This Week in Math Ed: December 23, 2016

I'm still catching up, so here are stories that were popular the week before Christmas. I'm saving other items for the next post, so you'll have to wait!

Math Ed Said

December 16: It's a Desmos holiday sweater!

Shared by: Shelley Carranza, Mike Maki, Stephanie Ling, Carolyn Spencer, Kathy Henderson, Melinda Lula, Ashley Bingenheimer, Andrew Shauver, Julia Finneyfrock, David Petersen, Desmos.com

December 17: In an interview with Carol Dweck in The Atlantic called "Don't Let Praise Become a Consolation Prize," we explore some of the ways growth mindset should and shouldn't be used.

Shared by: Patrick Honner, Marcie Lewis, Rebecca Gasper, Marilyn Burns, Chi Klein, Steven Strogatz, Ayodele Harrison

December 18: "How Big is 'Big'?" is another great post from Mark Chubb. It's difficult to develop number sense with large numbers, and in this post Mark explores some activities that can help or hinder the development of big-number sense.

Shared by: Mark Chubb, Andrea Ogden, Brandi Moore, Jamie Garner, Matthew Oldridge, Margie Pearse, Laura Wagenman

December 19: Dan Meyer asked us to makeover a system of equations.

Shared by: Jamie Duncan, Carolyn Spencer, George Woodbury, Nat Banting, Zach Cresswell, Denis Sheeran, Michael Welch, Amy Hogan, Matthew Oldridge, Rob Horcher, Dan Meyer

December 20: Progress continues on the Illustrative Mathematics curriculum.

Shared by: Ron King, Ashli Black, Andrew Gael, Sadie Estrella, Kristin Gray, Robert Kaplinsky, Geoff Krall, Kate Nowak, Judy Keeney, Vanessa Cerrahoglu, Joanie Funderburk, David Petersen, Mike Steele, Bowen Kerins, Nik Doran, Illustrative Maths

December 21: There's a companion website for Tracy Zager's new book, Becoming the Math Teacher You Wish You'd Had.

Shared by: Tyler Anderson, Sara VanDerWerf, Genni Steele, Mary Gambrel, Vanessa Cerrahoglu

We might have been debating this in 1966.

December 22: "The High-School Mathematician's Crutch Is Not Allowed in Most Colleges" appeared in The Atlantic, and struck me as something that might have appeared more at home in 1986 or 1996 than 2016. We have a standard to "use appropriate tools strategically," but this article seems to seek for something closer to all-or-none. In 1986 my teachers were telling me I needed to master arithmetic because I wouldn't always have a calculator with me. My teachers were usually right, but on this point, they were wrong. I do always have a calculator with me — and it makes phone calls!

Shared by: Dan Meyer, Egan Chernoff, Brittany Cuchta, Steven Gnagni, Christopher Danielson, Vicki Carter, Andrew Gael, Matthew Oldridge, OCTM, Nick Gerhard