student in the angry birds era.
oh the things that could be explained using angry birds. oh how i love this. (now to talk the rest of the faculty into acceptance)…
a novel idea. (and yet not new at all).
how did you learn? how did you grasp the concepts that your students struggle to understand and retain today?
my guess. through play. through actually exploring your world. through seeing how materials worked together to create something new.
and yet in the classroom of today we have essentially taken this aspect of learning away from our students. we have told them they must ‘learn’ through reading (but not truly seeing).
we wonder why our students are failing… but maybe we should wonder why we have abandoned a practice that was working.
personally. i believe that my students (at a technical college) need this type of learning. they are caught in an endless cycle of developmental education where they (try to) scrape through in order to finish their programs. they need something different. something that will work. something other than a lecture about how 2+2=4. they need to see this. to understand that they use inequalities everyday (or at least every time they pay for something).
we need to be active. they need to be active. to see the reality of how math is occurring in every facet of their lives. it is time for change.
worse(worse).
“It starts in first grade,” said Perin from Columbia. “Students aren’t learning strong reading and writing skills and math and the problems get worse and worse. As kids get older it just gets harder and harder to do well in school.”
college. meet kindergarten.
sometimes i feel like i am teaching kindergartners. when in fact i am teaching college students (most of whom are adults).
oh the joys of developmental math.
math. development.
i may be a bit behind the time on reading this article. but what a delight.
math is not something you are born with the ability to do. it is something that requires effort. requires belief in yourself.
requires a transformation of heart.
