Teaching degrees and certifications

The site teacherdegrees.com has plenty of references.
Site map.
Good starting point.
and for Math Teacher info look here.

CAT- comprehensive assessment test

Link to Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment tests with correct answers.
Sample Student Work and Scoring Guides
Downloadpdf file with Massachusetts CAT test
Florida sample CAT
Test is too tough for sometoo tough for some
Florida CAT explorer


Open Directory Project Presented by the Edvisors Network
helpfull testing links
Question Base 2.0 by Michael Smith
- a questions editor and tester. You can design your own tests using it.
It has support for variables, so that numeric questions can change every time you ask them. The answers to such questions can contain expressions that are evaluated on the basis of the variables in the question. And it's free...

Teacher job interview? It's teacher style profile prescreening!

So you want to be a teacher? You think you need to be ready for an Interview. First better be ready for teacher style profile prescreening! It's about 30 questions in 15 minutes. No time to think! They want your subconscious response. Like in the heat of the moment!
To give you an idea - it's all about teacher - kids - principal triangle. Will you handle kids yourself or will you let principal deal with them and their parents? Not subject related at all!
Be aware that results of this 15 minutes test will stay on your record for 2 (yes two) years! And you can't see them!
I'm glad I read the book by Mike Kelley rookie teaching for dummies before taking this test.
more interview tips
Tips by Educational placement Service

Student Assessment by OECD's PISA

This is in the news. Kids' math scores country by country.
And the winners are ?
You guessed it right! The patient folks!
Korea and Finland

Institute of Internet History - a non-profit, non-governmental, non-organization

Do you know what "ping" is all about?
According to Institute of Internet History also known as "non-organization" back in 1902 poor kids cleaning rusty pipes were called "pings".

To keep the rust at bay, network operators and service providers employed young boys, and sometimes girls, to run through the pipes with stout wire brushes to remove built-up deposits. These boys and the runs they made were referred to colloquially as "pings" due to the noise they made by tapping their brushes on the inside of the pipe at each joint to indicate their progress. The term "ping" is still used today to refer to a method of ensuring that a route on the Internet is available and not clogged.

Logarithmic Maps of the Universe

Here it is !
Enjoy the trip!

Nine-year-old invented term googol

It's incredible how much kids contribute to math!
As story goes term googol for number 10 to the power of 100 was coined by Milton Sirotta then nine year old nephew of American mathematician Edward Kasner.
A googol is greater than the number of particles in the known universe!
And what is googolplex, 10 to the power of googol?

Math Forum on Googol Googolplex and others
Wikipedia on Names of large numbers
Wolfram's Mathworld on Large Numbers

Human brain held about 200 megabytes of information

Back in 1986 Tom Landauer concluded that the human brain can held about 200 megabytes of information. He got this number by estimating the rate at which people take in information and the rate at which people forget things.

And hard drive on my computer is 100 gigabytes! Now you see why title of my blog is "Things to remember"!

With about 6 billion people on Earth the total memory of humans now alive is about 1,200 petabytes. The Library of Congress is about 2-3 petabystes.

As far as processing power goes prof. George Miller estimated that our brain can handle five to nine thoughts at once. Read more about human mind

References:
T. K. Landauer How much do people remember? Some estimates of the quantity of learned information in long-term memory, Cognitive Science, 10 (4) pp. 477-493 (Oct-Dec 1986).

Michael Lesk How Much Information Is There In the World?

Philip and Phylis Morrison The Sum of Human Knowledge?

Big numbers in your hands: Rubik's cube

Rubik's cube is a good teaching tool for two reasons:
- it has 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 different positions (~ 43 quintillion) and can be a good example of a huge number right in the students hands.
- solution of the puzzle was discovered (among others) by then a 12 year-old schoolboy from Britain Patrick Bossert
Can you top this inspirational toy ?