Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Euler Paths and Circuits

Image provided from http://www.wikipedia.org/.

This artifact is a lesson I used with my 10th grade math partner, who I currently work with twice a week during my field experience. It was designed in order to introduce Euler paths and circuits because it was the upcoming unit, and my student had no previous knowledge of the topic, due to the fact that he had recently transferred from another school. The goal of the lesson, therefore, was to define what it means for a graph to be an Euler path or circuit and to identify the specific characteristics of the two.

Overall, I was very happy with how well the lesson went. I had accurately planned for the time allowed for the lesson, and my student was able to get through the entire worksheet. When going through the instruction part of the lesson, it seemed to be very helpful to my student that I provided definitions of all new and previously learned terms. Also, because those terms were also defined on his worksheet, he was able to reference them whenever necessary. Also, while the student was instructed to work on procedural knowledge by identifying the type of graph, he also worked on some conceptual knowledge of the topic by filling in the given table in order to see patterns and relationships between the types of graphs.

In the future, I would definitely consider using this lesson plan again because it sets a good foundation for students when they are just learning about Euler paths and circuits. Because I will eventually be teaching an entire class rather than just one student, though, I will be sure to adapt my lesson plan properly. For instance, instead of going through the worksheet together, I would probably allow students to work in pairs in order to complete it. Then, towards the end of class, I would be sure to have a whole group discussion about their findings relating to the patterns and relationships discovered.








Wednesday, February 11, 2009

A Different Side of Geometry

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spherical_geometry

As I was reading some updated blog entries today, I came across some teaching info about introducing non-Euclidean geometry. On the HippoCampus blog, there were a few good websites that do a great job of describing the difference between Euclidean geometry and any other geometry, especially spherical. Also, there is a neat demo for helping students, especially the more visual learners, think about how lines, triangles, and squares, look a little different in spherical geometry.

On an unrelated note, the Math Teaching blog I was reading had a cool link to a website where you can create your own graph paper. To me, being the nerd I am, this is exciting! Not only can you change the size of the grid, the kind of graph, and the type of lines, but you can even change the color. Anyway, I will most definitely use that website as a resource in the future.

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Blog to Follow

My theme for my “blog following” is using technology in the teaching of mathematics. My favorite blog I found is simply called, “Teaching Math.” The goal of the writer of this blog seems to be to inform other math teachers about helpful tips for teaching, as well as provide resources for creating lesson plans and math related activities. I selected this blog because it has a lot of helpful information, as well as some neat and useful online manipulatives. This could really come in handy for me as I am currently doing my field experience at Price Lab. A class set of computers is almost always available to check out for my lessons, so I would definitely be able to have students try some of these interactive websites.


The writings of this “blogger” are fairly organized in the fact that each posting covers a single topic at a time and provides multiple links to related information, whether that be an online gadget or just another blog. While the writer does not seem like someone who is only writing to vent or express his opinion about a topic or idea, there is a lot of great insight provided in each posting. Also, the best part about this blog is that the whole right side of it is filled with just about every math topic there is, so it is really easy to find what you are looking for on any give occasion.