CFT Resources for Teachers

The hard part of professional journalism going forward is writing about what hasn't been written about, directing attention where it hasn't been, and saying something new.

Parents more focused on their children’s education can also make a huge difference in a student’s achievement.

There’s no question that a great teacher can make a huge difference in a student’s achievement, and we need to recruit, train and reward more such teachers.

The theme here is fun math books. Thus, if a book says something like “this is a division sign,” you will not find the book on this list. These books get kids thinking about numbers and problem solving in neat ways without realizing that they are learning math.

Do we structure school in such a way that we truly promote and achieve that intricate balance between: 1) wanting to know and to understand and 2) keeping perspective that we have to be wrong quite a bit in order to gain deep knowledge and understanding?

What's this have to do with lectures and my students' complaints? Well, far too often, lectures and recitation sessions are just like the conversations Steve and I had with Paul. When somebody else is presenting a detailed explanation of how they solve some problem, it's very easy to nod along and say "Yes, yes, of course, that's the thing to do." You leave the room perfectly convinced that you've understood everything, but when you try to apply what you think you know by explaining it to someone else, you find that you didn't really understand a thing.

That's the problem with good explanations: they're incredibly seductive, convincing you that you understand things that you don't understand at all.