So you have a blog; TUMBLR works great for you or blogger is the best thing since a spiral notebook. So, how do you proceed writing a math blog? How do you get those coveted perfect scores on your math blog?
When the year starts, your blog is a response to something posted by the teacher. You might have to look up something specific online or watch a video. Your comments need to be something about the mathematics involved and not just, "I liked the sound of Steve Inskeep's voice," or "google had 9,832,568 different search results, so it must be important." So how do you think about the mathematics being presented here or explored? This blog is to help you ask yourself questions so you can delve more deeply and more meaningfully into the mathematics of the blog. You have thirty minutes to work on the blog -- you have time to develop something thoughtful here.
"The 5 Why's" might help you keep digging to a depth that's 5 times as deep. (You can also substitute "how" if that seems to fit more into what you are digging into.) So if you feel like writing, "It was interesting," then ask yourself, "WHY?" You might then say, "Because it applied to the real world." Then ask yourself, "HOW?" and so forth, until you've asked and answered 5 questions. Your goal is to keep digging until you get some real meat in your essay and not just "It was nice."
Another method is to ask yourself how this relates to the current or recent topic in math. How is this blog relevant? More often than not, the blog that I write for you to respond to is somehow linked to the topic in class. For example, you will be asked to write about the grade of a road and its relationship to a trig function, or for a different topic you'll be asked to watch a video about something in the real world. You could ask yourself, "Why would Ms Peach think this is relevant to what we've been studying?" Try to second guess me -- I know you try to do that all the time anyway, just take the same idea into the math realm.
As the year progresses, you'll likely be developing your own blog ideas. In January, previous students have said and asked, "Hey, Ms Peach, I found this really cool thing called Taxi-Cab Geometry, Can I do a blog on that?" or "Hey Ms M, What if you put that triangle on a sphere, what would happen?" or "My uncle is an engineer and he says he uses trig. Can I find out what he does and write about that?" I've said YES to each of those, even though they were very different from the prompt that I wrote. While I'll always be giving you some kind of prompts in case you have writer's block and need a jump start, you DO have freedom to choose your own topics. They do, however, need to have a connection to mathematics.
I hope this helps some of you. If you read this and have comments or suggestions for your classmates, please add them here on my blog on the comment page.
Wednesday, August 10, 2016
Tuesday, August 9, 2016
Err in the Direction of Optimism (aka Perseverence)
If you've been in my class before, you've already read the "Err in the Direction of Kindness" blog. And further, you've even written a blog about it.
You're free to read it again and write a NEW comment on that blog, but here's a second option.
Kindness to others is of the utmost importance. The other characteristic that will be important to you in your life is PERSISTENCE. So your second option is to watch (or read) something meaningful about persistence and write about it in your blog.
Persistence. It goes hand in hand with optimism. If you are optimistic, then you'll likely have greater persistence.
Calvin Coolidge spoke beautifully about persistence:
You're free to read it again and write a NEW comment on that blog, but here's a second option.
Kindness to others is of the utmost importance. The other characteristic that will be important to you in your life is PERSISTENCE. So your second option is to watch (or read) something meaningful about persistence and write about it in your blog.
Persistence. It goes hand in hand with optimism. If you are optimistic, then you'll likely have greater persistence.
Calvin Coolidge spoke beautifully about persistence:
“Nothing
in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is
more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded
genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated
derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan
‘press on’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.”
~Calvin Coolidge
Hear Calvin Coolidge speak this paragraph HERE.
Here's a couple Ted Talks that could be interesting for you -- choose one or find your own to write about.
Ted Talk: Dennis E. Murphree: “The Importance of Persistence
in Your Life.”
“Err on the side of Optimism; … optimism is so much more fun
to live.”
Ted Talk: Derek Clark: “Power of Determination.”
“Every Child is Worthy”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trcYKxj48HA
Olympians, people who persevered. Stories of Olympians.
http://www.upworthy.com/when-life-hit-them-hard-these-4-olympians-persevered-and-hit-back-even-harder?c=sr1&sr_source=lift_facebook
Olympians, people who persevered. Stories of Olympians.
http://www.upworthy.com/when-life-hit-them-hard-these-4-olympians-persevered-and-hit-back-even-harder?c=sr1&sr_source=lift_facebook
Monday, August 8, 2016
The 5 WHY's or HOW's: Writing an Effective Math Blog
So you have a blog; TUMBLR works great for you or blogger is the best thing since a spiral notebook. So, how do you proceed writing a math blog? How do you get those coveted perfect scores on your math blog?
