Category Archives: Math

The Power of the Panda

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My appreciation of and affection for stuffed animals has spilled over into my classroom … with an unexpected result.  It all started several years ago when my Algebra 1A/1B students gave me a Build-a-Bear at the end of our second year together.  The bear is wearing a scout uniform and Birkenstocks with socks and is carrying a planner, pencil, and book bag.  My students knew me rather well.  Since then the collection has grown to include two pandas and an alpaca … each of which has its own story.

Now instead of just collecting dust sitting on the sideboard, they are playing a crucial role in my students’ well-being … especially on quiz and test day.

Yes, we have comfort pandas in Mrs. Dittrich’s classroom!  One student even brought her own.  Imani is holding her stuffed wolf, Astro.  If this trend continues, it will be all out panda-monium in my classroom!

It may appear somewhat childish to clutch a stuffed animal in a stressful situation.  But there are so many demands placed on our students and they are growing up so fast, I believe that a little reversion to the simpler things is appropriate … and often necessary.

Sharing a resource: Investigating different forms of Linear Equations with HP Prime

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Here is a link to an investigation I made that uses the HP prime in a way that allows students to discover and make connections between the many forms of linear equations:  specifically, point-slope, standard, and slope-intercept forms.  I will be trying this next week with my Algebra 2 with Trig students during the long block.  I’ll report back on how it goes.

In this investigation the students use both the Function and Advanced Grapher apps on the HP Prime to discover that a line drawn by connecting two points (with their fingers, what fun!) looks exactly the same as a line drawn from an equation in point-slope form and exactly the same as a line drawn from an equation in standard form and exactly the same as a line drawn from an equation in point-slope form.  How can this be?  They use their algebra skills to realize that all of these different forms can be simplified down to the same equation.  And the pictures on the calculator confirm this!  And they will hopefully understand which pieces of information (points, slope, intercept etc) can be pulled from any given equation to produce a picture of a line.

A summary table at the end pulls this all together.  Why do I like to “teach” linear equations this way?  While I could traditionally teach the students the many forms, this investigative/discovery style is a nice way to use a long block (and to cover two lessons without them realizing it).  It also teaches them to notice patterns, to make deductions, to use their algebra skills as a way to make sense of seemingly contradictory information.  And, simply it’s more fun for me (and hopefully them too!).  I’m sharing this here because this same activity could be duplicated in Algebra 1 and potentially even PreCalculus.  That means all of you (Mathsquad) may be able to use this!

We Will Rise

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I recently watched CNN’s We Will Rise video.  (You can watch the trailer by clickinghere).  

In the video First Lady Michelle Obama, Meryl Streep, Freida
Pinto, and Isha Sesay travel to Morocco and Liberia where they meet young women
who are overcoming various obstacles to get an education and improve their
lives.  These young women are fighting
for the right to an education so they can have the opportunity to better
themselves and their communities.  The
video highlights the stories of a few young women including Raphina in Liberia
who wakes up every morning at 5am to clean the house, bathe her little
brothers, prepare food for the household and go to market all before attending
her first classes of the day.  The only
time she has to study is at night with a flashlight from 9-11pm.  The video also talks about Fouzya in Morocco
who is the first girl from her village to obtain a college degree.  She discusses how in her community there is a
lot of gender discrimination and girls are not thought of as needing an
education.  The role of girls is to be in
the home and many parents do not prioritize their daughter’s education.

Despite the obstacles these young girls face, they
prioritize their education.  They embody the
growth mindset and are well aware that they need to continue with school in
order to have the opportunity to change the trajectory of their life.  They are passionate about learning and do not
want anything to keep them back from achieving their dreams.       
While many aspects of this video inspired me what really
left an impact was toward the end of the video when one of the girls asked
Meryl Streep what advice she had for the girls. 
This is what Meryl responded with:
“I’m not sure I have advice for the girls here. I think within each
one of them, the young women that I have met, have such strength of purpose. It
all exists within each of you. It is already there. And you just have to reach
in and access it. Because in my own life, I know that losing heart is the most
dangerous thing. You can put any obstacle in front of me and I’ll jump over it.
But when I lose heart, you lose everything. And so, you take your strength from
your friends, from that one person in your life who has said you are capable…You
only need one.”

Meryl’s words reminded me how powerful our words are to our
students.  I thought about how important
it is to share with our girls that we do believe in them.  We know they are capable.  We are setting the bar high for them because
we know they can achieve it.  As
educators we need to show our students that they have a strength of purpose
within themselves and they do not have to struggle alone.  We are here to support them.

Fostering Innovation /Real-Life Problem Solving Skills with the Wendy’s Project

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Here is a link to a project I did in my Algebra 2 Trig class.  I’ve been really impacted by the Ted Talk we watched in the beginning of the year about bravery vs. perfection and I’ve been frustrated at my student’s obsession with following the rules.  This project was very open-ended and the description of what I wanted from them was left purposely vague.

Plusses:

  • The students were very into this project.  
  • This was a great way to use/teach permutations/combinations without doing traditional instruction.
  • The students had to take on much more ownership of this project and had to stretch to think about ways to deliver on the project.
  • It was much easier for me in terms of developing this project.
  • They enjoyed being resourceful in finding the toppings on Wendy’s home page and deciding that they needed to do combinations as opposed to permutations.
  • Some groups were more creative than others in developing their final product (I received some very nice videos and presentations) and some were more traditional (simple posters).  

Minuses:

  •  It was really hard for me to leave it totally open-ended.  When they pressed me on what the “product” should be, I did give them suggestions.  I wonder what they may have come up with if I hadn’t announced types of products.
  • Even though I told them not to, some students did google the answer and gave a solution which some did not fully understand and others could have been so much more inventive if they didn’t go right to the solution.  But, to foster that sense of being resourceful, I had to let them have access to the internet.  Other than dinging them based on their grade, I don’t know how to prevent this obsession with just getting the answer.
I really liked this project and I think I’ll continue to do more open-ended projects where they need to decide what and how to do it.  While we are here to teach them math, we are also here to prepare them to have successful careers.  For this, they need to know how to adapt, innovate, collaborate and problem solve.  They need to be able to do more than just follow directions.  They need to know how to problem solve on their own.  
Some submissions: