My News
Forthcoming Book!
I co-authored a book on math pedagogy with Robin Pemantle, a mathematician at Penn. The book is titled There Is No One Way to Teach Math: actionable ideas for grades 6-12. It is all about pedagogy. (A companion volume on curriculum and policy will hopefully follow.) In it, we acknowledge the complexity of teaching, and reject simple one-size-fits-all educational dogmas. After establishing our overall eclectic philosophy, we address just about every aspect of the job: organizing group work, using learning tools, leading class discussions, teacher collaboration, and so on.
We hope the book will be useful to young teachers as well as classroom veterans. Each chapter ends with discussion questions for departments, professional development workshops, and preservice courses. It is scheduled to be available in September from Routledge Eye on Education. (I'll have more information on how to order in the next issue of this newsletter.)
Forthcoming Chapters!
This is another project I recently completed. I was asked to contribute a chapter to GeT courses: Resources and objectives for the geometry courses for teachers. It is intended for university professors who teach prospective math teachers. My chapter is about how to use geometric puzzles in connection with standard curricular topics, something I have been doing over my entire career. I also co-authored a chapter with Robin Pemantle, largely based on his experience teaching such a course. (I'm not sure about the timetable on this book's publication.)
Social Media
I was an early social media adopter: the Well, then AOL, then Facebook. However I never lasted long on any of those platforms. Each time, I realized I preferred real life, and moved on after a few weeks. The exception was Twitter, which I joined in 2015. I stayed on for years because it was a place where I could discuss interesting questions with a community of math educators, get ideas for blog post topics, and promote my website. I suspect it helped me substantially increase the reach of my ideas and materials.
However, now that it's under new management, I'm enjoying it much less. I only show up on X to promote new material on my website or blog. I also post that same info on Mathstodon and BlueSky. I'm afraid I'm not very social, at least not online! If you're on one or more of these platforms, you may want follow me: I'm @hpicciotto on all three. Or, if you prefer, you can keep up with my work by reading this newsletter!
Blog Posts
Here are links to posts on my Math Education Blog that you might find interesting.
If you are so moved, you may comment on the posts, and/or subscribe to the blog.
Tangram Puzzles
In this post, I spell out the philosophy behind my nine books of geometric puzzles — including the latest one (see below).
NCTM on Data Science
I was rather pleased with a recent statement from NCTM, which echoed two points I've been making for a long time:
- Data exploration belongs in many subjects, not just math.
- It should be integrated into disciplinary content, not replace it.
Read about this here.
The Three Triangles
In my last newsletter, I mentioned adding "The Three Triangles" to my website. In that worksheet, I guide students through a similar triangles proof of the Pythagorean theorem. Because it was classroom-tested and refined over years, I thought it would be interesting to explain the pedagogy underlying it. Take a look at the worksheet, and read the play-by-play commentary here.
MathEducation.page
What's new or newish on my website.
Tangrams!
Tangrams are almost certainly the best known geometric puzzle, and the most widespread in schools. I finally created a book of Tangram Puzzles (free download), and a Tangrams home page.
Geometric Puzzles Unit
My website includes a massive amount of school-oriented geometric puzzle material, perhaps more than any other location on the Web. You can find links to all of it on my Geometric Puzzles home page. There is so much there that it is hard to figure out a way to organize the various types of puzzles in a logical and pedagogically sound sequence. I addressed this by outlining a possible Geometric Puzzles Unit.
GeoGebra Applets: How To
My website features dozens of applets (small online in-browser programs). Some illustrate an argument, some provide a springboard for student writing and classroom discussion, some are instructional games. I create those using GeoGebra. On this page, I explain how to embed a GeoGebra file onto a web page.
Tweaks, Updates, and Stats
- Since the last issue of this newsletter, I tweaked and updated these pages (partial list):
- Tiling
- Virtual Grid Paper
- Proving Pick’s Formula
- Virtual Base-Ten Blocks
- Glide Reflection
- The Pythagorean Theorem
- Fractions
- Geometry Labs
- Making Sense in Algebra 2
- Infinity
- Space
- My Talks
- Number Pyramids
- Comprehensive Site Index
- In the last four months, these were the most visited pages on the site (excluding pages mentioned elsewhere in this newsletter):
- A New Algebra
- Virtual Pentominoes
- Using the Geoboard
- Search
- Virtual Tangrams
- For a Tool-Rich Pedagogy
- Function Diagrams
- Geometry of the Parabola
- Virtual Circle Geoboard
