Hello and Welcome to The Learning Table …

The Learning Table is a meeting place, a gathering space for all people engaged in any way with math education. That includes teachers, curriculum developers, tutors, homeschoolers, and parents of students taking math, which means almost all parents of children in school.

I’ve created The Learning Table because I wanted a place where we can all sit together and discuss the process of teaching math.

One feature of The Learning Table is an ezine, Scratchpad, which I send out twice a month.

In the first issue, reaching your inbox between the 1st and 5th of each month, I’ll send:

• A “Problem of the Month” [POTM]—a fun math puzzle sure to get you chewing your pencil or tapping your calculator.
• “Ask the Tutor,” where you can ask questions I’ll respond to in the next issue. I’ll offer two or three prompts — for example, fractions, teacher meetings, dyscalculia — and you can email questions on those topics. Based on my many years of tutoring math, I’ll respond to your queries in my next newsletter.

In the second issue, arriving a couple weeks later, I’ll send:

• The answer to the POTM, along with the names of the first 5 people who got it right. And just so you know, math classes can enter the POTM competition, with a student or two acting as class secretary!
• My response to your “Ask the Tutor” questions.
• As an occasional bonus feature, I’ll send a “Trick or Treat.” The ‘trick’ will be a mental math shortcut. The ‘treat’ will be a fun math factoid, or perhaps one of my essays on education, usually a case study based on my work with a student that reveals an interesting aspect of math teaching.

Have I piqued your interest yet? If so, click here to sign up for Scratchpad!

As The Learning Table grows, I hope to add a discussion forum or message board where members can talk with one another directly. I’d like to wait until our community is large enough to make those conversations lively and worthwhile. So if you know other folks you could see joining us at this e-table, feel free to invite them.

In the meantime, don’t forget to click here to become a founding subscriber of Scratchpad!

Thanks for sitting down with us. I look forward to getting to know each and every one of you!