Hoopla and Relegation

EDUC 504 has been an interesting class thus far what with the multitude of things we’ve had to signup of (a blog, a website, aviary, am I missing any?), but it has been a useful class for me as one of the things I am striving to learn in the class is not the way to incorporate technology into my classroom per se rather I have been looking for different forms of representation that I can implement in my classrooms (sadly some of the technology such as podcast I don’t think will be, or can be effectively, implemented in my classes).  As a result the discussion about how Angry Birds to teach students about parametric equation was intriguing and immensely helpful as it was a clear illustration of the potential math offers for fun and creative forms of representation outside of “chalk-and-talk”.  I don’t know if I will use such an activity, but I would certainly like to use something similar in my classrooms as it got students who were normally distant in class to participate and take part in the learning experience.  Additionally, using Angry Birds made math fun and I hope that I am to instill in my students that math can yes be a fun and enjoyable experience, something that is lots on the vast majority of students. 

However, whilst the discussion was enlightening it left me with a somewhat disheartened feeling much as the previous class’s lesson plan activity did.  One of the takeaways I got from the class was about the amount of time and effort that goes into making such an engaging activity happen in the classroom.  The speaker spoke of how when he was coaching he often left with very little time to prepare for classes and as a result often found himself lecturing to students rather than engaging them, this concerns me as I hope to be active in my school community, but I don’t want my classes to suffer so severely that I strictly lecture to students.  Also disconcerting was the amount of time the Angry Birds activity took.  If I recall correctly the activity took at least three days, but if he had the ability to do it again it would have been a weeklong.  While this is great for students to fully engage with the activity it came at a price and in that case the price was any coverage of polar coordinates.  It is unfortunate that for such an amazing activity to take place a notable unit in the course has to be dropped entirely.  Fortunately for his students he made a reasoned decision to drop a unit that would not be necessary to students not advancing and math and one that would be reviewed, or in the case of his students learned for the first time, in future classes for those who would go further into math.  Dropping such material is not something that I am looking forward to, but I suppose sacrifice will be necessary to some extent if I wish to give such an experience to my future students.

Smorgasbord Fun Fact: The University of Michigan is the only school in the world with a charter of their Alumni Club established on the Moon!

Clearly Colbert has never been to Ohio:

“Twenty-two astronauts were born in Ohio. What is it about your state that makes people want to flee the Earth?"
- Stephen Colbert to Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones,"The Colbert Report," November 3, 2005”