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New - but not new

I decided to try the beard again, especially since we have gotten cold weather this last month. I used this picture to create a composite pic that Richard Byrne recommended (look up Practical Ed Tech). I used the Hawaii beach background to create it after running the pic through remove.bg. Then put it into a Google slide over a background of your choice, and depending on the lighting, voila!

However, that’s not the reason for this post. I’m trying new things, decreasing the amount of work students do (though I’m sure they’d tell you no), and increasing critical thinking.

This seems to be (slowly) working, though some of the better students would rather have it back to traditional way of doing math.  It is given the students that don’t normally like math, or normally have a voice in their learning to express themselves better.  I’m working with sources like Jo Boaler (youcubed.com), Kyle Pierce and Jon Orr (makemathmoments.com), and Jennifer Gonzalez (cultofpedagogy.com), and any podcast that promotes a different approach other than the traditional.

That’s not to say that traditional is bad, because sometimes math does require the student to be quiet, and static to listen to lecture, but not always. I like Sara Van Der Werf’s approach in making students talk with each other about math, even if it seems noisy (as long as it’s about math)!

Convincing each student everyone can do math at any level is my continuing challenge...regardless if it’s at Martin County West or elsewhere.

Til I chalk again,

Mr. Shel

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