Wednesday, May 07, 2008

Thinking About Math

Here's a good article to jog our thinking about math instruction next year. It advocates the death of the textbook, and I say, Here Here! I'd love to attend the funeral. These folks claim that our math textbooks lack coherence. You think so? You need a bloody PhD in calculus to understand some of those explanations. Good 'ol Singapore Math gets another nod. We've got some serious work to do to improve the quality of our overall mathematical reasoning of our students.

Thursday, May 01, 2008

Got You

I know it's sneaky and sinister, but I actually want my son to spend his time in worthwhile activities so sometimes I resort to a little trickery. My son loves DS games and I'm a little reluctant to give him too much time on the ADHD producing machines, but there are some games with redeeming qualities. One such game is Professor Layton and the Curious Village . This game is full of puzzles and logical challenges that need to be solved to reach the goal. He bought it hook line and sinker. He says the game is challenging and interesting, which is music to my ears. He probably doesn't even know that he is learning! Actually, he knows my evil plots, but he plays along anyway so he can get some time with Pokemon and Mario Karts. I'll take the trade off for now.