#70Days Clicking on Resources!

Day 17/70

Devotional phrase this morning:  God blesses us as he himself is blessed!

In verse 3 of Ephesians 1, we see "blessed be ... blessed us ... spiritual blessings."  To bless means to consecrate, to give a gift, to acknowledge a favored status.  We bless God by kneeling in his presence, literally or figuratively, recognizing his worthiness as creator and redeemer. He blesses us with gifts - both temporal and spiritual.

Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

This morning I've been touring math blogs ... clicking from one thing to the next.  It started here:

The pinterest link is a group activity for developing better responses to questions.  Students each respond to a question on a sticky note.  Three or 4 students combine the best parts of each of their sticky responses to create a well-developed response!

From that link I explored Pinterest a bit more, and clicked on this pin: a video on exponents.  I chose to follow YayMath on Youtube.  I like to have options to offer my students when they need additional examples/instruction on specific topics!  That trip took me to this teacher's website for secondary math - an excellent resource!

One more pin caught my eye. It's an interactive notebook piece on parent functions.  I'm not in love with INBs but sometimes I wonder if they would be helpful to my students.  This year I want to teach students how to use Cornell notes effectively.  I can't do both the cute, cut/paste notes and Cornell notes.  BUT this foldable on parent functions is a good example of how to organize so much information!  And looking at the foldable took me to Learning with Tape, another secondary math blogger!  I added her work to my Feedly!

I know I clicked more ... but didn't stop to record those ideas.  I'm sure they are in the "history" and will hopefully find them again!

One more fun deed this morning ... I signed up for a Stanford course this morning, a MOOC, on statistics.  My knowledge of statistics won't fill a thimble; it's been way too many years since I took an educational statistics course.  But I have #MTBOS support and learning something new is a good way to keep this old brain vibrant!  Hopefully I will learn ideas and information to share with my students this fall!  Check out MedStats: Statistics in Medicine!

How to Learn Math #1

This week I jumped into a MOOC out of Stanford entitled, How to Learn Math. 

The premise for this course began out of a course that was offered to students last year that helped students overcome their anxiety about math and to develop appreciation for the study of math.  The professor, researcher, author, Jo Boaler, decided to offer the course to parents and teachers  to provide background on why students struggle in math and to help adults find ways to “powerfully impact students’ learning experiences.”

I took the course because last year I met way too many students in grade 9 totally turned off to math!

A few key facts …

•     50% of college students are in 2-year schools, only 1/10 of those students complete the required math courses
•     Stories abound of students disconnected in their math class
•     Still there is a pervasive belief that girls don’t do well in math
•     Racial stereotyping is alive and well in math classes
•     Studies show that students excel when teachers express their belief in them

Assigned reading this first week included Paul Lockhart’s: A Mathematician’s Lament.  I read just the first five pages and was totally captivated!  Lockhart says, “By concentrating on what, and leaving out why, mathematics is reduced to an empty shell.  The art is not in the “truth” but in the explanation, the argument. It is the argument itself which gives the truth its context, and determines what is really being said and meant. Mathematics is the art of explanation. If you deny students the opportunity to engage in this activity— to pose their own problems, make their own conjectures and discoveries, to be wrong, to be creatively frustrated, to have an inspiration, and to cobble together their own explanations and proofs—you deny them mathematics itself.”

The challenge from the first session is to create an activity to let students know how much you support their goals, to help them connect in math class.  How do you build connections in the first days of math class?  How do students know you care?  Why do students love to come to your class???

I have a first day questionnaire to gather information and feelings from students. Check it out here .  

On our first day, I plan to ask students to make a list of 2 - 3 things they like about math; and 2 - 3 things they don't like.  Students will crumple up that paper and we will have a short snowball fight.  Then students will pick up a random snowball as we return to our seats ... and we'll share aloud the items, one at a time.  I'll make a list on chart paper.  My goal is that we'll see that we share many of the same concerns.  

If you have feedback, please share!