Webb of Thoughts

Today,  I came across an article on Makezine.com today about the world’s largest rubik’s cube mosaic that was recently built (is built the right word for art?).  Spoiler alert: the article tells you how many cubes were used. I think this could be a great lead in to a WCYDWT or a 3Acts type problem.  I hope I can develop it into one, but it would be a great start to hear your thoughts.  I’ve also posted this one 101qs.com: http://www.101qs.com/1848 [...]

Since beginning to teach math, even in my student teaching, I’ve employed the flip class.  Just for the record, I still don’t think the flipped class is the answer to education’s problems, but its better than me just lecturing and is giving me some extra time to figure out other methods to try. However, it’s still felt very traditional to me. I’ve always felt that it could be better. So far, I’ve had kids get their content at home the [...]

Since getting back into the classroom, I’ve been reminded how much students struggle with simple mental math.    I cannot even begin to account the number of times I hear “What’s 4 x 7?” or “What’s 4+19″ blurted out in math class.  When I follow up these questions with “You know this, take a second and think about it”, I sometimes am told that they just can’t and they grab their calculator and punch it in before I can get [...]

This was a message shared with me by a classmate of mine who is currently doing her internship. I know she is not the only one to encounter this, as I have myself.
“I am part way through marking a grade 10 assignment (began with measuring a pop can, ended with finding the cost of producing a certain amount of aluminum) that my class had to do that incorporated everything from the last unit they learned, and the lack of effort put into this is blowing my mind. {[..]

The “math is only computation” belief is the belief that all math is formulas and just working through numbers. In this belief, it’s safe to say you also believe calculators can solve nearly every problem. To be completely honest, I bought into this belief until approximately a year ago. I didn’t even know “other” math even existed. [...]

The “math is mostly memorizing” belief is the belief that you can be good at math by just memorizing a few things. If you simply memorize a few formulas and the step-by-step process that your teacher uses, you can get through math easily. Unfortunately, I think this is a belief that many of our students buy into, even though they may not find much success with it. [...]