Saturday, October 19, 2013

Exploring Twitter

So this week's Mission (number 2 for those keeping track at home) over at Explore the MathTwitterBlogosphere was to use my Twitter account, @LauraVHawkins, for math good. And now, I reflect!

One thing that I learned to appreciate was the power of the hashtag. Not just to be clever, it turns out. Adding #MToBS to the end of my tweets made them reach a whole new audience. Look and see my most successful tweet (by some measures):
2 Retweets and 3 Favorites! All from people who were not previously following me! So that's cool.

Tweeting a conversation is a bit too quick for me right now, though. I replied to a tweet about using the textbook less in class, and they replied back to me, and I... let it just lie there. And it seemed too lame to respond a day later, so...

Oh, but it was interesting to spend the week in a "How could I Tweet this?" state of mind. I do that sometimes with Facebook. When something super cool happens that I want to tell someone about, I start thinking about the status update I may write. Last weekend, we went to an amazing brunch at Lazy Bear underground restaurant. Not only was I dancing in my seat at the deliciousness of every course, (because there were so. many. courses), but I also took a picture of each course.

Want to see? Of course you do.


So one of my thoughts and hopes is to approach my math teaching more like other aspects of my life in terms of social media. What can I capture in words, photos or video to help me remember, celebrate or reflect on later?


Here's one attempt (inspired by 2 absent student). How do we find the solution to this problem using the rectangle model? (Where 2y^2+2y is the area of a rectangle, and 2 is the "length" so we just need to find the width.) I sadly didn't record it right the first time, though. So this video is missing the reactions of the first time around, but still cool. And that is what I will leave you with. Happy Weekend!


3.4A Problem 3 with 3D rectangle from Urban School of San Francisco on Vimeo.

6 comments:

  1. I really like the video - thanks for sharing!

    Before I watched the video, when I visualised it, I didn't imagine a 3rd dimension. I had two y^2 squares one below each other and two yx1 rectangles one below each other - why did you decide to go 3d?

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    1. Thanks for watching!

      Your method would indeed be one way to factor y^2 +2y. You'd get a rectangle with that area, a length of y and a width of y + 2. But for this problem, since the area was divided by 2, we already knew the "length" would have to be 2. But then you get stuck with where we were at 0:03. The only way to resolve the issue and keep the integrity of the model is to go 3D. And then you get a "width" of y^2 + y, which is the answer to the division problem!

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  2. I love the hashtags too. It was through them that I found out about MSMathChats!

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    1. I saw the MSMathChats and got a little bit jealous. I found alg1mathchat, but I haven't stumbled upon any other high school level chats yet. Still looking, though!

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  3. Hi there! I am on your blog because you posted on Explore MTBoS just before me and guess what, I was one of the people who retweeted your tweet! Smal l twitterverse :) It was an awesome tweet! It sounds like you also took the How to Learn Math Course and are trying to create a growth mindset in math class. My department made posters that say "It's OK to FAIL....FAIL = First Attempt in Learning". I also like your pictures. Makes me feel like I need a snack :)

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    1. Thanks for the comment! Small twitterverse indeed! I did indeed start Jo Boaler's course this summer. Growth mindset is something I've been working on with my kids for a long time, though. We even have a tradition of applauding when someone makes a really good mistake.

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