Subjects Matter Chapters 8 and 9

        My favorite part of Chapter 8 ended up being about how we can use web tools to foster conversations between ourselves and the students, and between the students themselves.  In a classroom where all the students have access to the internet at home, there are many ways I could put this to good use.  The book has mentioned the Edmodo website several times now, and I really like the idea behind it.  Instead of hastily assigning homework at the end of class, the homework is directly sent to the students.  This eliminates the problem of “not knowing there was homework” when the expectation of checking the site every night has been established.  It also gives me a great tool to help students be prepared for the next day and even give helpful reminders or convey something I forgot to mention in class.  I also like the idea of having a blog for the class.  I picture it in my head working somewhat like Ask Dr. Math, only with the option of having many different sources of responses. 

http://mathforum.org/dr.math/

The website that everyone has probably come across at some point or another after getting to the point of typing out the entire math question into the search bar.

Having a designated spot where students can ask questions from home should quell the desire to give up when encountering a problem that they just can't work out.  On our blog a student can ask about any problems they are stuck on.  Other students can go on and they might notice a few of them have the same issue.  From here they can work together and figure it out, or I now have a convenient spot to answer everyone’s question at once.  This is a lot easier for me since the alternative would be replying to several individual emails.  I also think it is beneficial for the students to see one another having trouble so they do not feel like they are the only one having a problem.  Some steps would definitely have to be put in place to avoid this becoming a crutch for students, but I think something along these lines could be a great addition to a math class.

            After reading both chapters I began to think about how I can adapt a book club to a math classroom.  I do not see myself having a true free reading book club as part of my math class since I would like any free time to be focused towards improving math literacy specifically or practicing new and interesting math skills.  One idea I came up with is a take on Dr. Brell’s “Catching the News”.  Once a week, students could bring in stories they find about math, engineering, technology, or anything that involves calculations and computations in some way to share with the rest of the class.  This could be an easy way to help students gain some points or extra credit.  Also, what most likely starts as something the students do to get some points could turn into a student discovering something they are really interested in.  Maybe they read an article about a new software that has been developed and they find it really cool and start reading about how programming works.  I think it would be awesome if I was able to create an opportunity where a student finds a new interest or even a potential career choice. 

A second idea I had would be to have a weekly math club.  Combining a few different ideas from the chapter into one activity, this could be allow for a student assessment of my teaching, a student assessment of themselves, students practicing audience accountability, and a low risk grading opportunity.  Once a week, students could gather in groups of four to talk about the current topics we are discussing.  They would be given organizers where they write down one thing that they feel they learned, one thing they have a question about, and one thing they would like to know about next.  These could be filled out as a group or individually.  If everyone has a different question I would not want to limit the group to only asking one.  In terms of me assessing the students, if every student hands in a paper that is filled out they get full credit. 

One last idea I had that would practice independent content area reading and foster student choice would be to have a long term project relating to the history of math.  Students would choose the time period they are most interested in and work in groups to create a presentation about prominent mathematicians and what types of mathematics were developed during at that time. 

Pythagoras.  This is the guy everyone thinks of when you need to find the sides of a right triangle.  The theorem may be named after him, but did you know that the Babylonians who lived 1000 years before him already knew how the sides of a right triangle were related? How about that Pythagoras was a vegetarian and he required his followers to be vegetarians as well?  Or even that the students of his school also had rules like "Do not look in a mirror beside a light"?  All of this could be genuinely interesting to math students and for some reason is never covered in high school math classes!

Before this project starts, I would give a brief overview on several different periods to help students make a clear and informed choice.  Groups would meet periodically to talk about what they have learned, practice doing math the way the people of their time period did, and decide what they want to research next.  I have a lot of responsibility here to help groups stay on task, guide them in their research, and make sure everyone is working to benefit the group.  I think it would be worth it though, and many of the students might find what they learn interesting and engaging.

            Once again, two chapters about things I never imagined even thinking about while designing my future math classroom have given me plenty of great ideas I can try.