So late last night was like most nights lately.  I needed to make a post and since I did not have a particularly witty story or an educational diatribe to roll in to, I really was just trying to keep the streak alive.  Since I had just finished looking at kids’ final projects, I noticed how all of them needed help doing or even attempting the “Generalizing Problems” worksheet.  That worksheet felt worse than anything I did all year.

So I wrote out a post late last night and placed the worksheet that so many students struggled with right in there.  Did I mention how bad I felt about this worksheet? Anyways, the next day I woke up a little more comfortable with the idea of having this thing that scared me out in public, so I asked for some ideas to improve it.

After this a torrent of ideas came my way about how to get students to write proofs, how “proof” should be thought about, and many other things I could do to improve this lesson for the next time I teach it.  I also tried to quietly back out of what seemed like a long standing argument about whether rectangles or triangles are better (it’s triangles, right?).

Either way, it made a day better that otherwise wouldn’t have been, and will hopefully make my students better mathematicians! Thanks #MTBoS! I will try to incorporate some of this into what I have going for the rest of the year, or I will do it the next time I teach the course, but I appreciate it all a great deal.   If I do I will post my new and improved materials here.  Hopefully, I can give back what I have gotten to other teachers on the blogosphere.   11/30 #MTBOS30

 <p><span>claimtoken-536c3cf37dbcc</span></p>