May
9
Eating your cake and having it – Part 2
Filed Under Teaching | Leave a Comment
Investigating:
By choosing a suitable unit you should be able to find how big each piece is.
——
Compare what you found with the image below.
Can you solve the mystery now?
May
9
Khan x 2
Filed Under Learning, Teaching, Video | Leave a Comment
Khan interviewed by Charlie Rose last week.
On the usefulness of Khan’s videos.
Apr
27
What does “pattern” mean?
Filed Under Learning, Teaching | Leave a Comment
Whenever I use a word Jan Thomas (5 years) doesn’t understand, he will ask. Yesterday, he asked “What does ‘pattern’ mean?”.
My answer, which I don’t think was very successful, said something about not being random, having a rule, a system, pointing to the stone pattern in the pavement we were walking on.
Today, in New York Times, I found Leanne Shapton’s “Wednesday’s Patterns” I will show him today. The pattern in the image above is from ‘a towel left behind by house guests.’
Mar
8
To evaluate teachers is difficult. Can mathematics help? The formula above is part of a system of formulas to find out who should be sacked, who should get tenure, and who should be better paid.
The sad thing is that the system concludes that one of the best teachers, evaluated non-mathematically, is doing a worse job than 93% of her colleagues. With, hold on to your chairs, a margin of error so big that she may actually do a better job than 52% of them.
Read the amazing story here.
What’s the morale? That mathematical formulas are of no use or that they should be used with caution? If the latter, how should caution be exercised?