rabbiteatsmathforbreakfast

[rabbiteatsmathforbreakfast]

数学刺繍。Slope line. #math #embroidery

[rabbiteatsmathforbreakfast]

Get on Pinterest

If you are a teacher and you are not on Pinterest, get on Pinterest. If you only use one form of social media, make it Pinterest. Why? Pinterest is a way to sort and organize materials. On most any other social media, things tend to get buried rather quickly. Just looking for something someone posted yesterday on Facebook can be a bit of a chore. On Pinterest, you can put every neat little thing you find in appropriate categories. Technically, you can also put them in inappropriate categories as well. Read on for tips on how to avoid that. When you do get on Pinterest, think about how you would actually use it to find materials before you make your first board. Will you look for materials based on special needs of students in your class? Will you look for materials based on the content area? Will you look for materials based on student interests. Then make boards based on what your future self would be looking for and why. Well, that’s what I wish I thought of when I started doing my Pinterest boards. To see what not to do, visit my Pinterest page at https://www.pinterest.com/scotttmath/ Also consider adding the appropriate standards to your pin. That will make it easier for you and your colleagues to find materials. Also consider forming collaborative boards with the teachers you work with.

[rabbiteatsmathforbreakfast]

“Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, "I will try again tomorrow.” - Mary Anne Radmacher

(via the-random-quotes)

[rabbiteatsmathforbreakfast]

Epicycles

[rabbiteatsmathforbreakfast]

Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.

Mahatma Gandhi

[rabbiteatsmathforbreakfast]

Made this for the Sigma Mu Math and Science club Facebook page profile picture. What did I miss?

[rabbiteatsmathforbreakfast]

The Key Ingredients to Flipped Classrooms: Preparation and Group Activities

The idea of a flipped classroom is not entirely new. Especially in lower grades, in class activities have been a main part of education for a long time. Really, the challenge of a flipped classroom is encouraging a student to do two things, come to class prepared and work in groups. These are both very important to student success, but are also the most difficult things to convince students to do.  I think one of the reason we are seeing this resurgence of the flipped classroom is due to a need at higher levels of education to explain concepts in more detail, which necessitates longer lectures that take the entire class period. Due to limited time to cover the required material, the time to do activities in class becomes limited or non-existent.  At the college level especially, students can definitely learn as much or more from each other as they do from the teacher. Also a college environment should in theory be a place where new ideas and methods are generated. Collaboration is key in the generation of those ideas and methods. Bouncing ideas off one another can help students refine them and test them. But this can only happen when students can set aside time to work together, come prepared with the concepts already well established, and if they see the benefit of working together in groups. 

The trouble is getting students to read and more importantly, understand what they read. Technological advances with bandwidth make videos more accessible and students may be more likely to watch a video prior to class than read a textbook. Also, the video may be more likely to cover the material in a way that the student will actually understand. Instead of the media being limited to words and the occasional image, the student also receives the information verbally and through moving pictures. But I think the fact remains that a student is more likely to watch a slightly entertaining video than read a book. Finding time outside of class  to meet and work on group projects can be increasingly difficult for students as many times students have to work or have family responsibilities or the very likely occurrence that they just do not want to. Unless students already know one another, they probably won’t think to organize a group study session. A lot of students will go to class and dash home as soon as possible and not try to network with other students. That means that likely the only time these students will even see each other is in the classroom and they may take some prodding to actually work together on projects.  The video I have seen about flipped classrooms really made it clear that the students and the professor completely understood the benefits of the flipped classroom. In order for it to be successful, this has to happen. Otherwise you’re just asking your students to do the two things they probably dislike doing the most: coming to class prepared and group projects.  *Disclaimer: I am definitely not the authority on teaching. Any ideas discussed here are just that: ideas. While my theories and philosophies may seem sound, they should be taken with a grain of salt and tried with caution. 

[rabbiteatsmathforbreakfast]

I cannot tell you how often I’ve told people who were unconvinced that they could do math, that when I grew up, I was going to make a game that would make high-school algebra, if not easy, at least intuitive. Now, the statement that I would actually do this was a complete lie: I lack any sense...

[rabbiteatsmathforbreakfast]

"Why do we care about eigenvalues? Think Pokemon: ‘A wild Matrix appeared!’"

Linear Algebra TA (via mathprofessorquotes)

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"Men of genius do not excel in any profession because they labor in it, but they labor in it because they excel."

William Hazlitt (via dailykwotes)

This underscores the importance of cognitive psychology in the field of mathematics. People who feel they are good at math will put the time in to be good at math. 

[rabbiteatsmathforbreakfast]

Fluff the Pillows

Sometimes the most obvious things are not so obvious. One crucial lesson any math teacher or math tutor must learn that one cannot rely on common sense being common. What may seem obvious to you may be something someone else, regardless of their intelligence or education, may not even think of.

For example, putting pillowcases on pillows. Now, to my wife Renea, it seems obvious that one would fluff the pillows first, but I would never even think of it.

It's like algebra. Sure, if you have the equation 2(x + 5) = 4, you would obviously divide by 2 first. However, many students would assume that you would need to distribute the 2 first because that's what they learned to do with the parentheses. But really, that just adds unnecessary extra steps when it's much easier to just divide 4 by 2 first.

Renea did not realize that, whereas it should be common knowledge that one fluffs the pillows first, such a step in the algorithm eluded me. Like dividing by 2 in the algebra problem, it saves the extra hassle later of trying to fluff the pillow inside the pillow case, which is more difficult.

When teaching math or helping someone with math, it's easy to assume that they know to fluff the pillow, we don't need to go over that step. But fluffing the pillow is such a crucial step and you may need to remind them to do it. *Disclaimer: I am definitely not the authority on teaching. Any ideas discussed here are just that ideas. While my theories and philosophies may seem sound, they should be taken with a grain of salt and tried with caution. 

[rabbiteatsmathforbreakfast]

Planned Obsolesce in Education

You may be wondering why the description for my blog says, "Building temporary structures that will become obsolete."

I love the concept of scaffolding and the Zone of Proximal Development. The Zone of Proximal Development is that area between what one can do with help and what one can do on one's own. Scaffolding is a temporary structure that helps a student reach the point where they do not need it anymore. In that regard, education ought to be designed with obsolesce in mind. You want the student to be able to do the task on their own.

Think of your lesson plan as a mission in Mission: Impossible, one that will self-destruct, or a bridge built by the Army during a war that they blow up after they use it so the enemy can't use it, or maybe as scaffolding for building a skyscraper that will be taken down when you're done. Will you be able to nuke this bridge to better understanding?

In that regard, technology is best used as a way to demonstrate ideas and concepts in a way that helps students visualize them. Technology is also great for the redundant, complicated problems that would take eons to calculate on paper, but when students use it for every little problem, that is when it fails to be scaffolding and becomes a impeding crutch. *Disclaimer: I am definitely not the authority on teaching. Any ideas discussed here are just that ideas. While my theories and philosophies may seem sound, they should be taken with a grain of salt and tried with caution. 

[rabbiteatsmathforbreakfast]

Craft Stand, the game. Math meets Geography meets the Informal Market.

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"Time is that quality of nature which keeps events from happening all at once. Lately it doesn’t seem to be working."

Anonymous (via dailykwotes)

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"Most new books are forgotten within a year, especially by those who borrow them."

Evan Esar (via dailykwotes)

Protip: If you’re borrowing a textbook, and grow fond of it, buy an older edition.

[rabbiteatsmathforbreakfast]

"Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value." - Albert Einstein

(via the-random-quotes)

[rabbiteatsmathforbreakfast]

When I try to have deep conversations with my middler schoolers.