Bill is the 2006 California League of High Schools northeastern California Educator of the Year
Bill Lombard currently teaches at Foothill High School, ten miles east of Redding. He has taught at the high school level for twenty years, at the middle school level for six years, two years at Shasta Community College, and three years at the adult/teacher level as the Manager of the Teacher Education and Computer Center based in Redding. For the last fifteen years Bill has presented mathematics curriculum to teachers at conferences and workshops.
He and his co-author, Brad Fulton, have written more than a dozen books for math teachers as well as over twenty Teacher Resource Manuals for teacher training seminars. Brad and Bill host a companion website, Teacher to Teacher Press. On this site you may find more materials to help math teachers. Known throughout the country for motivating and engaging teachers and students, Brad and Bill create activities that help teachers who believe mathematics must be both meaningful and powerful.
Bill’s goal is to make mathematics both understandable and meaningful for his students, and on this website he shares some of his materials, lessons, and other information to help both teachers and students to be successful in the math classroom.
Seminar leader and trainer of mathematics teachers
- California Math Council and NCTM/NCSM presenter
- Lead trainer for summer teacher training institutes
- Trainer/consultant for district, county, regional, and national workshops
Co-author of mathematics curriculum
- Simply Great Math Activities series: five books covering all major strands
- Math Discoveries series: four books bringing math alive for students in middle schools
- Teacher Training Resource Handbooks for elementary, middle, and secondary teachers
Workshops, conference sessions, and keynote addresses
All workshops provide participants with complete and ready-to-use activities. These activities require minimal preparation, use materials commonly found in classrooms, and give clear and specific directions and format. Participants will also receive journal prompts, homework suggestions, and ideas for extensions and assessment.
- “Excellent…relevant…useful…practical…engaging.”
- - Tizoc Tirado, kindergarten teacher
Tags: Bill Lombard, mathematics teachers, Mr. L, Teacher to Teacher Press, teacher training
Here’s some fun to brighten your summer days! NCTM has a nice resource page for teachers and students full of website links and paper/pencil activities. You can find the site titled “Let the Summer Games Begin!!!” And these resources are not just for the summer. I’ve already planned to use some of them during the upcoming school year to teach thinking skills - you just can’t get enough motivating, engaging activities!
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I just finished presenting a workshop for the Association of Illinois Middle Schools Annual Conference in Normal, Illinois (home of Illinois State Univ.) and enjoyed it tremendously. I had the pleasure of interacting with 150 middle school teachers and once again working with the AIMS staff - a real class act! Here’s what the AIMS Executive Director had to say in her March Newsletter:
Deb Discusses… The Aha! Moment
A brief chat with Deb Schrock, AIMS Executive Director
Back in December of 2006, I was facilitating the Bill Lombard workshop in Lisle. His topic was Activities to Engage ALL students in Algebra. That’s when I had my first aha! moment for math. From that moment on…..it made sense to me.
Let’s be truthful …math and I were never square (clever) with each other. I struggled with it and it struggled with me. For some reason, math just didn’t’ click until Bill Lombard’s training.
The funny thing is…I heard others saying the exact same thing. Math educators saying, I never thought about doing an activity like that (menu math activity) to help students pick up on the meaning and use of variables.
During Bill’s training I had an opportunity to sit and do work with one of the teacher teams attending. I know - they were thinking about how they were going to use this really ingenious strategy in their classroom and how their students would be able to engage in a more active role in the learning. Not me…..I figured out the problem ….I got the X and I knew how I got it!
Don’t get me wrong…..I was able to stumble my way through the many levels of math classes in high school, college and graduate school….but for the first time in my life. I got why X was X.
I tell you this story because AIMS is having this incredible man back in our state.
In the book, You Can Do It! How to Boost Your Child’s Achievement in School by Michael E. Bernard (Warner Books 1997), Bernard talks about “teachers presenting an appropriate level of academic challenge, the educator adjusting the difficulty level of the assignment and project so that students find that, with effort and some guidance and instruction when they need it, they will be successful. The more your child spends time stretching and reaching to master academic material, knowing that his teacher is available when needed, the higher his achievement will be.” Hooking into what connects with your students is a huge motivator for keeping your students moving forward and upward. That’s why I ‘m so excited about the opportunity to have Bill Lombard help you connect with your students in math!
The Summer SPLASH will be on Tuesday, June 23rd in Normal. The trainer is math wizard Bill Lombard. He is what I call a “gentleman’s trainer”. He moves quickly through activities that engage adults and translate amazingly into teaching your students.
Bill called the other day to check in about some of the details about Summer SPLASH…..he was sharing some of his most recent math activities…it was incredible. I know that you will be amazed, too, when you come be part of the day and have your aha! moment. You will definitely grow as an educator and instructional strategist.
Please call the AIMS office if you have any question about the Summer SPLASH. Remember - AIMS is always looking for a way to bring you the best in professional development,
Come grow with us and Catch the MATH Wave!
