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 ?

Teach For America

Should I join Teach for America?

Fractal Dimension

Check out explanation of a fractal dimensions based on the following definition of a dimension of a self-similar object. The dimension is an exponent of the number of self-similar pieces with magnification factor N into which the figure may be broken.
Hope this make sense for you. ;-).
Sierpinski triangles can help you visualize the concept.

Math, Music and Dance

Math and music harmony close relations are well known.
On Math forum Julie Strandberg claims math connection to dance too.
Since dance can be recorded as a plot then it should be possible to use math to analyze it! It's just a function!
This dance movement documenting system is called labanotation and used to archive popular dances and entire ballets.
Dance can be used to teach math!

Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education

Here is a free issue of Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education published by Kluwer.

Powerpoint and Macromedia flush lessons on the Web

Both Powerpoint and Macromedia flush lessons are great teaching tools!
This site sells powerpoint math lessons.
These movies shows family of hyperboloids and the 4th dimension. Davide Cervone production.

Was Mathematics Invented or Discovered?

Here is one view.
Here is a brief math history overview. This is in fact huge math history site! It has even clickable maps of mathematicians birthplaces!

Mathematics Pronunciation Guide

This guideincludes most mathematicians and mathematical terms that may been encountered in high school and the first two years of college.

Do you say "two thousand three" or "two thousand and three" when you talking about 2003?
Talking about numbers is not easy! Top 10 APA Trouble Spots
Check out this discussion with Dr. Math at Math forum.
Of course it depends whom you are talking to.
To check how it will sound in Brithish English, American English, Australian English, Canadian English, Irish English, Scottish English and Welsh English go to fonetiks.org
Still confused? Then use Merriam-Webster dictionary pronunciation!

The Mathematics Contests on the Web

This is on going math contest for students! List of old problems is available too! Students submitting correct solutions will have their name, school, and location displayed on that contest's site.
Look here for more links to Math contests sites.
Or you can go directly to White House website for more problems submitted by David Rock from University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and Doug Brumbaugh from University of Central Florida


Oracle ThinkQuest contest with a variety of prizes. Teachers can coach teams of 3 to 6 students, ages 9 to 19. Teams have 6 months to build a website on any topic within one of the official competition categories. In math they have already Algebra (23) Arithmetic (60) Calculus (11) Chaos Theory (6) Fractals (9) Geometry (26) Puzzles (6)Statistics (2) and Trigonometry (2).
Some are very creative!

Reviews of math textbooks

I was about to write reviews on some math books I had used when I discovered this site.
Here is the list of the books I had on my desk at that time

Peterson's Get Wise! Mastering Math Word Problems by Maureen Steddin
and here is a link to a good source of the world problems


Math coach. A parent's guide to helping children to succeed in Math by Wayne & Ingrid Wickelgren


Calculus by P.Abbot, revised by Hugh Neill


Barron's Review Course Series. Let's Review: Math B by Lawrence Leff

Mike Kelley holds this web page together with aluminum foil and chewing gum

Serious help on how to teach calculus for the calculus phobe. Lessons are presented as a flush movie with a verbal narrative. Simply the best I found on the web so far!
Has very helpful search that works great. You can also use alphabetical index to navigate the site.
Mike Kelley's site impressive collection of awards and recognitions
Good stuff indeed!

More K-8 math lessons on the web

This is AAA math website.
Covers many topics taught at kindergarten and up to 8th grade.
There are lessons on consumer math too. For example
how to calculate tip.