Recently, I read an article about a group of freshmen at UC Berkeley who showed up to their professor's office hours for help with calculus. But before they could get to the calculus, they got stuck on something much simpler. They were asked to solve: 7x - 5 = 9 It's a middle-school algebra problem. Their professor had to stop and walk them through it step by step. And this wasn't an isolated concern. Across the University of California system, professors are reporting that more students are...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
I hear about more and more students learning math almost entirely through online programs. Watch a video. Answer some questions. Get a score. Move on. And I understand the appeal. Technology can grade instantly. It can tell us which questions a student missed. It can track progress and help us see where a student may need more practice. Those are incredibly useful tools. But there's an important distinction. A tool isn't a teacher. I've worked with students who have watched the same...
2 months ago • 1 min read
One of the hardest things about parenting is that you don't know what you don't know. There are so many wonderful opportunities for kids that it's impossible to discover all of them before the moment has passed. Especially opportunities in math. That's one of the reasons I like talking about Math Kangaroo long before registration opens. If you've never heard of it before, Math Kangaroo is an international math competition that challenges students to think creatively and solve interesting...
3 months ago • 1 min read
I was watching a game recently and it reminded me of something I tell parents all the time. The coach wasn't out on the field playing. The coach wasn't taking the shots, making the passes, or running the plays. But that didn't make the coach unimportant. In fact, a great coach can completely change the outcome of the game. I think parents sometimes forget that when it comes to math. Many parents feel like they need to become the teacher to help their child succeed. But sometimes being a coach...
5 months ago • 1 min read
A parent once told me something that stuck. Their child had been learning math mostly through watching. Watching teachers. Watching videos. They watched carefully.Took notes.Followed along step by step. And on the surface, it looked like things were going well. The work was getting done.The answers were there. So naturally, everyone assumed the learning was happening. Until one day the parent asked a simple question: "Can you explain how you got that answer?" And the student just sat there...
6 months ago • 2 min read
Over the years, I’ve noticed patterns when I look at student work. Sometimes the homework pages that look great… ...are the ones that make me pause a little. Not because neat work is a bad thing. Clear, organized work is important. But sometimes a problem can look neat and still be missing something important. Some Red Flags Don’t Look Like Errors Most people think mistakes are the biggest problem in math. But sometimes the real warning signs are quieter. They don’t jump out right away. You...
6 months ago • 3 min read
A few years ago, I had a student walk into my classroom and ask me a question I’ll never forget. He was a high school senior in a credit recovery class, trying to catch up before graduation. And he asked me: “Can you teach me how to add and subtract integers?” I paused for a moment, realizing what this meant. This was a concept most students learn in 7th or 8th grade, and yet he was still struggling with it in 12th grade. That means that for years, he had been guessing his way through...
6 months ago • 2 min read
There’s a math example I use with students that comes from an old story.I don’t know exactly where it came from, but the lesson behind it is hard to forget. It starts very simply. Once upon a time, a girl saves a kingdom from trouble. As a reward, she can ask for anything. She merely asks for a grain of rice on the first day. And two grains of rice on the second day. Each day, doubles the amount from the day before for 30 days. At first, it feels almost silly to keep counting.Four grains on...
7 months ago • 2 min read
The other day, a student was working on a multi-step problem. They knew the steps. But when they got to 18 + 7, they slowed down. You could see the mental wheels spinning. They counted on their fingers, got the answer, then moved on. Nothing major, right? But by the time they reached the end of the problem, they were frustrated by how long it had taken. This is the moment I see over and over again. It’s not that students don’t understand the concept. It’s that everything feels… slow. They...
8 months ago • 2 min read