When I was a teenager in the 1980s, I wanted a pair of tan Dr. Scholl’s sandals so badly I could taste it. Each time my mother took us to the Eckerd drug store, I made sure to stroll down that aisle
Wooden Sandals: A math lesson
Film Friday: The amazing abacus
So, I’ve seen an abacus (or the plural, abaci), but until this video, I’d never seen one in action. Now, I’m not a big fan of speed in math, but I have to admit this is pretty darned cool — especially
Homework Help: 4 middle school math facts you probably forgot
Every so often, at around 7:00 p.m., I’ll get a call from someone I know. “I don’t understand my kid’s math homework,” they’ll say. These folks aren’t dumb or bad at math. But almost always, they’ve hit a concept that they
Film Friday: Extreme tidying
I’m not sure I could live with Ursus Wehrli. A Swiss artist and comedian, his ideas of order are a bit extreme. You’ve probably seen his carefully arranged bowl of alphabet soup: This is basic set theory — and we started
Math Secret #4: You do use algebra
It’s the No. 1 question asked of math teachers: “When will I ever use this stuff?” And in terms of upper-level math — conic sections, radicals, differentiation and the quadratic formula — the answer may very well be, “Not much.”
Film Friday: When will I ever use this stuff?
It’s the perennial question from students of all ages: “When will I use this stuff?” So when tutor, Ryan faced this query (probably for the upteenth time), he took to the streets to find the answer. What he found is
Top 10 Highest Paying Degrees
Estimated reading time: 1 minute, 31 seconds “Holy crap!” That’s what I indelicately exclaimed when I saw the list of 10 highest-paying degrees, as determined by the PayScale College Salary Report. I didn’t expect to see American Literature or Elementary Education,
Feeling Anxious about Math? Here’s how to cope
Earlier this week, I provided a guest post about math anxiety and kids for Imp3rfect Mom. I wasn’t surprised to get a comment from a reader asking about how to deal with her math anxiety. My son is an adult so my question
Get the Anxiety Out of Math
Things that make many kids anxious: a new school, big dogs, the deep end of the swimming pool, bees, strangers, nightmares, math. Did you notice something there? For many children, math and bees are equally frightening or at least nerve-wracking.
Early Math for Babies and Parents
When my daughter was born more than 11 years ago, I knew a few things: Physically connecting with her would help us bond, breastfeeding is best, and reading to her—even at a very young age—was critical for later language development.
The Arithmetic of Allowance
You probably find it pretty darned easy to encourage literacy. In fact, there are countless magazine articles and books and workshops out there on this very subject. And so all good parents read to their kids every night, play word games
Math Secret #2: You Were Born This Way (take 2)
All summer long, we’ve seen some pretty amazing research on math ability and education. We’ve been told that understanding geometric concepts may be innate and that elementary-aged students with a good sense of numeracy do better in math by the 5th grade. And yesterday