I don’t love math nearly as much as I pretend I do when I’m teaching it or blogging about it or trying to enthuse my kids.
I just believe — ever since an eye-opening university-level Mathematics in Perspective course — that math is taught VERY badly, bumbled and fumbled and as a result we have this societal fear of what is, essentially, a great big GAME.
See related post — Quotations XXV: Math is a Game
You may have seen this video making the edu-blog rounds:
Welcome to the Math Teachers At Play blog carnival — which is not just for math teachers.
Do you enjoy math? I hope so! If not, browsing these links just may change your mind. Most of these posts were submitted by the bloggers themselves; others are drawn from my overflowing Google Reader. From preschool to high school, there are plenty of interesting things to learn.
Let the mathematical fun begin…
If you’ve been thinking of starting a math club, here’s a good model:
People have this notion that math is about getting a right answer, and the testing really emphasizes that notion. And that’s such a bad way to approach math because it makes it scary.
When you look at little kids, they pose their own questions. They say, “Ooooh, what’s bigger than a million?” And they think about things their own way. At school, the teacher poses the questions, and the students answer their questions. Schooling is not a natural environment for learning.
— Sue VanHattum, Math Mama Writes
Richmond Math Salon: A Sweet Sampling
Continue reading Math Clubs, Math Circles, and the Richmond Math Salon
[Photo by T. Ruette.]
The Best of Blog project has become the monster that ate my life, but I am determined to finish the thing. [It’s done! :D] Meanwhile, I’m enjoying the chance to explore long-forgotten blog posts. If you’d like a laugh, try some of these…
I especially like the “4 layers of a story problem” concept, which helped me understand how Dan converts textbook problems into What Can You Do With This? challenges.
I finally get it — you don’t have to worry about memorizing a bunch of formulas if you just understand where they come from. You can always figure them out again.
— unidentified student in Doug’s class
from the comments on Kate’s post Formulas? What Formulas?
Teaching any subject has a funny way of educating the teacher at least as much as the student.
— Chris Birk
How I Became a Better Writer Thanks to Distracted, Hungover College Kids
We all know it already, but I like the way he said it, and the blog post is worth reading. I wish this guy was teaching my college kids. Heck, my college kids wish he was teaching them — or at least, they wish that their teachers valued tight writing and would “coat undergraduate papers in ink.”
[Photo by internets_dairy.]
Welcome to the Math Teachers At Play blog carnival — which is not just for math teachers! If you like to learn new things and play around with ideas, you are sure to find something of interest. Let’s start the mathematical fun with an arithmetic card game in honor of our 24th edition and a few number puzzles:
Denise Gaskins' Let's Play Math 