Getting started with planning lessons in math

For those of u who wanted to volunteer for the Math Fair it is this link:

Here is the link

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/10SlTlpAWNHf07aGd1SZgHk3KcznCknMoGu6A7VqDKqo/viewform

Here are the posts that should be on your blog by Fri. Oct. 2

The following pieces of writing should be posted to your blog by noon on Friday October 2:

1) Skemp article reading reflections
2) Reflections after class discussion of Skemp article (instrumental & relational understanding)
3) Chessboard problem: solution, problem-solving approaches and tools, extensions
4) Reflections on your TPI results
5) Your own most- and least-inspiring math teachers
6) Your plans for the Oct. 23 Pro-D conferences

Upcoming blog posts for next week:

7) For Monday Oct. 5: Commentary on Mathematics for Social Justice reading (excerpt from Stocker's Math that matters).
8) For Wednesday Oct. 7: Dishes problem: non-algebraic solution and approach, thoughts on the effects of cultural context in story problems.
9) (For next class after your math/art/learning presentation): Your individual 300-word journal entry reflecting on your experience in doing the project, the potential mathematics learning involved, and the place the project might have in classroom teaching and learning.

Presentation dates for math/art/learning projects

Dishes puzzle

Mathematics for Social Justice reading

Please read these excerpts from David Stocker's Math that matters ("Beyond pizza party math") textbook. Your blog response for this reading should be posted by 9 AM on Monday Oct. 5.

Here are some questions you might want to think about as you read this:

•Is mathematics 'neutral', or is it connected with social/ environmental justice?
•What are your ideas about the author's intentions in writing this textbook?
•Can  these ideas from middle school math inspire teaching ideas for your secondary math classes?
•Are there topics in mathematics that are more or less possible to connect with social justice issues?

The UBC Orchard Garden: First workshop this Saturday Sept. 26, 10-2!

Hi all. You have probably heard me talking about the UBC Orchard Garden, a wonderful student-led project on UBC Central Campus (at 2613 West Mall, just south of Thunderbird in Totem Field). I've been the faculty advisor at the Orchard Garden for the past 6 years or so, and our team has developed great resources for teaching math, art, literature, music, science, history, home ec and just about every other subject in a school garden. Through our collaboration with students in Land and Food Systems, we have also developed lots of skills for designing and growing school gardens, and we'd like to share these with any interested teachers!

Each year, we run a series of 8 Saturday workshops for teacher candidates and others over the course of 10 months, September to June. Those who attend four or more workshops get an informal certificate of garden-based learning, which you can use as part of your e-portfolio. We also take up to 12 teacher candidates for CFE placements in the Orchard Garden.

Our first workshop is very soon -- this Saturday, Sept. 26 from 10AM-2PM at the Orchard Garden. I hope that some of you will be able to come and enjoy! This first workshop is Salsa & Salsa -- learning salsa dance and making fresh salsa from the vegetables we planted last spring in the garden. The cost is $10 to cover lunch (provided) and materials.

Please RSVP to me at <susan.gerofsky@ubc.ca>. The tentative schedule for the whole workshop series is also posted below.

cheers
Susan

TPI reflection on your blog, due Mon. Sept. 28 at 9 AM

Hi all! I hope that the Teaching Perspectives Inventory brought you some interesting insights into your own perspectives on teaching at this point in your career. It will be a good idea to try this survey again a few months from now to see whether your perspectives are reinforced, or change, or are affected by your experiences as a new teacher.

Here is the blog assignment reflecting on your personal TPI scores, due next Monday by 9 AM:

Teaching Perspectives Inventory

The Teaching Perspectives Inventory (TPI)

UBC Education professors Dan Pratt and the late John Collins spent years researching teachers' different approaches to teaching, both here in Canada and in some other countries (including China, Singapore and the US). They identified five differing perspectives on teaching that all of us share to some degree, and developed a self-test to help teachers think about which of these perspectives inform their own philosophy of teaching the most.

http://teachingperspectives.com

At this site, you can take the free self-test and get immediate results and interpretation (according to Pratt and Collins' criteria) of your own most and least dominant teaching perspectives.

Take the test, think about the results, and write a brief blog post about:

1) What the test said about your teaching perspectives, and

2) Your response and interpretation of those results. Do you agree that these are currently your perspectives on teaching? How do you want to develop your approaches to teaching based on your starting points in your personal philosophy of teaching and learning?

Sign-up from Monday Sept. 21 for math/art/learning project groups

Here is the sign-up from Monday for our math/art/learning project groups. (Pari was away last class, but once she joins a group, it looks as if everyone has chosen a project and a group.)

Note that a later start means due dates for sharing with the class will now be October 5 & 7.

A) 72 Pencils sculpture:
1) Amandeep, 2) Gladis, 3) Mandeep, 4) Nadereh

B) Binder clip polyhedral sculpture:
1) Heijin, 2) Iqra, 3) Ying-Ting, 4) Shan, 5) Jimmy

C) Math dance ('Dr. Schaeffer & Mr. Stern'):
1) Alison, 2) Ian, 3) Sissi

D) Origami polyhedra (The 5 Platonic Solids):
1) Daniel, 2) Jessica, 3) Rachel, 4) Julie, 5) Alice

E) Borromean cubes paperclip structure:
1) Jordan, 2) Simran, 3) Pacus

F) Hyperboloid structure:
1) Etienne, 2) Jacob, 3) Deeya, 4) Arshbir

Here is the rationale for the project shared on the whiteboard last class:

The Chessboard Problem

Here is the problem you were asked to do for homework today.

Homework for Monday Sept. 21

For Monday at 9 AM, please write a 1-2 paragraph personal reflection on your blog that follows up on our discussion/ debate today on instrumental and relational learning. Your reflection should consider ways that "fluency" and "meaning-making" might be integrated in math teaching and learning. Please give an example related to a particular math topic if possible.

Also, please take a look at the blog postings about Assignment #1, and think about what topic(s) you are interested in and who you might like to work with in your group. If you have requests and suggestions about choice of group or topic, feel free to email them to me -- but we will not settle on anything till the end of our next class, where we will discuss this. I may also add some other possible project topics before Monday!

Notes from today's debate about instrumental vs. relational learning

Choosing a math/art/learning project

Here is the list to choose from. We have six groups, and should have a variety of different projects represented in our class.

1) (Sculpture) George Hart's 72 Pencils sculpture

 Some resources:

<http://www.instructables.com/id/Geometric-sculpture-from-72-pencils/>
<http://makezine.com/2009/10/19/72-pencils-1-sweet-sculpture/><https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WtyMP1n5Js>
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPNCbyrying>




2) (Origami) Unit origami examples of the five Platonic Solids

Some resources:
Tomoko Fuse (2005). Unit polyhedron origami. New York: Oxford University Press.
Thomas Hull (2013). Project origami: Activities for exploring mathematics. New York: CRC Press.

3) (Needlework/ sculpture) Crafting geometrically interesting temari balls

Some resources:
Sarah-marie Belcastro & Carolyn Yackel (Eds.) (2011). Crafting by concepts. Natick, MA: AK Peters.
Belcastro & Yackel (2008). Making mathematics with needlework.  Wellesley, MA: AK Peters.














4) (Poetry/ music) Create binary and base 3 poetry modelled on Mike Naylor's Hero, Run! poem -- and clap it.

Some resources:
<https://www.facebook.com/robert.a.bosch/posts/10201105162418965>
<http://mike-naylor.blogspot.ca>
<https://www.facebook.com/robert.a.bosch/posts/10201105162418965>
Oulipo compendium

5) (Music) Make a Vi Hart- style Moebius strip punched paper music box.

Some resources:
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iMI_uOM_fY>
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3a9wWRxYSko>
<https://www.harpkit.com/mm5/pdf/Instructions/MBoxKit.pdf>
<http://www.kikkerland.com/products/make-your-own-music-box-kit/>
<http://www.brainpickings.org/2013/02/11/vi-hart-space-time-music/>
<https://www.simonsfoundation.org/multimedia/mathematical-impressions-making-music-with-a-mobius-strip/>

6) (Sculpture) Create a playing-card polyhedron

Some resources:
<http://www.georgehart.com/cards/cards.html>
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BdayHW8gwc>
<http://makezine.com/2009/12/21/playing-card-polyhedral/>







7) (Needlework) Knitting a Klein bottle

Some resources:
<http://www.toroidalsnark.net/mkkb.html>
<http://www.toroidalsnark.net/mathknit.html>
<http://www.toroidalsnark.net/mathknit.html#mkl> (and follow up on the many connected links)































8) (Balloon sculpture) Make a Sierpinski pyramid fractal with balloons

Some resources:
<http://mike-naylor.blogspot.ca/2012/07/ballooning-with-vi-hart.html>
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkBcq5ARqJM>



















9) (Binder clip sculpture) Make several polyhedral sculptures from binder clips and paper clips

Some resources:
<http://zacharyabel.com/sculpture/>
<http://www.instructables.com/id/Binder-Clip-Ball/>

10) (Dance) Learn to make longsword locks (and their coffee stir-stick equivalents) and demonstrate to class. (Note that this will take at least 5 people, perhaps 6, to execute).

