Math Teachers Blog o Sphere

After searching through the MTBoS I came across many fun activities. Something cool that I found relates to what we did last class with being colorable.

This math teacher gave his students a page of knots. Using this we could have them explore the concept of being "3-colorable or 4-colorable" by giving a few more instructions like alternating or not letting any colors touch. Students could make their own thoughts about this.

Something else I say and liked related to Algebraic thinking.

This teacher used pictures to represent variables and had the students create a equations to help them solve for each variable. This definitely gets the students to think about algebra and how to create equations. Pictures really make this task easier on students. I think that when they see so many letters and numbers together it can be scary and overwhelming.

I think that teachers would be looking for fun, engaging activities that make SENSE to students. You don't want the concept to go over their head where they can't even grasp the concept. It needs to be on level with where your class is so they can really have fun with the activity. The activity also needs to be interactive... There have been times when I have been in a PD and I am sitting there bored out of my mind. I have gained the most from Professional Developments that are interactive and hands on.

I think our content area is so unique. When I first thought about taking this class I was confused about how knots can be a part of math and even after the first class my mindset changed. It is a fun, different way to think about math. With doing this PD for teachers it will allow us to show them how math and knots come together.

Professional Development

Although we have already done these in class my favorite activities that relate to knots and algebra is the tangle dance. It gets you moving and really makes you think about how to create a tangle and what the proper over/unders are like. I think this would be really fun and easy for high school students to do. Right now we are talking about inverse functions and I think it would be really cool to connect it somehow. I tried to be original and come up with something on my own, I think this would be the most fun!