Teaching Resources

Let not many of you become teachers…

joshwilkerson2 Comments

Sorry for the (extreme) delay in posting anything here. I haven’t given this blog much thought this semester since I have entered the “real” world of the teacher. But I have spent all this time thinking about how my experience of teaching could lead to some really excellent and in depth posts. So here it goes. Here is my deep insight into professional education:

Teaching is hard. Period.

While I have enjoyed building relationships with students and getting a chance to attempt a subtle integration of theology and mathematics, the last few months have really left me more frustrated than satisfied and with more questions than answers.

So I thought I would use this space to throw out some questions. They aren’t easy questions so I don’t expect them to have easy answers. But if there are any experienced educators out there, I would love to hear your thoughts on the following:

1. How do you get kids excited about a subject that they generally dislike and you genuinely adore when the school mandated curriculum bores you to the point that your own interest in the subject is strained?

2. How do you instill an attitude in students that desires success when the prevailing atmosphere (school wide) is one of deep apathy toward education? (To give you an idea of where I’m coming from: Whenever I pass out an exam without fail the first question I get, before the the students have even looked at the test, is ‘When can we do test corrections?’)

3. While I see my job as a ministry (or at least that’s what I have to remind myself on those difficult days), I still wonder how do you balance the time and effort you put into teaching with the time and effort that God requires of you in your marriage, in other relationships, and in local church involvement?

Mathematics through the Eyes of Faith

joshwilkersonLeave a comment

The statement below was emailed recently to members of the Association of Christians in the Mathematical Sciences. I thought the request would be worth reproducing here.

I wanted to let you know that the writing group that is working under the direction of Jim Bradley and Russ Howell are meeting this week at Calvin College.  Each writer has finished a first draft of their assigned chapter of the proposed book to be titled “Mathematics through the Eyes of Faith.”  The group will be discussing and evaluating this material with the goal of giving a completed text to the publisher by January 2011, so the books can be available for our use in classes in the fall of 2011.

I would encourage you to pray for wisdom and insight for the members of this task force while intense work is being done this week on the project which will benefit all of us and our students.

Blogarithms

joshwilkersonLeave a comment

Now that I’m heading back into the classroom (to teach this time, whoop!), I’ve spent the summer browsing the internet for great ways to capture student’s interest in mathematics. What I’ve found is that there are some wonderful resources out there by people who are crazy about math and want nothing more than to pass their crazy along to their students. I’m always looking for new ideas because to me, teaching doesn’t mean you’ve stopped learning, it just means you’ve started learning in a deeper and more meaningful way. Here are some of the resources (read: math blogs) that I’ve come across with “About” info from the authors:

dy/dan

I’m Dan Meyer. I taught high school math between 2004 and 2010 and I am currently studying at Stanford University on a doctoral fellowship. My hobbies include graphic design, filmmaking, motion graphics, and infographics, most of which have found their way into my practice in some way or another. My specific interests include curriculum design (answering the question, “how we design the ideal learning experience for students?”) and teacher education (answering the questions, “how do teachers learn?” and “how do we retain more teachers?” and “how do we teach teachers to teach?”). I live in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Adventures in Teaching

I’m a recently tenured college professor teaching mathematics at a high school during my sabbatical leave. I’m blogging about my experiences mainly to record my successes, frustrations, thoughts and feelings, but I also welcome your comments and questions.

The Number Warrior

I have degrees in Mathematics and Fine Arts Studies, and I have taught for five years in the Tucson Unified School district, four of them at Pueblo Magnet High School. I am currently taking a leave of absence to teach for a year at the University of Arizona. I will be working with elementary and middle school teachers teaching them how to teach mathematics, and developing an online curriculum to do the same.

Research in Practice

I love mathematics, teaching it and learning it. I believe learning math can give us faith in our own minds and imaginations like nothing else can. This blog is about research and writing on math education. I’m doing it to stay current and to connect it with real practice.

Travels in a Mathematical World

I work as University Liaison Officer for the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications and as Technology Enhanced Learning Officer in the School of Mathematical Sciences at the University of Nottingham. I keep another blog Adventures in Technology Enhanced Learning.

Division by Zero

I am an Associate Professor of Mathematics and chair of the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science at in Carlisle, PA.Dickinson College. I earned my PhD in mathematics from Northwestern University and my BA in mathematics from Hamilton College. I am interested in dynamical systems, topology, and the interplay between the two. In particular, I am fascinated with the Conley index, notions of recurrence, expansiveness, homology and dynamical systems, dynamics on surfaces, symbolic dynamics, knot theory, graph theory, and mathematical billiards. I enjoy the history of mathematics, especially Euler’s polyhedron formula and the birth of topology. I like recreational mathematics and puzzles. I am fascinated with technology and the ways it can be used in the classroom. I’ve written a book, Euler’s Gem: The Polyhedron Formula and the Birth of Topology, which is now out in stores.

Continuous Everywhere but Differentiable Nowhere

I am a high school math teacher in Brooklyn, New York. I enjoy getting students excited about math by being math’s loudest and most passionate cheerleader.

Mathematics Education Research Blog

Reidar Mosvold is an associate professor in mathematics education with the Department of Early Childhood Education at the University of Stavanger.

The Math Less Traveled

So who is this crazy guy who likes to write about math? My name is Brent Yorgey. I live with my beautiful wife Joyia in Philadelphia, where I am a PhD student in the programming languages group at the University of Pennsylvania. In the past I have taught math and computer science at my alma mater, Woodrow Wilson SHS (a DC public school), and worked as a Java software developer. I got my undergraduate degree (in computer science) at Williams College in northwestern Massachusetts.