You have to make them laugh. You must never underestimate the power of laughing in a maths classroom.
— Carol Roberts
quoted in Laughing lesson Adult learning
Or, as Donald O’Conner put it:
I think this is my biggest failing as a teacher: I am too much the straight man.
The new blog carnival is posted and full of fun:
Enjoy!
Next month, the carnival is coming back home to Let’s Play Math! — and in fact, I’ve already started collecting articles for it. If you would like to contribute, you can use this handy submission form. If you’d like to host a future edition (July or later), let me know.
If you have trouble seeing the video, it’s here on YouTube. For more information about the singers (and lyrics to this and other songs), check out the Klein Four webpage.
P.S.: You may also enjoy the Valentine’s Day Fail over at Abstruse Goose.
I admit, it doesn’t really have anything to do with math, but it looks like a fun way to spend a snowy afternoon:
According to the authors:
Jet black ink should be used, and a good quality of unglazed paper. The ink should not be too thin. The table should be protected from accident with several thicknesses of newspaper. . .
For a specially invited Gobolink party the company may dress in any grotesque fashion, remembering only that both sides of their costume shall be the same, this being a feature peculiar to Gobolink attire.
I do my best to make my students think, but they still try to become good little algorithm followers.
It’s beyond Kitten’s level and beyond my math club (what’s left of it), but for those of you who are interested, this Sunday is e Day. The only place I can remember seeing the announcement is on the blog 360:
[Do you have an e-Day post? I’d be glad add your link!]
If you’ve never heard of e before, then perhaps you are young enough (or young at heart? ;)) to enjoy celebrating his more famous cousin. Pi Day is coming next month. . .
Maria has a good introduction to e:
And Zac adds:
Pat chimes in with “something totally different”:
While Robert explains:
Over at Walking Randomly, Mike has posted a great explanation with FAQs:
You can send in articles now for either carnival:
Nerds battle hungry football players who want to eat their giant fractal Dorito creation:
For more details on this video (and photos of the fractal’s construction), check out the Blown Apart Studios page. I’m looking forward to their next project, Nerd High, a musical comedy set in an alternate reality where nerds rule the school and jocks are the outcasts.
I thought I knew math fairly well.
I thought arithmetic was boring.
I thought the reason other nations beat America in international math tests was that their students worked harder than ours.
I thought all sorts of silly things before I read Liping Ma’s Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics. Now this must-read book is coming out in a new edition, due in bookstores next week.
I can hardly wait!
In American elementary mathematics education, arithmetic is viewed as negligible, sometimes even with pity and disdain—like Cinderella in her stepmother’s house. Many people seem to believe that arithmetic is only composed of a multitude of “math facts” and a handful of algorithms. . . Who would expect that the intellectual demand for learning such a subject actually is challenging and exciting?
— Liping Ma
Arithmetic in American Mathematics Education: An Abandoned Arena?
The new Math Teachers at Play blog carnival is open at math hombre for your browsing pleasure:
The carnival features a wide variety of posts about math and teaching, along with 6 puzzle questions and a warning about the “rare but deadly Blogcarnival Catch 22.” Enjoy!
If you would like to host a future edition of Math Teachers at Play, leave a comment below or send me an email.
Denise Gaskins' Let's Play Math 