Someday I’ll get this assessment thing right… (Part 2 of giving feedback before grades)

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So, all assessments are back to the students, tears have been dried and we are now onto our next problem set (what we are calling these assessments).  What we’ve learned is that the rubric allowed us to easily see when a student had good conceptual understanding but perhaps lower skill levels (what we are used […]

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Why Teachers Don’t Give Feedback instead of Grades, and Why We Should

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First in a series of posts about my experiences with “Feedback Before Grades” Holy Mackerel is all I have to say – Ok, well, no I have plenty more to say – but after about a week and a half of holing myself up with my colleague, Kristen McVaugh, (big shout-out to Ms McVaugh who […]

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Why PBL Works for Introverts

My school year is underway and as September just flew by, I have been completely overwhelmed by work – of course.  I am undertaking a new assessment method with a colleague of “feedback first and then grades” (blogpost to come when I give back the first set next week) but for now I wanted to […]

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Disruption in Presence: Missing PBL Math Class

What do we all do with kids who miss out on the wonderful rich discussions where the learning happens in a PBL math class? @0mod3 asks what to do about kids’ absences. (thanks for the great question!) @SchettinoPBL Probably both. I highlight math terminology, we clarify and formalize the math during class. — DReycer (@0mod3) […]

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Virtual Hand-outs for #GlobalMathDept conference

So tonight I give my very first online talk – I’m a little worried that talking to my computer will be a little strange at 9:00 at night, but we’ll see what happens.  Hopefully, there will be some type of audience interaction.  I’m such a relational person that I think I’m one of those people […]

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Connections Between IBL and PBL

At the PBL Summit a few weeks ago, we had two wonderful speakers, Julian Fleron and Phil Hotchkiss from Westfield State University who are founding members of the Discovering the Art of Mathematics Project.  They gave a great key note address on Friday night about Inquiry-Based Learning and motivating students in an IBL classroom.  You […]

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Think about where the learning happens in PBL

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After a few weeks of recovery, I wanted to write about having a BLAST of a time at our first attempt of putting together the PBL Summit my friend Nils Ahbel and I organized from July 16-19.  I wanted to thank all of those who came and participated in the discussions and talks and who […]

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One of the Original “Makers”

Apologies to any faithful readers out there – I have had a heck of a summer – way too much going on.  Usually during the summer, I keep up with my blog much more because I am doing such interesting readings and teaching conferences, etc. (although I’m running a conference for the first time in […]

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Late night thoughts on Assessing Prior Knowledge

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So it’s 11:50 pm on a Tuesday night, so what?  I can still think critically, right?  It was the last day of classes and I had an amazing day, but then all of a sudden Twitter started gearing up and lots of discussions began and my mind started racing.  I had planned on writing a […]

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NCTM 2015 – Reflections

I know I’m a little late but I did want to post my own handouts and talk a little bit about my experiences at NCTM Boston this year.  I want to thank all of the great speakers  that I saw including Robert Kaplinsky, Ron Lancaster, Maria Hernandez, Dan Teague, The Young People’s Project (Bob Moses’ […]

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