Task Discussion

Keisha May 1, 2012, 2:11 p.m.

I listened to Maria’s recording and it was a lot of valuable information being talked about. Before coming into this class I never used to look at blogs or webinars. Actually the only blog I go to regularly is a celebrity gossip blog haha. And just like Carolyn Lesser I don’t have a twitter and I’m 22. So many of my friends talk about the conversations that go on in twitter and it’s really surprising. I thought twitter was all about nonsense stuff but people are having thoughtful and intelligent conversation on there. I think I’m going to create a twitter soon to meet gain more resources and meet new people. I found the twitter post about stereotype threat theory very interesting. Growing up you always hear about how girls are smarter than boys but it’s my first time hearing about a theory about girls being worse in math and that there is a theory about it. I agree that it’s the teacher’s job to make that “theory” disappear.

In elementary school I loved doing Escher patterns. We got worksheets a lot in class to color in and find the pattern. If I remember correctly in art class we made our own Escher pattern. When we were done we brought them into math class and explained it to our class. I think patterns are beneficial for kids to start learning math.
Carolyn Lesser Feb. 11, 2012, 6:18 p.m.

I just listened to the Live Meeting with Maria and Carolyn and found it very helpful. I do not have any experience commenting on blogs, webinars, or editing information on Wikipedia. I feel like I have gained a lot of useful information on how to do all of these. I actually just got finished doing a little editing on our Wikipedia page. It was confusing at first but I figured out how to put a picture on the page and how to edit the text. For my first try I think it went fairly well! I hope to go back and add more to the article soon because it took me so long to figure it out at first. I also really enjoyed hearing about how to use Twitter. Being 20 I feel like I should know how to do this but I have no experience with it. I thought it was just another Facebook but you can actually find some interesting information on it and blog back and forth to each other about it. It is an easy way to get and keep track of information. I think I will have to try Twitter out and let you guys know how it goes!
Carolyn Feb. 9, 2012, 3:34 p.m.

As those of you who listened to the meeting this week could tell, I am not very savvy when it comes to blogs. I was nervous at first to see that I was going to be the only one at the meeting but I am now thankful because I have learned so much more about blogs and twitter. I always thought that commenting on blogs was not for me but found out that an encouraging, "great idea" or what not can make all the difference, you don't need to be an expert on the topic to comment on the blog.

The gender gap issue is something I bviously found interesting. As a female I always excelled in math and struggled in English. I guess as Sandy said I am the exception to the rule.

Sandy-you disagreed with the statement that the gender gap should be ignored. I don't think it should be ignored either however I don't think we should focus on just helping girls in math. I believe all teachers should know their students-their strengths and weaknesses, and differentiated appropriately. And that is what I meant and thought when agreeing with Peter on "ignoring" the theory. Also thank you on your encouragement for my course load. I can use all the encouragement I can get, as can probably everyone else! =]
Kathy Cianciola Feb. 9, 2012, 3:17 p.m.

I just finished listening to the recording of Maria and Carolyn's conversation on Feb 7th. After hearing Maria explain how Wikipedia works it struck me that unfortunately I wasn't logged in when I made my contribution to our page.

I also wanted to comment on the topic of achievment in math between the genders. I guess it would be beneficial to investigate why girls might be achieving less, for the purpose of learning what the reasons could be, and making appropriate changes in the way we teach math. Everything I've read on this subject indicates that girls are far surpassing boys in reading and language arts, and that the gap with regard to math has actually been narrowing. Currently there is very little difference in the area of mathematics.

I would love to hear more regarding patterns and math problems. I think maybe Carolyn was talking about grids and tables, but I wasn't quite sure.

I agree that great learning can take place through posting and reading blogs, maybe because people are always interested in what other people have to say, and an ongoing dialogue is usually preferable to a text book.
Laura Haeberle Feb. 8, 2012, 7:13 p.m.

I listened to the recording of the Monday meeting as well. I really connected with the importance of blogs, which was discussed towards the beginning. Last semester, I got a job as an Honors Program Blogger at my school (Arcadia University). I'm required to blog every three to five days, which can definitely be tricky at times. It becomes hard to fit in blogging into my schedule, but the responsibility of having a job makes me really work at it. The blogs for Arcadia aren't very advertised, so I don't normally get a lot of comments. Or, the comments that my blog and the others get are spam. So, whenever I get a real person to comment on my blogs or just mention them to me in person, it means a lot.

Even with my own experience with blogging, I wasn't too big onto reading other peoples' blogs. I would check a few every now and then, but never usually comment. The one task we had that involved commenting on math blogs really made me see what a big difference I can make. Some people need that extra boost to keep blogging.

Either way, it sounded like you guys had a great conversation! Hopefully I'll be able to make the next live meeting.
SandyG Feb. 7, 2012, 9:02 p.m.

I listened to the recording of the live meeting with Professor Droujkova and Carolyn. I enjoyed the beginnig when Carolyn was learning about commenting on blogs, webinars, and Twitter. I have to admit that I am usually timid about commenting on blogs. The blogs I read seem to be a bit more polarizing, and there always seems to be some bickering going on. Perhaps that doesn't happen as frequently on math blogs! It makes me reticent to open myself up to that.

I found the article on gender stereotypes that you navigated to from Twitter very interesting! Though there are the exceptions to the rules, such as Carolyn, I do think there is the stereotype that males are better at math and science than females; likewise, I think the stereotype is that females do better with literature and writing. I've often heard that there is always some truth in stereotypes. Even if that statement is accurate, I believe steretypes can be overcome, and certainly there are exceptions to every "rule". His final comment about not worrying about the gender gap is, in deed, interesting. While I understand what he is saying, I also think it is difficult to differentiate instruction if you don't recognize possible roadblocks to learning. The gender gap, no matter the reason for it, is an issue that I would take into consideration when designing my lessons.

Patterns:

I, too, like patterns, and I think they're helpful. I think if a student is able to recognize patterns, even with completely new material that might be intimidating, they can at least find comfort in the realization that it follows a pattern that they have seen before. I also like that patterns cross curricular divides. We've talked about bringing art into the math class, but I think with teaching patterns, you can also bring literture in; thus, you can attack more than one subject at a time. Here are some great ideas for how this can be done teaching math patterns using literature: http://www.carolhurst.com/subjects/math/patterns.html

Carolyn, I don't know how you're taking so many classes! Wow. You should really be commended for being able to handle so much.
Kathy Cianciola Feb. 6, 2012, 7:05 p.m.

On Friday I attended an online presentation by Dream Realizations. It was interesting, and I would actually like to watch it again because somewhere in the middle I felt like I wasn't quite getting it. The presenters spoke about our number system being difficult and inaccessible. Their solution was that we should change the names of some numbers such as seven to "ven" and zero to "ro." They also suggested that our culture has a myopia with the number ten. Up to this point I was still getting it, but when they got into showing visuals of patterns of squares with something other than ten being the base number, I felt lost. I guess I'm actually comfortable with my own myopia. I seriously doubt that I could ever change, after years of thinking in tens.