Jul 06 2015

Teaching and Prejudice

Everyone has prejudices. Some judgment or attitude, for or against, an idea, a person or a thing. Prejudice isn’t just about race, ethnicity or culture. Think conservative vs liberal. The student in your class who you give a high grade because she reminds you of your daughter. These attitudes develop over time. And are often Read More

Jul 01 2015

Rubrics, In a Nutshell

What is a rubric? A rubric is a scoring tool that lists the standards on which judgment or decisions about a piece of work will be based. A good rubric… Tells you what you’ll be looking for to give a certain grade (or score) for a test or assignment. A rubric should say what skills Read More

Jun 22 2015

4 Ways to Create Better Tests

All teachers create tests, a type of assessment. Assessment can be used to improve student learning and teacher instruction, as in the case of formative assessment. After instruction, teachers use summative assessment to find out if students have mastered curricula aims. Most teachers create their own assessments for classroom use or use tests created by Read More

Jun 15 2015

4 Ways to Teach Math with Precision

Some students in the math methods class were pissed. I read the comments to find out why. One comment summed it up, ‘She wanted everything to be so exact even though we were just doing elementary.’ They were talking about teachers being precise when writing and speaking about math with elementary students. I’ve been thinking Read More

Jun 08 2015

7 Tips for Teaching a Great College Summer Course

So you’re teaching a course or two this summer. Most colleges have a lot of fun stuff going on during the summer. Summer is a time of free concerts on campus. There are summer camps for big and little kids, internships, and volunteer opportunities. A big easy. Most students expect a summer course to mirror Read More

May 31 2015

Using Tests to Guide Teaching Isn’t All-Bad

You’ve heard about all the disadvantages of teaching to standardized tests or assessments. Some educators use the content and skills that will be on a standardized test to plan classroom instruction. It narrows instruction to only what’s on the test. Once instruction is focused on the test, the creativity and dynamism of teaching is reduced. Read More

May 23 2015

Don’t Give F’s, Just Chill: 7 Ways to Not Lose it While Teaching

A couple weeks ago, Irwin Horwitz, a Professor at Texas A&M lost it. He gave all his students F’s and abandoned the course before the end of the semester. A rational, lucid person doesn’t normally behave like this. These are the acts of a person at the end of all his wits. This guy felt powerless Read More

Apr 27 2015

5 Ways to Create Better Math Problems

R emember that Singapore math problem that went viral? The one about Cheryl’s birthday. Lots of people had something to say about it: It’s too difficult. How are parents supposed to help with math homework? That’s why the Common Core Math Standards are a terrible idea. Totally unrelated, but people used the viral Singapore math problem Read More

Apr 04 2015

5 Ways to Double Enrollment for your K-12 College Summer Program

So you got the funding. Terrific. Now to find 30 middle school students who want to spend six weeks in the Summer writing poetry on campus. No, you said in the proposal that you’d get 40 students. And that they’d be from backgrounds underrepresented in STEM with a B average in math. Doesn’t matter how Read More

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