AnnMaria De Mars

Cranky old teacher with a stick — If you want to hear me rant, just ask me about why students aren’t learning math. We have technology! We have STEM programs! We have STEAM programs! Why the hell are our kids still so far behind? Now, I’m not saying to bring back this lady What we don’t have […]

Math has numbers. Duh.

15 Nov, 2018 in AnnMaria / Education: Innovation and STEM / Math by AnnMaria De Mars

Skyscrapers in Santiago — Living in Santiago has given me a whole new insight in what life is like for limited English speakers in the U.S. When your language proficiency is limited, so are your choices. When I first moved to Chile, I didn’t know any of the neighborhoods, how to use the metro, […]

Limited English Limits Your World

10 Nov, 2018 in AnnMaria / Start-up Diaries by AnnMaria De Mars

road through the trees in a rural area — For the past four years, I’ve been studying how technology does – or more often, doesn’t – work its way into rural schools. I’ve driven down dirt roads all over two countries, sat out snowstorms and followed directions to school buildings that read “Go past the dip in the road, […]

Do we want rural kids to succeed or not?

6 Nov, 2018 in AnnMaria / Education: Innovation and STEM / rural education by AnnMaria De Mars

Julia in Boston Common — “English Opens Doors” – I love that title “English opens doors” (or, in Spanish, “inglés abre puertas”) is a program in Chile that promotes learning English. I love their name because they really “get it”. Education is the key to a bigger, wider life. Normally, I write about teaching math . […]

Better English Opens Doors to a Better Future

31 Oct, 2018 in AnnMaria / Bilingual Education / Education: Innovation and STEM / Educational Games by AnnMaria De Mars

kid on computer — I’m analyzing data from a study we did on effectiveness of our games in teaching math and the scores for the control groups are extremely depressing. They’re perfect control groups because they qualified for our study based on being a low income and our software was available to them for […]

How do I get you to care that your kids ...

30 Oct, 2018 in AnnMaria / Education: Innovation and STEM / Math by AnnMaria De Mars

Judo students, AnnMaria and a stuffed llama — Me, judo students and a llama Many years ago I met a teenage girl who said she wanted to go to the Olympics . I had visited her club a few times, practiced with her and gave her a few tips about competing and training. One day, when I took […]

I’m that kind of person: Another business lesson from judo

28 Oct, 2018 in AnnMaria / Start-up Diaries by AnnMaria De Mars

Did you know that many cities have a popular event called “Fuck Up Nights”? That’s where entrepreneurs talk about their failures. The general idea is that there are problems with only studying success. One problem is that many people in the startup world suffer from depression. They are always hearing […]

Stupid Ideas I Have Had

26 Oct, 2018 in AnnMaria / Game Progress / Start-up Diaries by AnnMaria De Mars

Eva feeding a giraffe — You may be a native speaker or your Spanish is limited to “margarita”. Either way, if you have Spanish-speaking students in your class, you have a bilingual classroom. I’m going to assume that you want all students in your classroom to be engage and learning. If not, hopefully you quit […]

Teaching statistics in your bilingual classroom

22 Oct, 2018 in AnnMaria / Education: Innovation and STEM / Educational Resources by AnnMaria De Mars

I’m going to change this story slightly because I don’t want to call out a specific person when I have seen the same thing over and over from “STEM” or “STEAM” or “STREAM” programs. Generally, the more letters they have, the bigger problem it is. I agree with everything Ms. […]

We’re Totally Missing the Boat on Math Education

19 Oct, 2018 in AnnMaria / Education: Innovation and STEM / Math by AnnMaria De Mars

Parenting Like I Know What I'm Doing — Maria and I have been told many times, “You guys should write a book on parenting!” So, we did. It is an ebook, 87 pages for $1.99 so less than 3 cents per page for brilliance like the following: BUY HERE: Get Parenting Like I Know What I’m Doing for […]

You should write a book on parenting

15 Oct, 2018 in AnnMaria / Parenting Like I Know What I'm Doing / Special Education by AnnMaria De Mars

Presenter at NIEA — I go to quite a few conferences but the National Indian Education Association is one of my favorites because they fit with my idea of how education should be. I go to mathematics conferences that are all about – you guessed it – mathematics, and technology conferences that are focused […]

It’s Indian Education – Why I Like the NIEA conference

11 Oct, 2018 in AnnMaria / Cultural content / Educational Games / Educational Resources by AnnMaria De Mars

Game character running through maze — As I said in the previous post, problems with teaching pre-teens math at home can be broadly broken down into two parts, getting your child to DO math and getting your child to LEARN math. Today, we’re going to look at the second part. Let’s talk about word problems. Personally, […]

Not everyone hates word problems

8 Oct, 2018 in AnnMaria / Math / Special Education by AnnMaria De Mars