Tuesday, November 30, 2010

All Present and Accounted For

Finally, everything from the old blog is here.  The process was actually pretty simple:

1.  Export posts from Wordpress to XML.  I had to do this in two increments because the conversion site only works for files smaller than 1MB.

2.  Convert the XML using Wordpress2Blogger.  

3.  Import the converted XML to Blogger. 

Done!

Now What?

Paul Lockhart:
In particular, you can’t teach teaching. Schools of education are a complete crock. Oh, you can take classes in early childhood development and whatnot, and you can be trained to use a blackboard “effectively” and to prepare an organized “lesson plan” (which, by the way, insures that your lesson will be planned, and therefore false), but you will never be a real teacher if you are unwilling to be a real person. Teaching means openness and honesty, an ability to share excitement, and a love of learning. Without these, all the education degrees in the world won’t help you, and with them they are completely unnecessary.

Don't be too quick to write this off as impossible given our current system.  

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Insomnia

I went to bed with this problem swimming around in my mind. I kept trying to figure out how to construct in GeoGebra. I told it to be quiet so I could sleep.  It wouldn't.

Problem:
Given two squares, deconstruct and reconstruct as one square. 

Sorry, the GeoGebra Applet could not be started. Please make sure that Java 1.4.2 (or later) is installed and active in your browser (Click here to install Java now)

Double click to open in a new window.

It's almost 1am.  I'm going to bed now.

Friday, November 26, 2010

I Love This Problem

I love simple problems with simple proofs.  And I love GeoGebra even more for making it possible for my students to use their induction to help the proof along.

Problem:

Find the shortest path from point C to point D that touches line AB.1




Sorry, the GeoGebra Applet could not be started. Please make sure that Java 1.4.2 (or later) is installed and active in your browser (Click here to install Java now)


1 This problem is one of the many reasons I'm glad I finally got around to reading this.

Monday, November 8, 2010

Video Assessment

I mentioned a while back that I thought a Flip camera may be a pretty decent assessment tool. Today, I had one group having a great discussion about distilling the process for finding a perpendicular bisector into a few steps. I grabbed the Flip and sat down with them. Forgive me if you can't read their steps very well, I'm still working out the kinks.


Perpendicular Bisector from David Cox on Vimeo.

I think I see some real potential here. Kids can record themselves and then we can go to After Effects and add some stills of their work. I don't know, maybe I'm getting ahead of myself. Feedback welcome necessary, please.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

WCYDWT: Projectiles

The camera angle messes with the perspective a bit, but I still find these images interesting. Does it mess with the perspective so much that it ruins the problem or does it just lead to another discussion on how things aren't always as they seem. I'm thinking that I'll show the video, but make digital and hard copies of the photos available to students.

Question #1


Projectile Question (YG) from David Cox on Vimeo.



Question #2


Projectile Question (PG) from David Cox on Vimeo.
















Answer #1


Projectile Answer (YG) from David Cox on Vimeo.


Answer #2


Projectile Answer (PG) from David Cox on Vimeo.

Next up:
Create something that helps kids see vertical and horizontal motion independence.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Which One's Best?

Two questions:

1.  Is the question clear?
2.  Which image asks it best?

#1

#2


#3