Huh?

September 29, 2009

One Tool Short
In the middle of a geometry lesson, Marie Lewis showed her students an angle bisecting two parallel lines. Before she even asked them, she knew they wouldn’t be able to calculate the angle, because they didn’t have the tool they needed.

Then she introduced the tool, an auxiliary line. Bingo. Keep reading »

Every Answer Correct

September 24, 2009

Thanks for checking out the icblog. I hope you find its contents useful. 

A Teaching Phenomenon
A couple weeks ago I observed Mr. Dameron’s standard Algerbra I class, where I saw something practically surreal. The students reviewed a quiz and then moved on to study basic algebraic equations. Mr. Dameron helped students contrast expressions with equations, gave them notes—with Dameron Definitions—and guided them through solving some equations.

That all seems pretty normal to me. Here’s the phenomenon: in that 30 minute span, Mr. Dameron called on—he seldom took volunteers—26 of over 30 students, and EVERY student he called on provided a correct answer.  Keep reading »