Now is that group-think time of year when everyone makes lists
of how they will be better. I am a list lemming, though I also
tend to find myself making these kinds of resolutions at other
times throughout the year. Most often ’round about the end of
May/beginning of June… I actually began this post in early
November, when I was feeling kind of sucky about my teaching. I
wrote the following list. Some Questions I Need to Remember to
Ask Myself: - How are students building their understanding of
this concept? - What is the context? - When is the right time to
remove the context? - Do students know why we are practicing
this skill? - Do students understand how this connects to
previous knowledge? - Have I asked students to articulate these
connections? In the shower this morning, I was thinking about
Big Questions. These are the Big Questions up on the walls in my
classroom (note: I didn’t come up with these). - What is
mathematics? - How does mathematics connect to the world around
me? - What is the pattern? -