Math Memories and NeighborKeepers

On a personal note I had my Beatles birthday a few days ago; the one in the song that asks "Will you still need me, will you still feed me....". I must admit that I don't feel that old especially when it comes to thinking about math education. It's exciting to think back over the years in terms of different things I've believed or thought about at different times.


There was a time, for example when I didn't think children should be required to remember their addition and multiplication facts; a time when I thought that you just need to help children understand. We now know that the development of memory plays a large part in learning math just as it does in learning how to spell or write good English. Memory, of course, will always be better if it occurs alongside understanding.

I had the last of the three NeighborKeepers Math Mentoring workshops I have developed last Tuesday. They are free and designed to help volunteers who want to teach math to "newcomer" families in the Winooski School District where the need for extra help is significant. Hal Colston , a local social entrepreneur, is the one who is making this all happen and I hope to have the graduate students in my math ed. course work with these families as part of a course assignment next semester. If you would like to become a Math Mentor let me know at;
twhiteford @smcvt.edu (leave out the space)

I think it's cool that the British Government just designated the Abbey Rd "zebra" crossing as a National Heritage site. It just goes to show that history is always being made.