Stanford professor Jo Boaler’s invaluable website youcubed.org has tools and resources for students, teachers, and parents. This applies to you! I cannot recommend the mindset approach enough, articulated by Carole Dweck, and along with Jo Boaler and thousands of math teachers around the world, is quietly bringing a revolution to the world of math education. […]
Category: Success
How To Learn Math
The Five Principles of Extraordinary Math Teaching by Dan Finkel
In this perspective-expanding and enjoyable talk, Dan Finkel invites us to approach learning and teaching math with courage, curiosity, and a sense of play. Dan Finkel wants everyone to have fun with math. After completing his Ph.D. in algebraic geometry at the University of Washington, he decided that teaching math was the most important contribution […]
How To Learn Better
I just noticed this really fantastic short video on learning at the The Atlantic. Anyone really can learn anything. You must be comfortable with not knowing, with not having answers, with being wrong. Knowing what the rules are and knowing how success is defined means there is no discovery. Be curious: ask questions, build the […]
The Precise Relationship between Intelligence and Speed: There is none
I took the measure of the situation and came to the conclusion that rapidity doesn’t have a precise relationship to intelligence. What is important is to deeply understand things and their relations to each other. This is where intelligence lies.
Why the Common Core Makes Sense
Don’t succumb to hysterical fox-wing fear-mongering. The Core simply strives to advance students to a deeper understanding of mathematics, rather than rote memorization of algorithms. Dr. Jo Boaler from Stanford explains the how and why:
The Key to Success: Grit
In this excellent Ted Talk, Angela Lee Duckworth bluntly relays where we are in the science of education with regard to the single most important factor that determines success and achievement.
Suggestions for Making Math Real for your Elementary and Middle Schoolers
Here are some suggestions for things you can do to help your child with math outside of school…
Carol Dweck and the Growth Mindset
I have found new passion and joy in my own musical and artistic endeavors, and also have, I hope, become a better teacher in cultivating in my students a lifelong love of continual learning and determined practice on the road to discovery and success.
How to Increase Your Fluid Intelligence
How to Increase Your Fluid Intelligence: According to an article in the New York Times, the answer is to play n-back games every day. That sounds fun. I’m going to do it.
You can make yourself smarter.
Brain Benefits of Bilingualism
While I would never say that bilingualism makes you “smarter,” perhaps the more rigorous mental exercise demanded by constantly switching between languages and the multiplication of neural connections that must be established among thousands of words and word groups keeps the brain primed to operate at a higher level of efficiency.