Sues Curriculum and Instruction

Reflection, Math/Art project - "Babylonacci" Reflect my experience in doing the project, the potential mathematics learning involved and the place that the project might have in classroom teaching and learning Our project, Babylonacci, was a lot of fun to create and to share with the class.  To be honest, I had forgotten a lot about the Fibonacci sequence and the golden ratio.   I was initially drawn to the art piece because of the Babylonian numbers; we had recently worked with these numbers in math history class.  Our group agreed that we could address this art piece well. To prepare, we each did a bit of research on Fibonacci Sequence and how it was relevant in this art and in general.  My eyes were opened by the many disciplines in which Fibonacci is present.  From art to design, architecture to music, nature and of course, mathematics. On the whole, I think our group worked well together.  We each brought a different perspective to the pr...

Brothers and Sisters have I none, But that man's father is my father's son. Who is speaking?  'That man' is speaking Who is 'that man'?  That man is the speaker What makes this riddle interesting?  When I considered that 'that man's' father is my father's son, I initially thought 'that man'  was a brother.  However, we know that the speaker has no brothers (or sisters) so that makes it interesting.   The only explanation that I could think of for the riddle is that 'that man' is the speaker's reflection or something similar.  Initially I did think that the riddle referred to two individuals.  However, I could think of no other solution than the one of the speaker reflecting on himself.

The locker problem on the surface seems relatively straight forward.  My approach to something like this is to visualize it to make it concrete in my mind.  So I took your suggestion to write it out.  In addition, I reduced the size of the problem so it was easier for me to visualize and see any patterns. With that in mind, I'll use '_' for closed and '|' as open. Locker # 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 S1 closed - - - - - - - - - - S2 open - | - | - | - | - | S3 closed - | - | - - - | - | S4 open - | - | - - - | - | S5 closed - | - | - - - | - - S6 open - | - | - - - | - - S7 closed - | - | - - - | - - S8 open - | - | - - - | - - S9 closed - | - | - - - | - - S10 open - | - | - - - | - | However, I can't tell much from this either.  Perhaps I haven't gone far enough in my diagram.  Perhaps if I had stopped at 9 lockers, ...

From an admirer Dear Mrs. Chow, I'm writing to let you know that I thought of you the other day when I was in the art gallery.  I saw a painting that contained  Fibonacci's spiral and I thought of your math class when we studied the spiral and the application of mathematics across many disciplines (art, music, nature, etc).  You were able to  take a topic that could be potentially confusing and irrelevant and make it tangible and relevant to me today.  I appreciate the energy you spent to make sure that we understood the relevance of each topic. Thanks for all of your thoughtful lessons and teaching us the relevance of mathematics. Sincerely, John A. Appreciative ----------------------------------------------------- From a detractor Dear Mrs. Chow, Do you remember me?  10 years ago, you were my math teacher for grade 10 math.  I was thinking of you as I was in the grocery store checkout and was remembering your discussion of geometry. ...

Positive Neutral Math teacher I have many positive experiences with math.  Through elementary and secondary years, math was always relatively easy for me. I had some excellent math teachers.  One woman in particular, was amazing (I believe grade 11 pre-calculus) and she was really an inspiration for me going forward.  In any case, as a result of my 'natural' competence in math, I decided to pursue a BS in Math in University.  I told my mother that I would be an engineer but I really liked the pure math.   I have to confess that while a math degree seemed like a good idea in university years 1 and 2, by the time I was in year 3, the math grew far more difficult and I became less confident in my ability.  In my senior year, I was responsible for preparing a thesis - as a requirement for graduation.  I picked the thesis topic partly because I liked the teaching style and manner of the professor who was the expert in this field.  My thesis on the ...

Mathematical Representation What convinces (or doesn't convince) you in the author's argument?   I fully agree with the author in that representation is fundamental to the development of a student's mathematical understanding. What convinced me was the simple fact that pictures help kids (and adults)understand. I have to confess, I was unfamiliar with the terminology before starting the article and had a very difficult time getting through it. Had I googled the terminology before reading, I would have seen all of the pictures and examples and better understood the context and direction of the material. On further exploration, I realized that the author is really explaining what is, to my mind, the easiest and clearest way to work. What kinds of mathematical representations are included and excluded in the artcle?   The article includes references to representations such as: numerals, algebraic equations, graphs, tables, diagrams and charts, and an example of simpli...

Relational Understanding and Instrumental Understanding:  Thoughts on Skemp's discussion of Relational and Instrumental mathematics The first thought was that while I may have had a couple of teachers who taught in a relational fashion, the majority of my learning was using instrumental teaching. In fact toward the end of the article, he discusses how many teachers do use instrumental techniques because they are faster, easier with better short term ROI (return on investment). However in the long run, I have a terrible sense of direction and can only get around with use of a map. Hmmm, perhaps I missed out. The second thought was an appreciation of how beautiful the relational method is, how much can be shared and learned and then retained. lt reminded me of child rearing. I introduced my daughter to ideas or things and explained some of the history and encouraged them to make connections between what they were seeing and my stories. The girls are growing up with so ...