A blog by a veteran math teacher who tries to learn new things. Most posts are about teaching math and problem-solving, but sometimes, it's just about life.
I came across this on Pinterest yesterday and decided to give it a try for the 30 days after we get back from winter break. Maybe you will too? It's also a free download here.
Then I saw it on twitter, here...
I am going to give this a try. If all goes well, maybe we in the MTBoS can come up with another 30? Or maybe we can start it all over again.
I really don't know many of them personally. I mean, I feel like I know them, but they don't really know me. I read their very relatable posts and sometimes even read through their twitter banter at night before going to bed. I may make a small comment here or there, but mostly I just favorite their tweets and save their blogs and post them on my High School Math Lesson Plans Pinterest board for later use or to share.
Who am I speaking of? Those in the MTBoS = Math Twitter Blogosphere. You can google anything you're looking for in the MTBoS here, or you can subscribe to Bloglovin.com and get them delivered right to your proverbial door, or in my case, iPhone (you can save them here in categories as well.)
You know that song, It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year? I am such a dork. I actually hum that to myself in the morning, replacing the word year with "day," as I sip my coffee and read through blogs before work. And yesterday I threw my lesson out the window in my Honors Problem Solving Seminar when I read the blog posted on BetterQs, written by Dan Anderson. He wrote about this Ted Talk below. WATCH IT!! It's fantastic, and not only did my kids love it (it's counterintuitive--the best kind of learning occurs, in my opinion, when it is--be sure to stop the video when it says so you don't get the answer), but so did the students and colleagues that came in during a routine tour of the school. In fact, my colleagues were still working on it at lunch and did get it (with much joy) when I gave them Dan's hint: What have you tried that hasn't worked? Great question. I will be using that question and the bridge puzzle, I am sure, for years to come in my teaching career. I will give it to my other classes when they need a brain break (though truly, it is no break for the brain!!)
I took what I saw on the MTBoS and added some personal flair, I guess you could say, because for homework, I gave them the assignment below:
And then they have to fill out this form for their e-journal:
I am looking forward to their responses (and perhaps hearing from their parents or teachers.)
The week before, the same thing happened. I was looking through tweets this time. My former colleague and newly discovered twitter buddy and problem solver extraordinaire, mrdardy, suggested that perhaps I should tweet up with Wendy Menard, who also has a problem solving class. (Love that he felt like a matchmaker! It's the beauty of the MTBoS.) We shared ideas, and I saw a retweet:
And of course I had to watch this awesome video about a math major who explains why math is scary, but why you shouldn't be scared of math...it is fantastic and I showed it to one class so far, and my students agreed with all of it...especially the students who love math that get the crazy looks from people when they tell them math is their favorite subject! (PS: to Wendy...I think I suggested for you to watch this with your class, when now I realize I got this from you!)
And then there's Sarah at http://mathequalslove.blogspot.com/. You can get a new idea or 12 every time you read her blog. But I saw her tweet the other day, and I can't wait to do it in my class!
I could go on and on. That's why the article that Glenn Waddell entitled NYT, YOU BLEW IT really resonated with me. Why pay teachers for their ideas when you can give and get for free through the MTBoS? My teaching has completely changed in the last year that I have discovered the rich, limitless resources out there, and I know it's helped a few of my colleagues, too. I signed up for Teachers Paying Teachers initially a few years ago, and followed some blogs from there, too. But I felt like I was reading a sales pitch every time, and I quickly removed them from my list of blogs. It's not that I don't like what they are doing, it's just not for me. Good for them for making money. But I'm just fine sharing and gaining these incredible ideas for free.
Each and every day in the MTBoS, I get a new idea. Which means each and every day, my students get to try out something new that hooks them in that I never would have done to begin with. And no, I'm not losing class time. I'm gaining student interest in math. And that is something that can never be lost.
School's out for summer, and I couldn't sleep last night. Call me crazy. I was up tossing and turning all night...thinking about what you ask?? About the new Honors Problem Solving Seminar elective that I will be teaching next year.
My brain was churning throughout the night about what I should and should not do or add. We are going to a very interesting block schedule next year, and I have to consider how I want to teach the course based on this. The course is a semester course, and students can sign up for both semesters...this means I can't repeat what I did first semester...so it really is a full course I have to plan for. What makes this difficult is that there will be students enrolled second semester that did not take it first semester...so I have a LOT of planning to do...perhaps this is why I kept dreaming/thinking about it all night!
Here are some things I'd like to incorporate into the course. The model we will have for our modified block schedule next year is: 50 minute class Monday, and two 90 minute blocks during the week.
Hand out a Problem Set a week before actually going over them. This will consist of about 8 questions a week similar to this one that I used when I taught a problem solving class in Hong Kong one summer. This will be gone over the following week (see below) Exeter Style.
Monday (50 minutes) will be competitions day. I will give students 30 minute competitions like Florida Math League competitions, Hustles, speed math, mental math, and Relays, and then will take the remaining 20 minutes to have students go to the board to explain anything that some students did not understand.
