Glennalicious

Do you really mean deer? Maybe it was a goat sculpture by Picasso?

I see math, w/ any other school subject, w/ same goals as art; you look at your math problem as an artist would look at the subject he or she is drawing, then you go about what kind of solutions in order to look at the problem as an artist would go about how to approach drawing or painting the subject, actually doing the process of problem solving as an artist would start drawing, 'n like at the end, you have a solution to the math problem as an artist would finish the piece. Another quality the two subjects have in common is that there are many ways to approach solving a problem, or drawing a piece.

I have much respect for a mathematician as a mathematician would for an artist.

How's the new job going for you?

See ... art is all about perspective. And now you have a new one. Yay.

Too bad I didn't have you for a math teacher in high school, though how that could'a happened is a physics problem. Funny really, because two things I want to do are start drawing again and take some remedial math classes to bolster up my pathetic math skills.

Drawing isn't about the lines you draw, it's about how you see. You have to train yourself to see what's there, not what you think is there.

Go to the library (they do have libraries in NYT, right? hehehe) and check out "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain."

i hated math my entire life. i just couldn't get it. well, actually, i had no problem with things like algebra, geometry, trigonometry, etc. they were pretty abstract and i like that sort of thing. regular old math? forget it.

first year i started teaching, background in social science and reading, what do they give me to teach? right - MATH! panic...

after the first month of teaching it i was struck by "oh, that's what this is all about!" i loved teaching math from that time forward.

i also learned one of the most important things about education and teaching from that experience. the ONLY way you can be certain if you've learned something is if you can teach it to someone else. i always used that as a way of assessing what kids were doing. if they could show someone else having trouble with a concept, i knew that they understood it.

i bet you always do this too...

i hated math my entire life. i just couldn't get it. well, actually, i had no problem with things like algebra, geometry, trigonometry, etc. they were pretty abstract and i like that sort of thing. regular old math? forget it.

first year i started teaching, background in social science and reading, what do they give me to teach? right - MATH! panic...

after the first month of teaching it i was struck by "oh, that's what this is all about!" i loved teaching math from that time forward.

i also learned one of the most important things about education and teaching from that experience. the ONLY way you can be certain if you've learned something is if you can teach it to someone else. i always used that as a way of assessing what kids were doing. if they could show someone else having trouble with a concept, i knew that they understood it.

i bet you always do this too...

I've said that numbers to me are like a foreign language that I don't speak well, and there have been several occasions when I've miscalculated things in class and told the students, "There is a reason I'm not a math teacher."

I have tried to think about what it can feel like in my classroom if you have low literacy skills and no particular interest in the past. It's probably how I felt in math. One difference is that it was so drilled into me that one had to do well in school that I'd just keep going for extra help every afternoon (and still get a C!), rather than cutting class or acting out.

I keep trying. My lesson on the origins of Christianity was not that thrilling, unless you include one kid's astonishment that Jesus wasn't Christian. In the other class, I hope at least some of my kids enjoyed my original stick-figure cartoons illustrating (or trying to) Adam Smith's theories, including what may be the first-ever depiction of the "invisible hand."

Take a look at this re: trust and learning:

Erickson, F. (1987). Transformation and school success: The politics and culture of educational achievement. *Anthropology & Education Quarterly,* 18,* 35-356.

In pedagogy it is essential that the teacher and students establish and maintain trust in each other at the edge of risk (Howard van Ness, personal communication). To learn is to entertain risk, since learning involves moving just past the level of competence, what is already mastered, to the nearest region of incompetence, what has not yet been mastered. As learning takes place, the leading edge of the region of incompetence is continually moving. A useful analogy is that of riding a surfboard-in learning, one must lean forward into a constantly
shifting relationship with the crest of the wave. In eacherilearner interaction, the learner places himself or herself at the edge of incompetence and is drawn slightly beyond it with the assistance of the teacher andlor other students. Vygotsky (1978:8&91) refers to this as the "zone of proximal developmentu-that region within which the learner can function with the assistance of another more competent partner. As the learner's bottom threshhold of competence rises (that level at which the learner can function unassisted) so does the top threshold (the level beyond which the student cannot function effectively even with the aid of a teacher). Thus the zone of proximal development can be thought of as constantly moving upward. However, as new learning takes place with a teacher, the student again engages risk because the student reenters the zone within which the student cannot function successfully alone. If the teacher is not trustworthy the student cannot count on effective assistance from the teacher; there is high risk of being revealed (to self and to others) as incompetent (see Shultz 1985). (p. 344)

Cool epiphany for you. That's why you're a good teacher.

I'd love a membership to MoMA. I guess it would be more incredible if I lived in NYC. Did you see any Kandinsky pieces? Maybe they're not MoMA anymore. I saw a Kandinsky exhibit the last time I was there and almost wet myself.

Nice epiphany! That's totally how math felt to me. I could kick ass in my AP English Shakespeare class, but math gave me cold sweats.