Home What does it mean to be home? Is it a place? I don’t think so. People move all the time. It has to be the connection of people located in a place, or as Edward Sharp & the Magnetic Zeroes state, “Home is wherever I’m with you.” That all Read more…
The Badger Boys State family lost a great one this past week. Fred Berns died on Wednesday, October 25, 2017. Badger Boys State is a week long program put on by the American Legion where rising seniors in high school from all over Wisconsin descend on Ripon, WI to create Read more…
100 is a big deal In kindergarten they celebrate the 100th day of school like Christmas. It is a big deal to get to that third digit. Same goes for Dr. Sam Otten (@ottensam) releasing 100 episodes of the Math Ed Podcast. It is a big deal. The Math Ed Read more…
I was worried. How would they handle the gravity of the task before them… As I gazed into the eyes of the 20 kindergarteners in front of me, I played for them the message on my phone. They grinned in excitement as the message played and the math lesson began. Read more…
I saved the day. The math problem had a small detail in it that if my students were not paying attention, it would mess up their work. So I darted around the room and pointed out the detail at the precise moment each group encountered it. No one got confused. Read more…
In a book seeking to give advice on leadership, I value honesty and practicality. How To Lead When You’re Not In Charge: Leveraging Influence When You Lack Authority by Clay Scroggins @ClayScroggins is a book with both of these ingredients. And by reading it as an educator, I see a Read more…
I wrote this post as a service to teachers headed back to school. My observations of the events of this past weekend (#Charlottesville) tell me we need as many ways as possible to build relationships and unity in our country. Our classrooms are a great place to start. The Desire Read more…
It starts with the voice, the voice inside your head. The voice tells you “I can” or “I can’t” and often in the realm of learning math the latter often rules the day. The voice says “I can’t learn math” which implies “I can’t be someone’s math hero”. I heard Read more…
Preparing elementary teachers to teach math can be daunting. Most noteworthy, is the vast amount of content and the little amount of time to teach. But does it matter what happens in a math methods classroom? In Episode 1707 of the Math Ed Podcast, Sam Otten (@ottensam)talks with math teacher Read more…
Why go to Haiti? That is the question I heard both leading into and following our service trip to Haiti? Why did The Orchard Oxford send a team of ten people to Camp Mary, back to the same community we visited last year. Why? It is a good question. Let me Read more…