Is a MOOC in AIMS Future?
Have you ever heard of a MOOC? (pronounced like a cow’s MOO with a “k” at the end). A Massive Open Online Course is a free online learning opportunity in which thousands of people come together to...
View ArticleLooking at Growth Mindsets in Teaching, Part One
Today I was working with my 7-year-old on some math homework. “This is so easy!” he said. I got ready to praise him for his quickness, but paused to consider my response. Psychologist Carol Dweck...
View ArticleLooking at Growth Mindsets in Teaching, Part Two
I confessed in my last blog post that I am in “fixed mindset” recovery. In a fixed mindset, people assume that intelligence and talents are static; in a growth mindset, people believe that abilities...
View ArticleStruggling to Learn: The Value of Persistence in the Classroom
I can’t draw a three-dimensional figure to save my life. The curriculum I used in teaching high school relied on isometric dot paper for sketching stacks of cubes. Inevitably, I would invite talented...
View ArticleThinking With Things: Evocative Objects
In this post I want to add another dimension to my previous post about thinking with things. Three examples come to mind of well-known people for whom evocative objects literally shaped their life’s...
View ArticleHow to Grow Your Mindset
“This will be so easy for you.” I often started my high school math lessons with this disclaimer, thinking that my assurances of simplicity would put students’ math worries to rest. Ironically, growth...
View ArticleHave You Finally Learned the Lessons from Your Past?
Sometimes I think that my Pre-service Teacher Education program was wasted on me. I wasn’t ready for most of what they tried to teach me. I was a “know-it-all” kid who had a degree in Mathematics and...
View ArticleDo We Teach The Way Kids Learn?
Like a lot of educators out there, I have taken quite a few learning theory courses: one as an undergrad, one while getting my teaching credential, one during my M.A., and two in the coursework for my...
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