What are the advantages to presenting the multiplication facts on the first quadrant of the Cartesian coordinate system? Here’s a 7 minute guide.

“Cogito ergo sum” is the phrase that so many  associate with Descartes. His work on the development of the coordinate system, however, deserves even more attention. Where would math be without it? The more I consider the usefulness of the coordinate system, the more valuable it appears.

Here’s the latest on basic education: learning how to make letters and to write by hand helps learners learn.  Does anyone really believe that entering letters by pressing a key has the same educational richness as forming those letters on paper by hand using a pen or pencil?  For the academic day in the first […]

It’s that time of year when my beginning algebra students are asked to consider how y varies as x varies. The major challenge of the year is helping these students  believe that x and y are numbers…very powerful ones.  That y varies directly with x is well expressed by the equation y = kx. That […]