling of relief after taking a final exam or passing in a final paper stopped hitting me sometime in college.  So now, I’m just feeling a bit burnt out.  OK, completely burnt out.  But I’m sure it will hit me soon since it kind of needs to; I need to now get in a post-Bach program to get my Initial teaching license.  I like to do things backwards.

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So here it is for download!  For all to read!  Or maybe to just glance.  In my study, the ZeroSum ruler proved effective in reducing eleventh grade error on integer addition and subtraction problems (especially with negative integers).  If I wasn’t so burnt out, I’d want to test it with younger kids.  Imagine how our world would be if my eleventh graders actually mastered integers when they learned them in, and only in, 7th grade.  But that’s in my thesis.]