<https://www.simonsfoundation.org/multimedia/mathematical-impressions-multimedia/mathematical-impressions-long-sword-dancing/>
<https://vimeo.com/66303546>
Walter Whiteley, “Rigidity and Polarity II: Weaving Lines and Tensegrity Frameworks,” Geometriae Dedicata 30, no. 3 (1989), pp. 255-279.

11) (Performance and nature) Watch Vi Hart's 3 videos on Fibonacci sequences and plant growth and replicate the artifacts and explanations in your own words as a class demonstration/ performance.

Some resources:

<https://www.khanacademy.org/math/recreational-math/vi-hart/spirals-fibonacci/v/doodling-in-math-spirals-fibonacci-and-being-a-plant-1-of-3>
<https://www.khanacademy.org/math/recreational-math/vi-hart/spirals-fibonacci/v/doodling-in-math-class-spirals-fibonacci-and-being-a-plant-2-of-3>
<https://www.khanacademy.org/math/recreational-math/vi-hart/spirals-fibonacci/v/doodling-in-math-spirals-fibonacci-and-being-a-plant-part-3-of-3

12) (Poetry) Create five different kinds of Oulipo mathematical poems.

Some resources:
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oulipo>
<http://web.archive.org/web/20060612223506/http://www.oulipocompendium.com/>
Book: The OULIPO compendium
<http://poetrywithmathematics.blogspot.ca/2010/03/queneau-and-oulipo.html>


13) Other: If none of the above works well for your group, Susan has lots of other resources and ideas (including those from the areas of dance, design, etc.) Ask Susan for help if you would like to choose something different! Note that it is NOT enough to do 'any old project' -- these math/art/learning projects should put you in touch with the leading contemporary mathematical artists and their work.

Assignment #1: Carrying out a 'math/art learning project' & sharing with class

Here is our exciting first project, making cross-curricular connection across mathematics learning  and the arts:

1) Form a group of 4 people from our class. (Note that one of the groups will have to have 5, as there are 25 in our group). We will aim to make each of our groups reflect the diversity of our class, so try to bring together different genders, ages, experiences, etc. as you form your group.

2) Each group will choose a math/art project from the list in the following blog post. Many of these projects are related to the Bridges Math and Art group and to mathematical artwork featured at Bridges conferences.

3) The group will work together to create, re-create or create a variation upon the project chosen. If the project is a sculpture, the group will make the sculpture; if it is a poem, the group will make a mathematical poem related to the original one, etc.

4) Because we are teachers, the aim of the project is not only to create a fascinating and beautiful work of mathematical art, but also to plan how we can use projects like this to help our students engage with and learn mathematics. Each person in the group should write an individual reflection on their blog (based on group discussions) on this topic.

5) Sharing with the class: Each group will pick a presentation time and will prepare a 10-minute group sharing presentation with the class to help others learn about your project. Your presentation must include:

a) Showing the mathematical artwork (visual or performing art) that you made. We will display all the art works in our classroom in Scarfe.
b) Letting others know where to find resources to carry out this project and how you overcame any difficult spots.
c) (Most important): Share ideas about what mathematics you might introduce to your students through this project. The mathematical ideas might be ones that relate closely to topics in the BC Secondary Mathematics curriculum , or they might relate to enrichment topics that help you show your students that math exists beyond the textbook. Think about which grade level this project would be most appropriate for, how you might assess students' work on the project, and when and how you would present it.

We will aim to have all six groups complete and present these math/art/learning projects by Sept. 30, when we finish Module A of our course.

Richard Skemp article: Instrumental vs. relational ways of knowing in mathematics

Here is our first article, an old but influential one:




Richard Skemp on instrumental vs. relational ways of knowing in mathematics

Please read this article and write a response on your blog by 9 AM Wednesday Sept. 16. Your response should be brief (1-2 paragraphs), but full of interesting ideas. You should NOT summarize the article in this response, but you should talk about:

• three things that made you "stop" as you read this piece, and why
• where you stand on the issue Skemp raises, and why.

Welcome to our class blog!

Looking forward to sharing great experiences with you throughout the course and as you get started as new secondary mathematics teachers!  Here is a link to our draft course outline. Let me know if you have any questions about it. We will set up & link our individual blog sites soon.

Here's to a great year!