There are probably a lot of things in this world that could use a Minus 10 button.
Resources Teaching
Reflections: Students in Math Class
At the end of the term I ask students to write simple reflections on their experiences from the year: what they learned about math, about the world, about themselves. It’s one of the many ways I get students writing in math class.
It’s a great way to model reflection as part of the learning process, and it’s also a good way for me to get feedback about the student experience.
Mostly, it’s fun! I love sharing and discussing the reflections with students, and it always results in great end-of-year conversations.
Here are some of my favorites.
After learning a little more about math, I think math is created rather than discovered. This makes mathematicians and scientists the creators, not merely the seekers.
I learned a lot of things from my classmates that I wouldn’t have learned if I were to just study on my own.
I have learned that I still have very much to learn about myself.
Mathematics is magical; it can lead you to a dead end, but then it can miraculously open up an exit.
Learning how to think of things in three dimensions completely changed the way I saw math.
By seeing algebraic and geometric interpretations, I learned how to communicate math in more ways.
The process which turns a difficult problem into a relatively easy problem is the beauty of math.
One of the best parts of reflection is how much it gets you thinking about the future. Plenty of food for thought here.
For more resources, see my Writing in Math Class page.
Related Posts
Challenge NYT Sports
Math Quiz: NYT Learning Network
Through Math for America, I am part of an on-going collaboration with the New York Times Learning Network. My latest contribution, a Test Yourself quiz-question, can be found here:
https://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/13/test-yourself-math-june-13-2012/
This question is built around the recent $2 billion loss posted by the bank JPMorgan. How many yearly salaries is that loss equivalent to?
Appreciation Technology
Cool Graphs of Implicit Relations
This is a cool collection of graphs of relations using software called GrafEq:
http://www.xamuel.com/graphs-of-implicit-equations/
For example, at the right is the graph of
There are several other cool graphs displayed here.
It is worth noting that Wolfram Alpha can graph these relations, too. For example, here is the above equation:; while Wolfram Alpha captures the spirit of the graph, the image is not as detailed or attractive as the GrafEq version.
Appreciation
The World’s Only Computable License Plate?
Is this the world’s only computable license plate?
A little zooming in may be helpful.
For the record, this is approximately 5.999086179.