There are so many things wrong with how we teach and do mathematics. I could probably list a dozen problems, but I want to focus a bit (at least temporarily, amiright?)
Math isn't stale or boring. At least, it doesn't have to be, all the time. You can come across something as fun as this and treat it like a trick, or use some math and get underneath it. I often choose the latter, but I've been trained to do so. My students haven't (and when I was their age, I hadn't been either).
I wasn't sure how to get around this frustrating fact. I love math because of how powerful and yet sensible it is. It has an elegance and simplicity that students don't get to see, and don't really want to see. The agonizingly frustrating question of "Where am I ever going to use this" should naturally be replaced with "Seriously?! That's how that works? Why?!" But when I am trying to impart this love to 15-year-olds who have been trained to find the right answer to a homework problems and move on, I typically falter.
Well, this guy articulated my thoughts and gave a solution in his TED talk. (TED talks are a bunch of smart people getting together and sharing ideas in a way that make you simultaneously excited, overwhelmed, and aware of your comparative inferiorities). Mr. Meyer isn't fond of textbooks in math education. He finds their problems contrived and unimaginative and their methods dated in an unnecessary way. He tries to take problems and put them on their head: He'll film himself eating jellybeans and ask how long until they are all gone. He won't state how many jellybeans there are in the first place. He won't give a rate at which he is eating the aforementioned beans of jelly. He will take so long to eat them, on screen, that his students would rather solve the problem than wait to see it end.
He doesn't care about the answer near as much as he does the process, and what's learned along the way towards that process.
This thrills and terrifies me. I love the idea of mathematics without a set solution (because in life, specifically in science, that rarely happens, right?). I like making problems at least interactive and more interesting. I love what he does and want to start trying it. I'll need things like a good computer, camcorder, projector and (ideally) a smartboard in my room to be consistently effective.
I hate the idea of needing to come up with my own complicated, engaging problems. I'm scared that my students won't learn the stuff they need to learn to pass their SAT's. I'm scared they won't learn enough math to pass their next class, which will be taught by a teacher that won't grab a bunch of videos and put them in front of the class. But I can't wait to try it a couple times, here and there.
Math isn't stale or boring. At least, it doesn't have to be, all the time. You can come across something as fun as this and treat it like a trick, or use some math and get underneath it. I often choose the latter, but I've been trained to do so. My students haven't (and when I was their age, I hadn't been either).
I wasn't sure how to get around this frustrating fact. I love math because of how powerful and yet sensible it is. It has an elegance and simplicity that students don't get to see, and don't really want to see. The agonizingly frustrating question of "Where am I ever going to use this" should naturally be replaced with "Seriously?! That's how that works? Why?!" But when I am trying to impart this love to 15-year-olds who have been trained to find the right answer to a homework problems and move on, I typically falter.
Well, this guy articulated my thoughts and gave a solution in his TED talk. (TED talks are a bunch of smart people getting together and sharing ideas in a way that make you simultaneously excited, overwhelmed, and aware of your comparative inferiorities). Mr. Meyer isn't fond of textbooks in math education. He finds their problems contrived and unimaginative and their methods dated in an unnecessary way. He tries to take problems and put them on their head: He'll film himself eating jellybeans and ask how long until they are all gone. He won't state how many jellybeans there are in the first place. He won't give a rate at which he is eating the aforementioned beans of jelly. He will take so long to eat them, on screen, that his students would rather solve the problem than wait to see it end.
He doesn't care about the answer near as much as he does the process, and what's learned along the way towards that process.
This thrills and terrifies me. I love the idea of mathematics without a set solution (because in life, specifically in science, that rarely happens, right?). I like making problems at least interactive and more interesting. I love what he does and want to start trying it. I'll need things like a good computer, camcorder, projector and (ideally) a smartboard in my room to be consistently effective.
I hate the idea of needing to come up with my own complicated, engaging problems. I'm scared that my students won't learn the stuff they need to learn to pass their SAT's. I'm scared they won't learn enough math to pass their next class, which will be taught by a teacher that won't grab a bunch of videos and put them in front of the class. But I can't wait to try it a couple times, here and there.
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