Tom Johnson's Pencil Integration

     I enjoy reading Tom Johnson's post about using our brains rather than depending on pencils, papers, and other technology. He gives his students the freedom to use their creativity to teach themselves and show their perspectives to others. My favorite of these posts were about the math class metaphors. I have a feeling that these students were much happier and understood the meaning of "x" much quicker than students in other classes that were simply taught that the alphabet has now become a part of math and that it was a variable. Students that are allowed to express their opinions will open up and become more involved in discussions and take more away from the class.