Just some thoughtful updates.
I have not written a blog for some time, too busy or not moved by anthing to write about. But I have just got back from attending a conference of the Mathematical Association, www.m-a.org.uk. It is great to met lots of teachers who are enthusiastic about teacning maths, who are doing exciting things with kids across a whole range of abilities.
The sad thing is how few teachers get to the meetings. Are they too tired at the end of term, too disillusioned or just not professional enough to want to improve their performance? It is such a fundamental subject which is crucial to explaining the physical world as well as being exciting and fun to do. How have we turned it, in Britain & USA, into a subject that students dread.
The BBC is starting new new service called "Jam" aimed at school children, a new digital service. There are lots of great web sites out there to help with real maths, a particularly good one is www.nrich.maths.org.uk, I recommend it to anyone teaching maths or just enjoying it for fun. During the conference someone asked me my favourite piece of maths, as a mathemtician for over 40 years there are too many lovely things but I thought of Euler's proof that there is no biggest prime number. Most people quote Euclid's proof, simple and easy to understand BUT Euler's proof is much harder and depends on some subtle maths. So why do I like it, because the ideas it introduced leads to wondersful results about prime numbers which are not at all obvious.
Got to go and do the hoovering now.
The sad thing is how few teachers get to the meetings. Are they too tired at the end of term, too disillusioned or just not professional enough to want to improve their performance? It is such a fundamental subject which is crucial to explaining the physical world as well as being exciting and fun to do. How have we turned it, in Britain & USA, into a subject that students dread.
The BBC is starting new new service called "Jam" aimed at school children, a new digital service. There are lots of great web sites out there to help with real maths, a particularly good one is www.nrich.maths.org.uk, I recommend it to anyone teaching maths or just enjoying it for fun. During the conference someone asked me my favourite piece of maths, as a mathemtician for over 40 years there are too many lovely things but I thought of Euler's proof that there is no biggest prime number. Most people quote Euclid's proof, simple and easy to understand BUT Euler's proof is much harder and depends on some subtle maths. So why do I like it, because the ideas it introduced leads to wondersful results about prime numbers which are not at all obvious.
Got to go and do the hoovering now.
posted by Unknown at
12:43 AM
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