Welcome

Hi! I have been teaching high school math for the last 6 years at Downtown College Prep, a charter school in San Jose, CA. Our students are primarily Latino, are far below grade level in their math and reading skills, and will be the first in their families to go to college. We refer to our students as being on an exponential learning curve: the average level in math of our incoming freshmen is 5th grade, and we need to get them to a 12th grade level in 4 short years.

Everything that I know about teaching math comes from what I have learned over the years by reading, experimenting, and collaborating with colleagues. I search the web a lot for ideas, but it's hard to find good, consolidated material that targets this population. Every so often, I find a good article in the NCTM magazine or a book that I can adapt, which provides a springboard for a great new unit - but I know there are a ton of successful and innovative ideas and strategies out there. My hope in starting this blog is to try to start a forum in which math teachers can collaborate and share their ideas for creatively and effectively teaching specific concepts and structuring their courses.

I plan on posting strategies that I am trying; but more importantly, I plan on posting questions I have, and am looking forward to the comments and discussion that will follow. If you have a question or topic that you want feedback on, just email me and I'll post it for comments. Also, please forward the address of this blog to any math teachers that you know so the ideas can multiply.