Deb
Tags: conference, Math Activity, math instruction, normal illinois, teaching math
Guest post by Karen Schweitzer
Need to brush up on your math skills or prepare materials for a new math class. There are many different colleges and universities that offer free online math courses at the undergraduate and graduate level. Here are ten courses that would be useful to teachers.
Numbers, Units, and Arithmetic - This introductory math course from the UK’s Open University offers a basic review of whole numbers, decimals and fractions. The course is split into three self-study modules and takes approximately five hours to complete.
Algebra I - This undergraduate level Algebra I course from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology covers a wide range of topics, including groups, vector spaces, linear transformations, and bilinear forms. Course materials include lectures, quizzes, assignments, and more.
College Algebra - Utah State University’s free college algebra course teaches students about number systems, graphs, functions, theorems, permutations and combinations. Course materials include readings, assignments, and quizzes.
CSET Mathematics I: Algebra - The University of California - Irvine has an excellent online course designed to help prepare math teachers for the California Subject Examinations for Teachers (CSET). The course includes six lessons and covers a wide range of topics.
Geometry I - This free math course from the Mathematical Institute of the University of Oxford provides a thorough introduction to geometry. The online course includes lecture materials, handouts, and question sheets.
Algebraic Geometry - The Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s free graduate level algebraic geometry course includes lectures, problems sets, and an exam.
Calculus I - Dixie State College of Utah offers two free online calculus courses. This course covers a wide range of topics, including limits, infinity, tangents, derivatives, anti-derivatives, and integrals.
Multivariable Calculus - This free UC Berkeley course offers a comprehensive review of multivariable calculus. The course is delivered through a series of pre-recorded audio and video lectures.
Trigonometry I - This offering from Whatcom College is more of a unit than a course, but it does provide an excellent introduction to trigonometry. The unit is presented through a 20-page PDF and includes text and illustrations.
Computational Discrete Mathematics - Carnegie Mellon is currently developing this free online course, but units are available while the course is in development. The course emphasizes practical algorithms and experiential learning and includes self-guiding materials and activities.
Guest post from Karen Schweitzer, the About.com Guide to Business School. Karen also writes about online colleges and universities for OnlineColleges.net.
Tags: math instruction, mathematics teachers, teacher training, teaching math, Website Resource
Here’s a neat problem recently under discussion in our school district: “Four kids, each with their own lunch, go on a trip. When it’s time to eat, the four identical-looking lunches are mixed up and the kids randomly choose one. what is the probability that exactly one kid gets his own lunch?”
This problem is nice because it can be solved several ways, allowing students to see how others solve the problem. By relating the different methods of solution, students build and strengthen their own problem-solving abilities.
It’s also a nice problem because it reminds us that probability is a subject full of “slippery concepts”; just when you think you’ve solved a problem, it can elude you. Many probability problems are simple, but can be made more difficult by adding/changing just a few words in the posing of the problem. Consider how many high-level mathematicians were fooled by the Monty Hall problem, made famous by Marilyn vos Savant.
One of my KenKen posts asks the question, “How Many Possible Puzzles Are There?” This has resulted in many reader responses and a lively discussion. The question in today’s post may elicit many solutions as well - will one of them be yours?
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Tags: intriguing puzzles, logical reasoning skills, marilyn vos savant, monty hall problem, probability, Problem-Solving, visual modeling
Isosceles Triangles can make a square, as we all know, but here’s a way to do it with seven different size triangles. Measurement, the Pythagorean Theorem, and color make this a nice project for any class, and particularly for a geometry class. The video gives complete directions for the classroom. Pause it at any time to give your students time to finish each stage and to give yourself time to ask clarifying questions.
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Tags: geometry, math video, powerpoint slides, pythagorean theorem, spatial visualization, visual modeling
Here’s a nice visual way for students to see relationships involving linear inequalities using a number line. All four operations are covered, including the infamous multiplying and dividing by a negative number.
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Tags: algebra, algebra one, linear inequalities, screencast
Here’s a video which shows two visual approaches to teaching linear inequalities. It can be used for sharing with other math teachers or students who are looking for a way to “see” how inequalities work.
Here’s the link to the video on youtube.
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Tags: Bill Lombard, Brad Fulton, linear inequalities, math instruction, Teacher to Teacher Press, teacher training
This is a video introduction to the activity Nuggets and Scales from Brad & Bill’s book Simply Great Math Activities: Algebra Readiness. Teachers can use this video in the classroom as an easy way to introduce unknown quantities, set up and solve linear equations, and incorporate language in the process. This can be used to easily show students a nice transition from a visual representation to the abstract algebra.
The preceding post has a video showing teachers the pedagogical structure of the activity.
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Tags: linear equations, Nuggets and Scales, visual algebra, visual representation
Here’s a video introduction to the activity Nuggets and Scales from Brad & Bill’s book Simply Great Math Activities: Algebra Readiness. It shows the teacher the pedagogical structure of the activity. This can be used to easily show students a nice transition from a visual representation to the abstract algebra, as well as incorporating language.
This video will be followed by a video for students that can be used for instruction in the classroom.
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Tags: algebra one, algebra readiness, math video, visual algebra
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