Category Archives: Education

How to Make Your Own Number System

You know about Roman numerals and Arabic numerals, but there have been other civilizations through human history with their own mathematical systems. For example, have you ever heard of Kaktovik numerals? If you are living off the land in a remote part of the world, you don’t need elaborate mathematics. A quick, visual arithmetic will

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Teaching in the COVID Era

This pandemic has been difficult for everyone. We’ve all had to adapt in one way or another. This is especially true in education. Safety protocols have turned everything upside down. For example, students in middle school were forbidden to carry backpacks during the day, because a backpack’s weight could hurt their posture. Now they have

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Is This the Future of Education?

Day to day, we use methods that seem to meet our needs perfectly well. Then something upsets our routine and we have to find different ways of operating. And sometimes we realize the new ways are better than the old. Ever since I entered the teaching profession, I’ve been hearing how many elements of our

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On Communication

I’m halfway through a long-term substitute teaching job with the special-needs kids, and it’s gotten me to thinking about communication. Specifically, how can you communicate with these students when half are confined to wheelchairs and most are non-verbal? I was discussing this recently with a friend, and she suggested pictures. That’s an obvious solution, but

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Kids, Writing, and Time Travel

It’s hard to get kids’ attention these days, especially with regard to creative writing. So what if you could use time travel? 826LA (http://826la.org/) is running with that idea. Its mission statement is “a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting students ages 6 to 18 with their creative and expository writing skills, and to helping teachers

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