On Fridays I plan to list five highlights from the #MTBoS and the internet at large. I could have discovered them in the last week, or the last year, but for some reason want to share them with you this Friday. I know it might be Thursday in your part of the world when I post this; what can I say — Australians know it’s important to get to the weekend as quickly as possible.
By the way, I toyed with working another f-word (no, not that one) into the title, but three words in an alliteration is bordering on f-crazy.
- Bridget Dunbar’s post, Vacos y Pollos ~ Best Day Ever, relates a powerful way to give students the experience of their emerging bilingual classmates, and to shift the expertise in the classroom.
- At NCTM I was particularly taken by the student responses Robert Kaplinsky showed when he asked the nonsensical question How Old Is the Shepherd? Tracy Zager and Julie Wright have both written thoughtful elaborations on ‘making sense of students’ sense making’ with these story problems.
- Last week I mentioned Matt Vaudrey and John Stevens’ new book, ‘The Classroom Chef’. The accompanying website has a phenomenal list of resources. Now imagine that sprinkled through revealing and funny accounts by Matt and John. If that doesn’t make you buy the book, well I don’t know what will.
- John Mason is encouraging us to be mathematical in public. (HT to @matt_skoss.)
- ‘How is a learner supposed to know what to do when they are stuck if they never see anyone stuck getting themselves unstuck?’
- ‘Sometimes it can help if students are in the presence of mathematical thinking: the teacher publicly thinking mathematically.’
- ‘One source might be learners themselves who are encouraged to notice opportunities to ask questions about things that happen in the material world.’
- Regolo Bizzi produces the most beautiful mathematically inspired artwork. His instagram account is amazing.
Wonder in Mathematics 