Sam Shah has challenged math teachers to blog with a one month challenge. The response has been amazing! Here are just 8 of the approximately 100 posts submitted this week.

Matt Moran @matthewpmoran  Maximize Interest.

First post! Blog Begins: A Maximization Problem

Author’s comments: “I wrote about my struggles with committing to blogging, my love of blogs, my recommitment to blogging and the inspiration for my new blog and its title (from someone’s else blog). blog blog bloggedy blog.”

Memorable quote: “What do you maximize?”

Jimmy Pai @PaiMath  The Pai Intersect.

First post! Spiraling through the curriculum

Author’s comments: “This upcoming year I plan on teaching classes completely through activities using the spiraling idea. I imagine that the core of my classes are still the same (i.e. group-oriented, activity driven), but the difference would lie in how I structure the activities. Assessment and evaluation would also be different, which would be an interesting task.”

Memorable quote: “Mathematical concepts are not only natural consequences of the activities – the students want, need, and enjoy learning about them.”

Frank McGowan  Finding the Process.

First post! Be explicit & be less helpful

Author’s comments: “When do I need to fall back and let my students struggle and when do I need to be direct? Save their energy for problem solving and provide the tools to decode expectations.”

Memorable quote: “Countless possibilities exist but, time after time, language is found as a culprit.”

Evan Weinberg @emwdx gealgerobophysiculus.

First post! Standards Based Grading – All In, for the new year

Author’s comments: “I’ve been a version of standards based grading (without the name) for a couple years in the form of quiz grades. To be honest, it has been wussy, non-committal, and hasn’t worked as designed for the past few years I’ve used it. Now I’m actually doing it the way everyone says to do it, and I’m feeling pretty good about how it is changing my planning for the year.”

Memorable quote: “If I really believe in the power for standards based grading to transform how learning happens in my classroom, I need to demonstrate its importance and commit to it.”

Lisa Nussdorfer @nussder Nussder.

First post! Startup

Author’s comments: “My blog history and starting a new professional blog”

Memorable quote: “So as the summer meanders to a weird finish since I am not revving up for teaching, I saw a twitter post about the blog challenge.”

Chris Rime @chrisrime  Partially Derivative.

First post! New Blogger Initiative: #1

Author’s comments: It’s really hard to pick a good name, knowing that it will be your face to the whole wide internet. After picking my name, it apparently turns out that I’m kinda into puns. Also, orange calculators are the bee’s knees.”

Memorable quote: “I think that act has made me a little more reckless, a little more open to wild and crazy things like orange calculators.”

Malcolm Eckel  Solving Problems.

First post! Teaching Resolution: Stop Talking.

Author’s comments: “My big planned change for this year boils down to “stop talking”. To me, this means being less helpful (thanks Dan Meyer), asking better questions, designing better activities, and explicitly teaching problem solving, all so I can get out of the way and the students can learn on their own terms.”

Memorable quote: “Truly awesome math is like rock climbing – finding the path yourself, but with plenty of ledges to grab on to – and I think math teachers too often build a ladder (I know I do).”

Rachel Tabak @ray_emily  Writing to Learn to Teach.

First post! First Post Ever: About This Blog’s Title

Author’s comments: “In this post, I discuss how I’ve always loved writing – particularly the way that writing helps me to understand my thoughts and my world with more depth and nuance than I might, otherwise. I also talk about my long-term obsession with reading all of the smart things that the many established, amazing bloggers out there have written and shared. I make a public commitment to joining the dialogue, rather than lurking!”

Memorable quote: “This title is, amazingly, a title that inspires me – and that encapsulates what I hope this blog will exemplify.”

Everyone else

Week ONE posts: Julie, Fawn, Anne, Megan, Bowman, Sam, Lisa, John, @druinok, Tina, Kate, Sue