Math, Magic and the Mind

What if the Teacher won’t Let us do it like that?

hoskeebo — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 00:12:46 +0000

There’s a post about superior learning methods at The Math Mojo Chronicles this week.

Probably everyone who’s ever tried to help someone from another generation or culture has run up against this – “But the teacher said we had to do it their way…”

What if the teacher’s way sucks? Or what if the teacher doesn’t even like that way, but is handcuffed by the administration, or the benighted No Child Left Behind Act?

The first of two articles in The Math Mojo Chronicles gives you some hints for how to deal with this.

Posted in math education

Finding and Using the Area of a Plane Surface

hoskeebo — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 15:43:17 +0000

There is a nice lesson about area, and how to think about it and use it at The Math Mojo Chronicles today.

Posted in math education

Math Tests

hoskeebo — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 00:20:32 +0000

There’s a new post about the crazy way we administer math tests at http://mathmojo.com/chronicles/2009/09/12/new-school-year-math-test-thoughts/

It’s worth checking out if you, like me, think the way we test is one of the reasons so many students unnecessarily hate math.

Posted in math education

Social Networking

hoskeebo — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 22:25:18 +0000

I’ve been fooling around with Twitter and Facebook for awhile. I’m not a huge fan of technology per se, but I realize that these things can be helpful at getting the message across. (Assuming you have a message.)

The present project is to tweak an HTML version of ”Numbers Juggling – Times without the Tables” e-booklet, for inclusion on amazon.com for use on the Kindle. Recently a Kindle iPhone and iPod-Touch app has been released. That should broaden the market for e-books, and I want to jump right on that.

The coding is a pain in the butt, but it’s coming along and should be done in a day or two.

Also, just put up another post at the Math Mojo Chronicles about homeschool blogging moms.

Posted in Uncategorized Tagged: blogging moms, homeschool blogging, homeschool blogs, homeschool moms, social networking

Learn to Multiply

hoskeebo — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 17:44:12 +0000

One of the tragedies of American (and other) schools is that something as simple and important as multiplication isn’t taught well at all. We still hear things like “multiplication is repeated addition” (it is not), and “multiplication makes things bigger.”

The latter statement is one of the truisms that totally screws kids up when they get to fractions. Part of the tragedy is that most teachers do not have a meaningful grasp of what multiplication (or math in general) actually is.

I’ve written a booklet that comes with an e-course, that explains a very simple but effective way to teach basic multiplication from 0 – 10) in virtually minutes. Yes, really, minutes. No one ever needs to forget what 7 x 8 is ever again.

Check out my site about Learning to Multiply, and find out more.

Posted in math education Tagged: How to Multiply, Learn to Multiply, what is multiplication

“Math Wars”

hoskeebo — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 03:09:56 +0000

I just finished writing an post about the wars between “traditionalist” and “constructivist” math education.

It’s a pain in the behind listening to each group snipe at each other, when both of them are ignoring some of the essentials of education, like, there is no one best way to teach all students.

Check it out at “Math Wars” on The Math Mojo Chronicles.