tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-235276292454918436.post7908817410214269366..comments2024-03-23T17:12:29.672-04:00Comments on Math Hombre: Poetical PracticesJohn Goldenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18212162438307044259noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-235276292454918436.post-47907820001053723872014-10-13T08:51:33.306-04:002014-10-13T08:51:33.306-04:00John, it was so lovely to hear your musings on the...John, it was so lovely to hear your musings on the "Billy Collins Show." It was a night that keeps coming back into my head and spending a little time. I found his whole "Three Blind Mice" thing exactly like a jazz riff -- taking a little thought and expanding it, contracting it, and just helping us all to experience it with him. We were transported -- and I'm still not quite back on the ground. Elizabethhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11463087989903802622noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-235276292454918436.post-26767155077902349502014-10-11T11:08:58.861-04:002014-10-11T11:08:58.861-04:00Wonderful post, John - mathematics with... picture...Wonderful post, John - mathematics with... pictures, music, poetry... and lots to think about! To me this kind of look "look what's happening in poetry" kind of comparison is a great way of meta-thinking about teaching and learning in general.<br /><br />I liked <br /><br />it was nice that anyone liked poetry given the way most of us are introduced to it. By which, he meant, in school. Imagine if the first time we listened to music, it was someone picking a suitable piece, they played it for a whole group, and then sat us down to ask us questions about it.<br /><br />and<br /><br />I want them to waterski<br />across the surface of a poem<br />waving at the author's name on the shore.<br /><br />But all they want to do<br />is tie the poem to a chair with rope<br />and torture a confession out of it.<br /><br />At least in poetry classes we bring in a great poem. And I like to think we do more than torture it these days.OK, there are "comprehensions", but we might learn it and perform it; or recreate it in some other form, a picture maybe. Or dramatise it.<br /><br />In the arts we are happy to look into the distance, to see what great artists have produced. Van Gogh, or Beethoven maybe. But we're not too quick to do it in maths. (I have a picture of Euler on my classroom wall from last year, along with V+F-E=2. Some of the kids have copied this down like it's some kind of talisman. Already they want to know what on earth it means..)<br /><br />So, more waterski-ing in maths lessons!Simon Gregghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07751362728185120933noreply@blogger.com