When the year starts, your blog is a response to something posted by the teacher. You might have to look up something specific online or watch a video. Your comments need to be something about the mathematics involved and not just, "I liked the sound of Steve Inskeep's voice," or "google had 32,568 different search results, so it must be important." So how do you think about the mathematics being presented here or explored? This blog is to help you ask yourself questions so you can delve more deeply and more meaningfully into the mathematics of the blog. You have thirty minutes to work on the blog -- you have time to develop something thoughtful here.
"The 5 Why's" might help you keep digging to a depth that's 5 times as deep. (You can also substitute "how" if that seems to fit more into what you are digging into.) So if you feel like writing, "It was interesting," then ask yourself, "WHY?" You might then say, "Because it applied to the real world." Then ask yourself, "HOW?" and so forth, until you've asked and answered 5 questions. Your goal is to keep digging until you get some real meat in your essay and not just "It was nice."
Another method is to ask yourself how this relates to the current or recent topic in math. How is this blog relevant? More often than not, the blog that I write for you to respond to is somehow linked to the topic in class. For example, you will be asked to write about the grade of a road and its relationship to a trig function, or for a different topic you'll be asked to watch a video about something in the real world. You could ask yourself, "Why would Ms Peach think this is relevant to what we've been studying?" Try to second guess me -- I know you try to do that all the time anyway, just take the same idea into the math realm.
As the year progresses, you'll likely be developing your own blog ideas. In January, previous students have said and asked, "Hey, Ms Peach, I found this really cool thing called Taxi-Cab Geometry, Can I do a blog on that?" or "Hey Ms M, What if you put that triangle on a sphere, what would happen?" or "My uncle is an engineer and he says he uses trig. Can I find out what he does and write about that?" I've said YES to each of those, even though they were very different from the prompt that I wrote. While I'll always be giving you some kind of prompts in case you have writer's block and need a jump start, you DO have freedom to choose your own topics. They do, however, need to have a connection to mathematics.
I hope this helps some of you. If you read this and have comments or suggestions for your classmates, please add them here on my blog on the comment page.
When the year starts, your blog is a response to something posted by the teacher. You might have to look up something specific online or watch a video. Your comments need to be something about the mathematics involved and not just, "I liked the sound of Steve Inskeep's voice," or "google had 32,568 different search results, so it must be important." So how do you think about the mathematics being presented here or explored? This blog is to help you ask yourself questions so you can delve more deeply and more meaningfully into the mathematics of the blog. You have thirty minutes to work on the blog -- you have time to develop something thoughtful here.
"The 5 Why's" might help you keep digging to a depth that's 5 times as deep. (You can also substitute "how" if that seems to fit more into what you are digging into.) So if you feel like writing, "It was interesting," then ask yourself, "WHY?" You might then say, "Because it applied to the real world." Then ask yourself, "HOW?" and so forth, until you've asked and answered 5 questions. Your goal is to keep digging until you get some real meat in your essay and not just "It was nice."
Another method is to ask yourself how this relates to the current or recent topic in math. How is this blog relevant? More often than not, the blog that I write for you to respond to is somehow linked to the topic in class. For example, you will be asked to write about the grade of a road and its relationship to a trig function, or for a different topic you'll be asked to watch a video about something in the real world. You could ask yourself, "Why would Ms Peach think this is relevant to what we've been studying?" Try to second guess me -- I know you try to do that all the time anyway, just take the same idea into the math realm.
As the year progresses, you'll likely be developing your own blog ideas. In January, previous students have said and asked, "Hey, Ms Peach, I found this really cool thing called Taxi-Cab Geometry, Can I do a blog on that?" or "Hey Ms M, What if you put that triangle on a sphere, what would happen?" or "My uncle is an engineer and he says he uses trig. Can I find out what he does and write about that?" I've said YES to each of those, even though they were very different from the prompt that I wrote. While I'll always be giving you some kind of prompts in case you have writer's block and need a jump start, you DO have freedom to choose your own topics. They do, however, need to have a connection to mathematics.
I hope this helps some of you. If you read this and have comments or suggestions for your classmates, please add them here on my blog on the comment page.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)