Week of Inspirational Math

Group Work Pro & Cons (Day 1)

This week, we participated in Jo Boaler's Week of Inspirational Math.  This may have been the Single. Best. Adventure. in Math learning.  EVER!  And we get to try the second version later this year!

Jo Boaler is Professor of Mathematics Education at the Stanford Graduate School of Education.  YouCubed, the site where I found Week of Inspirational Math, declares,  "Teachers will be able to enjoy energetic, joyful classrooms, and opportunities to appreciate the thinking of and to learn from every student in the class." The lessons did not disappoint this grade 6 teacher or her students.

Dot card and how different students grouped the dots to determine the number (Day 3)

The first day allowed the kids to play around with operations in the Four 4s challenge.  Using addition, subtraction, division and multiplication, brackets and fractions and four 4s, students were asked to arrive at sums from 1 to 20.  One example for 16 was 4+4+4+4 while 4/4 +4+4 results in 9.  The site boasted that, in their tests, students were excited enough to bring this task home to finish or challenge family.  Not sure if anyone in my own class tried that but some students continued during the lunch hour!  

Day 2 was visualizing using dots.  Each child was given a handout with numbers represented as dots grouped in particular ways.  Students enjoyed looking for the pictures that the numbers created and their relationship with other numbers.  A painless introduction to prime numbers, factors and multiples. 

Day 3 gave students the chance to try their hand at paper folding.  Origami meets Math!  A big lesson was to persevere even when a problem is challenging.  The kids practiced area, fractions, triangles and squares. Add a hint of drama when one partner is asked to convince the other (who plays the role of the skeptic) of their creation's accuracy.  Fun stuff!

Create a square that is half the area of the original square.

Day 4 was a study in patterns in Pascal's Triangle.  Students may have doubted the entertainment that this famous triangle could provide in the 21st century when Pascal played with it in the 1600s.  They're chucking their technology for the latest advancement seconds after its debut.  They were so delighted by their findings that we have to extend our math play with Pascal to Day 5.  Guess we can call this Day 4.5?

Day 4 sees the acceptance of a calculator as a tool rather than cheating

Perhaps the most impressive aspect of participation in Week of Inspirational Math was that every child found an entry point into each activity (low floor, high ceiling) and they were engaged and ENJOYING math.  Isn't that every teacher's wish?

~MissBrooks