If you haven’t read my last article, I recommend that you do, because if you don’t, this one could be quite confusing. I’ll set the stage a little, but really, you should read Part One. Adeen and Uno, the two ones from the ones place, have checked the tens place to try to borrow a…
I’ve always enjoyed teaching children to do what I’ve called “borrowing across a zero.” It’s what you do when you solve a problem like 302 – 158. I’ve always told children a story, using the digits involved as characters. I know this approach bothers some mathematicians, who like to keep mathematics pure, and I know…
I have lots of fond memories of my childhood. It was a pretty happy childhood. I loved the place where I grew up, a big house in the woods. I loved the neighborhood baseball games, the singing in the car, the trip to Yellowstone Park…I could go on and on. I learned, at a pretty…
There are teachers who absolutely love teaching. There are some who don’t exactly love it, but think it’s okay. And there are some people who wish they could find jobs as teachers, but so far, haven’t been able to. There are many aspects of teaching many teachers consider delightful, and while it does depend somewhat…
People have a sometimes annoying tendency to consider their own needs and wants higher priorities than the needs and wants of others. The reason that can be so annoying is that we other people have our own needs and priorities, or, in our finest moments, we think about the interests of still other people, or…
It wasn’t too long ago that we all learned what great people Lincoln, Washington, Columbus, and all those guys were. Teachers taught that these people were heroes, and hinted that we should try to be like them. And since we didn’t have to go to school on the days dedicated to these people, we had…
I remember what it was like to get lots of put-downs. Some people may have been kidding; I often responded to put-downs with humor, and maybe some people thought that meant I wasn’t bothered. In fact, sometimes I wasn’t bothered; if people made fun of aspects of myself I didn’t consider important anyway, that was…
I just read a friend’s response to one of my articles. He liked it. He thought it was insightful and well said. He’s going to show it to some people he knows. There are many ways growing up has changed me, but my reaction to appreciation hasn’t changed so much. I may not blush as…
Some teachers seem to have ways of getting children to take charge of their own learning. Of course, some parents do, too, and some children seem naturally self-motivated. Whether we give most of the credit to teachers, parents, children, or nature, it’s pretty impressive to watch a child who has transcended the need for motivational…
A friend recently asked me why people become teachers, and I answered too quickly. I said that some people do it because they want power, some because they feel that it’s their sacred mission, and I did it because it’s fun. That answer was way too simple. So that night I thought about my own…