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.]

 

How the ZeroSum ruler works October 24, 2010

Thank you for visiting my site.  I hope you find it informative and that you will see the usefulness of the ZeroSum Ruler.  I am currently testing the ruler’s effectiveness for my graduate thesis, and so far the results have been positive.   Student quiz scores went up!  In a month or so, I plan to give a delayed retention quiz that will test if student knowledge of the relationship between positive and negative integers stuck long-term.  Hopefully it did, but they will always have their rulers if they still need help.  I made one for every student to give out at the end of my study.

 

Please email me with any questions!  In the meantime, below is the unedited video on how the ZeroSum Ruler works.  If you like shorter videos, the green one over there in the margin is the one for you ——————————————————->

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That’s Beck in the background. I hope he doesn’t mind! 

Math Around the World…. June 20, 2010

 

US vs A+ Nations

The file above is a chart (pasted into Microsoft Word, alternatively you can click the picture below) that shows the differences in topics covered in math throughout the world.  Really, it’s just a comparison of math topics covered in the US and in countries where math seems to come second nature to students. 

 

What’s striking is how MANY topics we cover each year in the US and how much overlap there is between grades.  In Flemish Belgium, for example, 3 topics are covered in first grade as compared to the 14 that are covered by US first grade teachers.  How is it possible to completely cover 14 topics a year?   It’s not possible.  The chart explains a lot.   

 

Webpage blocked! [possibly] May 25, 2010

 

I found a great video at http://adgonzalezmath.wordpress.com/ in the “February 2010 archives” that lead to what could [possibly] be the greatest collection of math videos on all of the interweb superhighway: http://justmathtutoring.com/  I say “possibly” because, like many things that could be useful to students, the site is blocked here at school!

 

So I’ll check it out at home.  My bet is, based on the video I saw on adgonzalezmath’s page, the videos are going to be nice.  So if you know how to save videos from the internet onto your computer, I’d love to hear from you.  I know of one site that may [possibly] do this, but it’s blocked here.  Though even if it weren’t, I’d have nothing to upload!