Posts Tagged: Curiosity

Finding the GCF

“True scholarship consists in knowing not what things exist, but what they mean; it is not memory but judgment.” -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.…

“Poochie Poo” and Numbers Squared

“Creative thinking may mean simply the realization that there’s no particular virtue in doing things the way they always have been done.” -Rudolf Flesch Today’s Inspiration Blog is also an Activity Blog. If you continue reading you’ll understand why… 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.…

A Purple Cow and Algebra

“As long as algebra is taught in school, there will be prayer in school. ” -Cokie Roberts “It is hard to convince a high-school student that he will encounter a lot of problems more difficult than those of algebra and geometry.” -Edgar Watson Howe I woke up this morning and looked at the stuffed animal my parents brought back from Germany a few years ago.…

My Favorite Teacher

“The most extraordinary thing about a really good teacher is that he or she transcends accepted educational methods.” -Margaret Mead “The dream begins, most of the time, with a teacher who believes in you, who tugs and pushes, and leads you onto the next plateau, sometimes poking you with a sharp stick called truth.”…

Go, “think” about it!

“Now, go “think” about it!” I was in a school a few weeks ago and heard this phrase being repeated by a math teacher after discussing a difficult concept with her students. I woke up the next morning at 5:30am—partly because there was a large truck backing up and beeping loudly—but mostly because that phrase had reminded me of a student I had named Reggie.…

Irregular! Impossible? Important!: Area & Perimeter of Irregular Polygons

“Information’s pretty thin stuff unless mixed with experience.” -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. …

A Mathematical Happy Meal

“The 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.” -Brian Tracy “The greatest waste in the world is the difference between what we are and what we could become.”…

Are We Cultivating Curiosity???

“I think, at a child’s birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift should be curiosity.” -Eleanor Roosevelt Are we cultivating curiosity in our classrooms? Are we aiming to cultivate the genius potential in all of our students?…