The Flying University Project

The Agony and Reward of Automaticity

By Clarence Thompson

The process of our teaching has uncovered a few challenging tasks. Such tasks usually involve enduring some unavoidable pain and suffering on the way to a valuable goal. When people know why they need to go through the suffering, it becomes more bearable, and this knowledge m…

Designing Communities of Learning - Our Welcome Packet

By Clarence Thompson
As part of our toolkit for motivating our students to math excellence, we created a Welcome Packet.  That packet contains the following elements: a couple of pictures of kids who look like the kids we are trying to reach, a description of the Flying University Project, a Famil…

Expanding Into East Portland

This week, some of us will be meeting with key members of a few of the disadvantaged communities of East Portland.  We will be starting the preliminary activities of organizing a new Flying University Project group on the East side.  As one of the organizers, I have been thinking a lot and (as usu…

Designing Communities Of Learning - Crossing the Catwalk

By Clarence Thompson

Many years ago, while I was in university pursuing my undergraduate engineering degree, I supported myself by means of a variety of jobs.  In one job, I worked as a framing carpenter for a remodeling company.   There is a house I remember particularly, as we were adding rooms …