Is there a problem here?

Is there a problem here?

from Doug Fisher's Michigan Reading Association Presentation (via delta_dc)

A student in my W14 teacher-assisting seminar raised this question:

If the [desirable] Japanese lesson style* is all about posing meaningful problems and allowing students to explore them, and if the proper role of the teacher is to lend perspective and support in those investigations, then why are we taught to use gradual release of responsibility?
  * we might substitute problem-based learning, or 3 act lessons, or active inquiry, or...

Then today (4/9/14) I read this on Twitter from @ZPMath.

Crowd-sourcing Our Midterm Review

I had to take a sick day today, so we are reviewing for our Mth323 midterm exam by crowd-sourcing a review guide. Students have been asked to add at least two tips for our learning targets, plus as many questions as they have. Check it out (updated every 5 minutes or so):

What it Means to Solve (Again): Finding Wormholes

In two previous posts, I have explored what it means to solve linear inequalities and what it means to solve quadratic equations. The latter post describes a classroom moment in which my students and I contemplate what it means to find and visualize the (complex) solutions of a quadratic equation that has no real solutions. I wrote:

"A picture formed in my mind of an invisible, ethereal, wormhole-style thread binding the two curves. How could we represent the functions so that the "intersection" would be visible?"

This post documents my post-class exploration of that issue.

In with the old, out with the new

I've been tinkering with Tablet PC's lately.

What's a Tablet PC, you ask? I'm talking about a fully functional laptop computer that has a touch screen interface on top of the traditional keyboard and trackpad, and one that folds or flips flat so the user can write on the screen as if it was a notepad.

My old tablet is an HP Elitebook 2730p. I've been using it for years as my primary computing device. In my office, it spends most of its time docked, so I get a full size keyboard and monitor. But I also regularly used it for writing papers, teaching classes, presenting at conferences, creating mathcasts, and taking notes during meetings. It came home from work in my backpack every evening and returned with me every morning. Once, during the summer, I even left it on top of my car on my way to work. We made it about halfway there before it caught the wind at 45mph, did a tumbling backflip off the roof of my vehicle, and bellyflopped onto the asphalt behind me. I hit the brakes and managed to retrieve it before anyone ran it over -- and would you believe it, the thing booted right up!

Suffice it to say, I love my HP Elitebook. But its getting old and slow. I'll need a new one soon.

So I'm testing out a contender: the Dell XPS 12 Convertible Ultrabook, pictured above. I decided to see how it would compare with my old HP Elitebook for creating Mathcasts.