About/Contact

I think a lot about my math teaching. Perhaps too much. This is my outlet. I hope you find it interesting and that you’ll let me know how it’s going.

Thanks for reading.

my background

I got started as a middle school teacher in the Saint Paul Public Schools. I taught seventh and eighth grade for six years.

I left the public school classroom to work on my Ph.D. at Michigan State University, where I was a graduate assistant on the revision of the Connected Mathematics materials (we were writing CMP2).

I now teach in the math department at Normandale Community College in Bloomington, MN, where I am working very hard on course development in (1) content courses for future elementary teachers, and (2) College Algebra.

I have worked with teachers around the country on Connected Math implementations. I worked part time with the Connected Math authors on another revision—CMP3—this one motivated by the Common Core State Standards.

I am interested in hard questions about teaching, and I am interested in children’s mathematical development. You should find evidence of both in the writing I do here.

You can read more from me on sophia.org

Get in touch through Twitter: @Trianglemancsd

Or you can get in touch through the form below:

 

12 responses to “About/Contact”

  1. Erin Schaffer | October 13, 2009 at 10:20 pm | Reply

    Thank you for doing this, excellent idea. It will be my new morning destination for stimulating ideas and future topics of discussion. My condolences to Perez Hilton for I no longer need your verbal swag!

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  3. Melinda | December 16, 2011 at 3:24 pm | Reply

    I started teaching CMP I 8 years ago – I’m sold on it… too bad most people are not… overthinking math pedagogy is what wakes me up at night.

    It is fascinating to read what you have written…

  4. Fawn Nguyen | March 24, 2012 at 3:35 am | Reply

    Our family lasted three winters in St. Cloud — came there straight from Vietnam, the culture shock was no match for the drastic temperature change. Wonderful blog, Christopher, thank you.

  5. Sybilla Beckmann (@SybillaBeckmann) | April 7, 2013 at 8:38 am | Reply

    I just found your blog and it looks so interesting! You might also be interested in participating on the Mathematics Teaching Community at https://mathematicsteachingcommunity.math.uga.edu
    For example, you can post links back to this blog there.

  6. Michael | May 12, 2013 at 9:04 pm | Reply

    Greetings! I am a sixth grade Math teacher and I found your blog through your discussion on place value and the Mayan number system. I am trying to start of next year with a look at number systems. The students start Social Studies looking at the Sumerians and I thought I could:
    1) Make a connection to that
    2) Help students deeply understand what place value is and means.

    Any ideas on how to teach this? I am trying to come up with an easy and simple way for students to work with another number system…

    • Christopher | May 13, 2013 at 8:53 am | Reply

      Michael, easy and simple do not pertain to the study of alternate number systems.

      Nonetheless, I do take requests!

      A bunch of ideas and resources come to mind. I’ll throw your question into the hopper for near-term posts.

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  8. Nick | September 9, 2014 at 9:45 am | Reply

    Thank you for the article “5 Reasons Not to Share …CC Worksheets”

    Too many people chastise the common core, or worse, the teacher teaching the common core because they were told to do so or lose their job. without knowing what is going on. As a newly retired teacher after 35 years, I taught the common core for the last three. As with any set of standards (which we will ALWAYS have) there are parts that are new and bend your thinking in a good way. The difficult mathematics concepts being taught, as in your example in the article, are strategies. I did not like some of the strategies that were presented in our “Common Core Aligned” math series, however, I saw their usefulness in higher-level thinking, real life mathematical situations. So, I taught them, but did not dwell on them. Some students “got it” and some weren’t ready. Normal. And, they certainly were not penalized when they did not get it. Thank you for your well written article with VERY valid points.

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