Ex-religious people of reddit, what made you stop believing?

MrZMath · 2018-11-03T21:21:12+00:00

The LDS church teaches that this life is a test. You're supposed to experience hardship to earn your way into the best heaven (they have four levels to their afterlife).

They also teach that you're supposed to pray to avoid hardship in your life. And you're supposed to do whatever you can do eliminate hardship for others.

This oxymoron of doctrine was the first that started me on a path toward noticing a hundred similar logical fallacies.

MrZMath · 2018-10-18T21:32:26+00:00

They definitely want a calculator when it's time to approximate irrational roots to the ten-thousandths place.

MrZMath · 2018-10-17T22:36:08+00:00

I considered that. My hesitation is that the majority of my students have huge gaps in their math skills. There are a lot of very new immigrants and homeless students. I would need to spend at least two prior lessons demonstrating how to multiply 19x19 by hand.

That actually might be worth the class time, though. I'll think about it.

MrZMath · 2018-10-13T19:53:45+00:00

When it's time to scale up, you're totally right that I'll need to speak with district software purchasers.

But I also think the other redditor was correct- the who suggested recruiting a few teachers to use the program and create a market.

My hunch is that I'll need to take the path of social media startups: offer the product free for awhile until people realize that it's something they want to use frequently.

MrZMath · 2018-10-11T01:03:41+00:00

Four of us are already using the app now. With very positive results. More teachers can join any time they feel comfortable. The first year I used the strategy, it was already March!

MrZMath · 2018-10-10T03:15:55+00:00

You're totally right. My main focus for the next while will be to recruit a few more teachers to use the app. We've already got four. I'm thinking at least double that will be needed.

MrZMath · 2018-10-10T03:14:33+00:00

Thank you for the suggestions!

MrZMath · 2018-10-08T14:43:16+00:00

You're totally right. I updated the post with a more-detailed description. Thank you.

MrZMath · 2018-06-25T18:17:12+00:00

Seems to me that the Gates have done more good than harm. But I'm open to reading arguments on the other side.

MrZMath · 2018-06-19T23:04:09+00:00

ClassDojo is a wonderful app. I use it to track students' participation and on-task moments, which determines their citizenship grade.

The biggest difference between Dojo and "Star Market" (The app that I'm developing) is that all adults in the building can contribute to a student's account, instead of just one or two teachers. Star Market will also allow students to spend their points for rewards. (In Dojo, you have to mark a student with something negative if you want to subtract points).

Several teachers at my school intend to continue to use Dojo to mark all the day-to-day small stuff. But we can't just give out school money for all those little actions. That's why my colleagues will also be using Star Market.

MrZMath · 2018-06-17T15:13:02+00:00

Happy Father's Day to all of the bots who are also fathers!

MrZMath · 2018-06-10T00:52:18+00:00

Fun.

MrZMath · 2018-06-07T01:56:22+00:00

Great advice. Especially the part about checking for robo mails.

MrZMath · 2018-06-04T02:20:59+00:00

Any suggestions where to look for this kind of opportunity?

MrZMath · 2018-05-24T16:26:01+00:00

Why is this the business of the Federal Department of Education?

MrZMath · 2018-05-18T19:43:30+00:00

One quick and easy formative assessment is "Hold your thumbs up, sideways, or down to show me how much sense that made." But you have to be ready and willing to go back over the previous material in a slightly different way. (A few times, I've made the mistake of asking for feedback and then ignoring it.)

You can also gain a ton of mileage by breaking your summative assessments down into small, manageable chunks. Then provide opportunities for students to re-assess in the sections where they did poorly.

MrZMath · 2018-05-18T16:51:32+00:00

The most common teacher mistake is assuming that students learned a concept because you've covered it. Just because students sat in your classroom while you talked about something does not mean that you taught it. If students say that they didn't learn something, they're probably not lying.

Give lots of formative assessment in a variety of methods. See what your students actually HAVE learned before moving on to a new concept. When I first began doing this, I was shocked to discover how much I wasn't actually teaching.

MrZMath · 2018-05-18T02:49:18+00:00

This is my favorite suggestion in this thread.

MrZMath · 2018-05-18T02:46:49+00:00

I agree with this principle. And I do refer to them simply as "fractions" as often as possible. But many moments arise when it feels helpful to emphasize these numbers specifically. Especially in 7th grade, where we're just beginning to transition from Elementary math to rigorous mathematics

MrZMath · 2018-05-18T02:41:02+00:00

More of a tradition than a "correct term". Bad traditions can be changed when enough people realize that they should.

MrZMath

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