My math teaching has gone to the birds. No, really! :D
I was invited back to Guelph yesterday to spend the day working with occasional teachers there again. In the morning, I facilitated a session on "Math for Math-phobic Teachers". Inspired by my own recent introduction to Fermi problems, I decided to haul along a bag of birdseed I had used with my Grade 8 class a few weeks ago for a TIPS4M lesson.
The 4 KG bag certainly did little to lighten my load, but I figured it would be worth it. The other activities I had packed for the teachers to work on were some math monographs to read and discuss, and a cooperative learning problem comprising a set of six clues printed on little slips of paper, accompanied by a small baggie of cubelinks and colour tiles. So I had space to spare. Thus, in went the heavy bag of birdseed, the open top held shut by a tightly wound elastic band. I jammed a few math books on top for good measure, sat on the suitcase, and zipped it up.
I was invited back to Guelph yesterday to spend the day working with occasional teachers there again. In the morning, I facilitated a session on "Math for Math-phobic Teachers". Inspired by my own recent introduction to Fermi problems, I decided to haul along a bag of birdseed I had used with my Grade 8 class a few weeks ago for a TIPS4M lesson.
The 4 KG bag certainly did little to lighten my load, but I figured it would be worth it. The other activities I had packed for the teachers to work on were some math monographs to read and discuss, and a cooperative learning problem comprising a set of six clues printed on little slips of paper, accompanied by a small baggie of cubelinks and colour tiles. So I had space to spare. Thus, in went the heavy bag of birdseed, the open top held shut by a tightly wound elastic band. I jammed a few math books on top for good measure, sat on the suitcase, and zipped it up.
When I arrived at my hotel, I unzipped the suitcase to pull out some clean clothes, and to my dismay, found birdseed everywhere -- it was in my clothes, wedged into the corners of the suitcase, jammed in between the pages of my Marian Small and in amongst the cubelinks and colour tiles! It seemed the elastic I had used to wind around the opening of the bag was not so tight after all. :(
I tried as best I could to pick out the grains that had flown out of my luggage when I'd unzipped it and become lodged in the hotel room carpet, stuffed everything back into my suitcase, and zipped it shut, figuring I would deal with it in the morning.
The next day at the workshop, I opened my bag to take out and set up the materials for my math workshop, and discovered the seed had spread. There was now birdseed in, on and under every other item in my suitcase, including jammed in the staples of some of the handouts!
Doing my best to not get too much seed on the floor, I carefully removed the morning's other materials, and tried to extract as much birdseed as I could, before setting them up for the teachers.
I tried as best I could to pick out the grains that had flown out of my luggage when I'd unzipped it and become lodged in the hotel room carpet, stuffed everything back into my suitcase, and zipped it shut, figuring I would deal with it in the morning.
The next day at the workshop, I opened my bag to take out and set up the materials for my math workshop, and discovered the seed had spread. There was now birdseed in, on and under every other item in my suitcase, including jammed in the staples of some of the handouts!
Doing my best to not get too much seed on the floor, I carefully removed the morning's other materials, and tried to extract as much birdseed as I could, before setting them up for the teachers.
The bag of birdseed remaining was placed carefully on the presenter's table at the front, and the elastic readjusted lest more seed should escape before it was needed for the intended Fermi problem later in the morning. I then took my nearly empty suitcase and dumped the seeds (and a few stray cube-links) unceremoniously into the snow out front of the building where it would hopefully be eaten by birds or will grow into crabgrass next spring. (Don't worry, bird enthusiasts, I did pick out the few plastic cubes.)
The rest of the bag was "planted", as it were, onto the impressions of the participants, and they worked eagerly to "measure" a cup of seed, and estimate number of seeds in the remaining bag.
The rest of the bag was "planted", as it were, onto the impressions of the participants, and they worked eagerly to "measure" a cup of seed, and estimate number of seeds in the remaining bag.
Telling my tale of woe to the group at the beginning of the workshop, I threatened to leave the bag behind -- no way was I risking another escape attempt by 10 million tiny seeds! And I made good on my promise: At the end of the day, I sent the open but still useful bag of birdseed home with an enthusiastic young teacher eager to try out the problem in her own math class.
The things teachers do for the good of the cause!
The things teachers do for the good of the cause!
RSS Feed