âTrue scholarship consists in knowing not what things exist, but what they mean; it is not memory but judgment.â -James Russell Lowell
Do any of you remember being thrilled about learning how to simplify fractions? I memorized some rules for how to do it and used these rules to complete worksheets filled with fractions.…
âCreative thinking may mean simply the realization that there’s no particular virtue in doing things the way they always have been done.â -Rudolf Flesch
Todayâs Inspiration Blog is also an Activity Blog. If you continue reading youâll understand whyâŚ
Friday was an early release day for all three of my children, so I decided to make Glenna Tabor, educational consultant, take the day off.…
“I have often regretted my speech, never my silence.” -Xenocrates
“I have nothing to say / and I am saying it / and that is poetry / as I needed itâ John Cage
John Cageâs most famous musical composition is called 4’33”.
It consists of the pianist going to the piano, and not hitting any keys for four minutes and thirty-three seconds. …
âIt takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan.â    -Eleanor Roosevelt
I was working with a school a few weeks ago as we planned for the remainder of the year. The things we identified, at the beginning of the planning process, were the most challenging topics or concepts that the teachers were going to teach in mathematics.…
“As long as algebra is taught in school, there will be prayer in school. ” -Cokie Roberts
âIt is hard to convince a high-school student that he will encounter a lot of problems more difficult than those of algebra and geometry.â -Edgar Watson Howe
I woke up this morning and looked at the stuffed animal my parents brought back from Germany a few years ago.…
âWe learn more by looking for the answer to a question and not finding it than we do from learning the answer itself.â -Lloyd Alexander
âI never teach my pupils; I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn.â -Albert Einstein
I was never more aware of how important hands-on instruction is until I taught concepts like decimals.…
“There are two ways of being creative. One can sing and dance. Or one can create an environment in which singers and dancers flourish.”    Warren G. Bennis
“I’m always thinking about creating. My future starts when I wake up every morning. Every day I find something creative to do with my life.”    …
âInformation’s pretty thin stuff unless mixed with experience.â -Clarence Day, The Crow’s Nest
Last week I received a comment and a request from Anne, an academic coach at an Elementary school in Georgia. I first heard from Anne this August when she visited my website looking for information about differentiating instruction and using small groups in math. …
âThe potential of the average person is like a huge ocean unsailed, a new continent unexplored, a world of possibilities waiting to be released and channeled toward some great good.â -Brian Tracy
âThe greatest waste in the world is the difference between what we are and what we could become.â…
âWe shall not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.â â T.S. Eliot
A few weeks ago I watched a group of first grade students use base ten blocks.…
