Behind every math teacher is a calling to invest in the lives of others. But sometimes that calling gets lost in the daily hustle and bustle of teaching. During this session at the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Regional Conference in Nashville, TN, participants were asked to recall, refine, Read more…
#CelebrateTheStruggle Teachers of mathematics are being called to promote productive struggle in their classrooms, or as the Common Core State Standards puts it, students should be able to “make sense of problems and persevere in solving them”. But what if struggle, the thing that is necessary to persevere, is seen Read more…
Blessed with a problem. Sounds like a weird statement, but I once heard author and leadership guru, John Maxwell, talk about the tragic nature of not having any problems. He said if you did not have any problems then you were not a candidate for a miracle. He then called Read more…
Who does this belong to? This is a common question in my house. Trying to find the owner of a shoe, a book, a bag, a spill, a mess, even a task. If I can find the owner, I can determine who is responsible for making whatever it is better. Read more…
What do you do when you are not working? The answer is resting. But how do you rest? Are you resting enough? Could you rest better? The answers to these questions and more questions that you probably have never considered are in this book Rest: Why You Get More Done Read more…
Helping without Hurting Is helping always helpful? I thought the answer was “yes”. Why wouldn’t it be? But then I had an encounter where I told a student how to do a problem, but then just a few seconds later his hand shot right back up into the air, looking Read more…
Mind Your Moments How powerful is a moment? Can you make a moment powerful? Throughout my life I can think of a handful of moments that have led to drastic changes in my life, my relationships, my teaching. I think of these “defining moments” as historical markers where something significant Read more…
What is your relationship status with mathematics? A productive way for me to think about how best to teach mathematics is to consider facilitating a relationship between a student and mathematics. What are things that I can do to improve the relationship? And how can I avoid damaging the relationship Read more…
Mentorship and the Patience of the Padawan What is a mentor? And where do I find one? As someone who can point to several mentors in my life these might seem like silly questions. But after my conversation with my friend, Dr. Gary Williams, Vice President and Director of Athletics Read more…
More with Less What if you could focus your time and energy on the critical few things that will make the most impact? Listen in as Joel explores learnings from the featured book, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown. Subscribe iTunes | Spotify | Stitcher | Google Play 0:00 – Opening0:55 – Introduction and Read more…