This Week in Math Ed: November 25, 2016

I'm again keeping this TWiME short as I catch up from conference travel and the Thanksgiving holiday. Thankfully, I remembered to grab all the most-shared posts before that data slipped away from me!

Dan Meyer at the 2016 ASSM Annual Meeting

November 18: For what I assume is a limited time, you can download the Mathematics Teacher article, "Increased Participation and Conversation Using Networked Devices" by Christopher Danielson and Dan Meyer.

Comment: Seeing Dan and Christopher's name on this article gave me the sudden thought, "It's like they're the George Immerzeel and Earl Ockenga of the 2010s." This will only amuse you if (a) you are really knowledgeable about late-70s calculator research or (b) you went to the University of Northern Iowa, as I did, and either knew or knew of these people.

Shared by: Bethany Sansing-Helton, Taylor Belcher, Dan Meyer, Lorraine Males, NCTM - MT

November 19: I'm not sure why a post from July suddenly made the rounds in November, but a number of people were sharing "Research Shows Students Learn Better When They Figure Things Out On Their Own," a post written by Martin Buschkuehl on the MIND Research Institute blog.

Shared by: Laura Wagenman, Kit G., Brian Errey, Rusty Anderson, Taylor Belcher, Becca Phillips, Annie Forest, Alex Overwijk, Margie Pearse

November 20: In a post that would serve well as a case study for teacher discussions, Kim Van Duzer wrote "Tape Diagrams, Big Feelings and other Predicaments of Teaching."

Shared by: Lynsey Gibbons, Ilona Vashchyshyn, Kent Haines, Tyler Anderson, Sadie Estrella, Simon Gregg, Michael Pershan, Tracy Johnston Zager

November 21: Ian Sample in the Guardian wrote a richly-presented article called "Magic numbers: can maths equations be beautiful?"

Shared by: Francis Su, Gary Davis, Egan J Chernoff, Nita Cochran, Simon Gregg, Steven Strogatz, Keith Jones, Geoff Wake, Marcus du Sautoy, Nerissa Gerodias

November 22: Using a nice mix of numberless word problems and a notice/wonder setup, Kristen Gray describes a classroom activity with "Help Kids Understand Math Problems: Take Away The Numbers And the Question!"

Shared by: J. Brown, Margie Pearse, Math Coach Rivera, Laura Wagenman, Rusty Anderson, Amanda Jansen, Kristin Gray

November 23: People were taking an interest in the nominee to become our next Secretary of Education and shared this brief Q+A from Betsy DeVos.

Shared by: Karen Gartland, Josh Fisher, David Hallowell, Dan Anderson, Ilana Horn

November 24: Charles Blow's NY Times opinion piece, "No, Trump, We Can't Just Get Along" struck a nerve with a number of math educators.

Shared by: Annie Perkins, Earl Samuelson, Keith Devlin, Elizabeth Statmore, Bill Thill, Mike Anderson, Eddi Vulić, Karen King, John Allen Paulos, Ματτ, Peg Cagle, Sahar Khatri, Ilana Horn, Kay Endriss, Keith Devlin