Block 1: Students will go over the first problem set. At the beginning of class, students will go to the board (I have whiteboard walls) and will put up solutions to their favorite problem. They will then each explain the problems to the rest of the class and others can add the way that they did the problem. When finished, the next problem set will be handed out.
Block 2: Part 2: Teach a lesson that is not part of any curriculum that we teach. I am thinking of breaking this up by quarters. I may poll the kids to help with quarters 3 and 4.
Quarter 2: Probability--this is the one thing we do not have enough time for in our curriculum and I know we can spend a ton of time on this.
Have students blog once per week. There will not be tests or quizzes in this class, so this will be a major part of their grade...I will take the best one and post it each week as a guest blog in my blog...this came to me in my sleep...I can't wait!
I think the best part of it is that I either have taught all of the students in the course or know them from Mu Alpha Theta, my math club. I am really looking forward to this class!
Follow me on Pinterest to see some of the pins for High School math lessons that I will try to incorporate into this class.
Play/Eat
I am going to try to cook more this summer. Here is something I had when we went to a tapas restaurant in Missouri last week...Baked Goat Cheese in tomato sauce...I found this recipe and recreated it. To make it even easier, I would just use your favorite tomato sauce rather than making your own. It was definitely well liked in the family!
Any ideas for a problem solving class? Please post below :)
MATH~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1. I came across the brilliant.orgsite when I discovered 5 Gems from Resourceaholic. First of all, every time I encounter one of 5 Gems from Resourceaholic, I find at least one excellent resource--and usually five! Brilliant.org claims to "Build your problem solving skills. Raise your performance in math and science with thousands of free problems, explanations, and examples."
What I like about this website is that it gives you a problem of the day both in email and on Facebook. Some of the problems are tried and true problems that are famous and not necessarily part of any curriculum. Others are spot on for the topic you are teaching, and there are quizzes made that students can take. They are not ordinary quizzes that you can find at a textbook website, where a student regurgitates what was just taught. Rather, they are thought-provoking problems that require higher level thinking and are more out-of-the box...a teacher's dream! Who makes this stuff up?? I want to meet them. This is great for honors classes, especially as a warm up or a pre-test. But it is also good for non-honors classes to solve as a group by throwing out ideas and coming up with an answer. It really gets students to think, and is great for when there is five minutes of class left and rather than have students pack up and wait for the bell, they can solve problems that are interesting. This problem had my students arguing for a long time.
And judging from the comments, there are still arguments ensuing. I need to spend more time here and earn points! I love the "gaming" idea of earning points on this site. I can give my students a link to a quiz that they can take at their own pace, and there are so many mini-topics to choose from. This is truly one of the best sites that I have come across lately.
I loved receiving this email from my student a few days later, stating in the subject line: This Brilliant Problem Uses the Square Root Property the Class Just Learned! So cool.
2. I have posted before here that I am the advisor of a math club, Mu Alpha Theta. The old tests that are posted on the FAMAT website are excellent, and again, many questions are different than the ordinary problems you see in a test bank. My club students work on these problems once a week, but I also pick some and put them on tests or review sheets to give to all my students so that they can process what they learned in a new way.
3. The North Carolina School for Science and Math (NCSSM) has an awesome test bankthat again has good problems that are out of the ordinary. I always had a difficult time finding test questions that were not exactly like the book so students had to think, and I referred to this site for many years.
4. I have no idea how I came across Joe Champion's list of famous problems to solve, but I love the puzzles he lists here. One I try to give each year is the the problem of the three prisoners' hats, and I like to have the kids act it out. This works in all levels of courses, and is actually more fun with non-honors students, as the light in their eyes is SO exciting when they arrive at the answer together!
The other one I enjoy giving is the problem of the jugs of water, where students need to make exactly 5 gallons from 3- and 4-gallon jugs. After we solve this problem, I like to show this video fromDie Hard 3where Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson solve this problem and save the world. For more puzzles like this, such as the locker problem and Einstein's logic problem, see my post here.
5. Sam Shah's virtual filing cabinet has a plethora of problems ranging from "problems that don't fit" to "first day of school ideas" to "multivariable calculus." He has spent a good amount of time organizing all the problems that I love plus one's I've never seen. When do people find the time to do this awesome stuff for us?!?
This list could go on and on...if you have a link to a great problem solving site, please post below or send to me directly.
My favorite new book is The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion. It is a book about a genetics professor, Don Tillman, who is socially inept and possibly has Aspergers, though he does not know it...think Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory..and is on a quest to find the perfect wife--although no one seems to match up exactly with his insane questionnaire. Enter Rosie, who is the exact opposite of the perfect wife for Don. It is very funny, witty, and I could not put it down. In fact, I went to the library today to get the sequel, The Rosie Effect, which is out in hardcover. I believe a movie is in the works.
OK, I know it's past New Year's, but I wanted to show how I use http://www.pinterest.com/to get most of my baking ideas for the holidays...and in general!
