Author: Jim Olsen (James R. Olsen)
Brief author description: I teach at Western Illinois University & have a great wife and 3 great children. I consider myself a Christian, family member, teacher, athlete, and scholar. I taught HS math in the public schools for 10 years. I have been a teacher educator in the Mathematics Department at Western Illinois University since 1994. More Info on Dr. O here.
Purpose of this Site: The purpose of this site is to provide a place to put research articles, reports from professional societies and the government, and discussion of trends in math education.
Intent: My intent is to create a website that is highly organized, but not necessarily comprehensive.
I’m not-throwing-stuff-at-the-wall Disclaimer: This website will grow gradually and may never be comprehensive. This is to be carefully curated. (For a wall with stuff on it look at my Pinterest or here or here.)
Intended Audience: This site is created for in-service teachers, pre-service teachers, and math education professionals (including, of course, other teacher educators like myself).
Initiation Date: This site was created Feb. 15, 2015. I have been making web pages since 1999 (see other webpages below). It was only in January 2015 that I created my own domain name.
Blog Aspect: I do not have a great need to regularly have a platform to regularly ‘say my piece.’ However, it is useful, from time to time, to write blog postings–to discuss current trends in mathematics education, for example. Therefore, this site will include occasional weblog postings related to mathematics education. I welcome comments from viewers. (My twitter account will have a more steady stream of quips, comments, and links.)
Some of My Beliefs: In 2014 the NCTM published a book, titled Principles to Actions: Ensuring Mathematical Success for All. I believe (support) the 8 Mathematics Teaching Practices and the 5 Guiding Principles for School Mathematics. These (best) teaching practices and guiding principles can be seen in the Executive Summary.
More Information and Sites: This is a subdomain of drjimo.net. Find more information and other subdomains there.
Feedback/Comments: I do welcome feedback from students and readers of this site. Please call me or email me. [I have disabled the comment feature on the website itself.]
Social Media: I use (in somewhat decreasing order of significance)
Some of my other webpages and projects:
Common Core Math Standards: Information, Links, and Resources – I created this page (and continue to maintain it) to provide an easy way for teachers (and myself) to find CCSSM (and PARCC/Smarter Balanced) information, links, and resources.
Course Specific Mental Math Curriculum – This is a curriculum I’ve been creating for a number of years. The Grade 8 and Algebra I curricula are done. Seventh grade and Geometry are in the works.- Jim Olsen’s Home Page – this remains as my ‘front’ page. Lists current projects and pages and links to most everything else you see here.
- Teaching Resources – this is a very extensive list of resources for teaching.
- A Few Things I’ve Created list – a list of some of my other webpages (smaller projects)
- Online Math Games, Demonstration/Exploration Tools, and Puzzles – created a number of years ago. This site is not currently being maintained.
- PFD Boot Camp – PFD = Percents, Fractions, and Decimals
- Math Education Research and a Plethora of Committee and Government Reports
- Brain-Based Learning and Learning Theories