Blog #176 – SHARING KNOWLEDGE WITH OTHERS
During my career I have acquired a lot of knowledge about teaching in general and mathematics in particular. More than 30 years ago, I decided that I had an obligation to share the knowledge that I had acquired with teachers, parents, and students. I did this in a variety of ways. Initially I became a presenter at different workshops. In these workshops I shared my diagnostic-increment technique for teaching. In the years that followed, I began sharing methods for teaching mathematics more efficiently. As I developed faster methods of solving problems, I realized that many students and children could benefit from mastering those methods. At presentations I shared my knowledge of teaching by modeling. I found that having students present at my workshops gave me an opportunity to model teaching that other presenters were not taking advantage of. Teachers that present at the workshops were not being told what to do. Instead they were able to observe how I motivated students and how I developed concepts from basic to more complex.
In 1983, I decided to share what I knew by writing my first instructional mathematics workbook. Since then, I have written more than 40 workbooks. The problems in these workbooks are written the way that I presented problems in the classroom. My workbooks provided a detailed explanation of problems from Number Sense, Calculator Applications, and Mathematics. These workbooks allowed me to reach a much wider audience. These workbooks allowed access to my knowledge to more teachers, parents, and students. Initially, most workbooks where purchased in Texas. In recent years, I have been selling workbooks and other materials throughout the United States.
I encourage the sharing of knowledge to other teachers. I also want to encourage parents to share their knowledge of parenting with other parents. There is no reason why we should reinvent the wheel. I have been developing innovative ways of solving problems for more than 50 years. A lot of what I have learned has come from teaching and coaching mathematics. Although, I retired from the classroom more than 10 years ago, I continue teaching students online. I think that in the last 10 years I have developed more ways of teaching concepts than the previous 40 years. I am continuously trying to develop new techniques for solving mathematic problems. This quest for knowledge keeps me motivated. I will continue sharing what I have learned and I pray that the workbooks that I have written continue inspiring a love of mathematics long after I am gone.