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