Wednesday, March 25, 2009

TPACK Ch 7 Mathematics

Einstein: "My mind is my laboratory."

Confession: I am afraid of math. However I LOVE the idea of fractals! My brother plays with fractals a lot, and the evidence of fractals in nature is just my cup of tea.

So, how do math teachers make decisions about tech? I liked the idea of an "as needed" basis--give the power to the teacher to know when to use the programs available.

I like the human element in math. That is what makes sense for me. I can do my taxes. I can make a garden bed. I can design a room. This basic investigation of pattern and relationships makes perfect sense to me. For me, visualisation is essential.

That is what a good math teacher porbably does: makes patterns and relationships "real" or "evident". Imaginative openness. I like that a lot.

Click here for Kim's reaction.

Click here for Lisa's reaction.

4 comments:

Amity said...

Visualizing math: I am a big fan of Fibonacci and I hope that anyone reading would google the sequence and see how it is interpreted in nature. This was the first math concept that "grabbed" me and made sense.

Lisa Gagnon said...

I appreciate you admitting that you are scared of math. As Dr. Phil says, we can't change things until we acknowledge them! I, too, love seeing math in nature- for my kids it's patterns and shapes. I think seeing it in nature is a way to relate things to the real world, which is emphasized in the chapter.

Kim's TPCK Blog said...

I too am intimidated by the word mathematics but as you stated using math concepts and skills for real world work is how I've made sense of it i.e. building a house and gardening as you mentioned. I think the mistake we make as educators is the playing with math and looking for patterns and relationships. Whenever I can do this with my students they light up instead on tune out.

Kim's TPCK Blog said...

Follow-up... I meant to say NOT playing with math is a mistake.

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