Today is the first day of school here, so I decided to repost this Math at Work Monday interview with Tiffany Choice, a middle school math teacher in Fairfax, Virginia. You might be a little surprised by how she uses math
Common Core Common Sense: Myths About the Standards, Part 4
In recent months, there’s been a tremendous amount of buzz regarding an educational change called Common Core. And a ton of that buzz perpetuates down-right false information. There’s so much to say about this that I’ve developed a five-part series debunking
Math at Work Monday: Samantha the Freelance Designer
I had the pleasure of speaking with Samantha Volz who has the pleasure of working from her very own home every day. That is one of the benefits of being a freelance designer. In addition to graphic design, this artist
The Arithmetic of Allowance
I wrote the following post for Simply Budgeted last August. Given our topic this month, I thought I’d share it as a great example of how parents can extend learning outside the classroom. Enjoy! You probably find it pretty darned easy to
Math Mnemonics: How I Memorized My Daughter’s Cell Phone Number
Until Wednesday, I didn’t know my daughter’s cell phone number. Yes, she’s had this number for a year. Yes, I’m lazy, choosing to depend on my own cell phone directory. And yes, memorization is not my best friend. But I
Let the Boys of Summer Review Math with Your Kid
The first professional baseball game I attended was at Tiger Park. I don’t remember who Detroit was playing that night, but I do remember the score card and tiny golf pencil I was given. I wasn’t (and still am not) a baseball
5 Ways Pinterest Can Help Stop the Summer Slide
I joined Pinterest last spring. I knew it was dangerous. The internet is like Alice’s rabbit hole for me — once I go down it, it’s near impossible to get back out. But I’ve found that I love using Pinterest. It inspires
Roll with It: Get Sneaky with Math
I’ve written about this in a hundred different places, but it’s worth saying again: Parents know how to get their kids interested in reading. But in general, they don’t have a clue about math. If you had a child in
Algebra: Is It Too Hard for Students?
Earlier this week, Andrew Hacker, a political science professor at Queens College, City University of New York, opined in an essay for the New York Times that high schools should stop teaching higher Algebra concepts — because kids don’t get it. I’m sure Mr. Hacker isn’t
Back to School: Back to Math
I remember the first week of my fifth grade year. I had a math worksheet for homework, and I was completely stumped. “I don’t remember how to do this stuff, Mom.” “What do you mean?” she said. “It’s just long
Beach Week: Splitting the costs for a week at the shore
Each third week of July when I was a kid, my family headed down to Virginia Beach — with around 15 of our closest relatives. Along with sharing a large beach house, each family split the tab, based on the size of
Back-to-School Shopping: Applying the order of operations
Last week, we had some fun with the order of operations at the Math for Grownups facebook page.* Turns out remembering the order that you should multiply, add, etc. in a math problem is a tough thing for adults to remember.