Was Pythagorous Chinese

By framing a knowledge as your own, it creates a perceived superiority over others. During the cold war, the ability for the USSR to put a satellite into orbit did not rouse cheers from the Americans, but despair. Cultures often compete with each other over which is more advanced, and this is often measured by which has the greater academic knowledge. We are now living in a global culture, which means that there should be collaboration, not competition, between nations. If we continue the false narrative that knowledge was only developed by "our" culture, then we lose the ability to work together. In competition there is no sharing of resources between sides. If our global culture is to overcome the challenges faced in the upcoming years, we must work together and recognize that all cultures have knowledge to bring to the table.

I am torn about the naming conventions of certain theorems. On one hand, I recognize that calling it "Pythagorean Theorem" emphasizes a the competitive approach to knowledge I mentioned above. However, I do believe that if it is taught with the emphasis that it was not only discovered in western society we can acknowledge that a name is only a name. Many cultures have discovered the concept of a chair, and thus many cultures have different words/names for the concept. It would be problematic if western students were taught that only their culture were smart enough to invent chairs and that is why they call it chairs. Hence, calling it Pythagorean is not a problem as long as the concept is introduced through an international lens.

Mircro Lesson Peer Reviews

 

**UPDATE**

I think this lesson went ok, but unfortunately I did not time out the lesson nor scaffold it particularly well. I think I was too ambitious, for I did not recognize how large the zone of proximal development would be for my peers. I assumed that an idea would have been common knowledge. Because of this, I had to improvise and begin teaching a different topic. I believe I taught the concept of levers well, but was not able to make the extension to swing stage scaffolding properly.

My peers saw that my timing was off, and the reason for this is outlined above. I saw that the content clarity was off because I had to jump between many different things to close the zone of proximal development.

Micro-Lesson Plan

 Here is the lesson plan for my micro lesson on swing stage scaffolding:

Battleground Schools: Reflection

 This piece was interesting because I had never thought of Math as a politically charged subject. We hear in the news about english and history being re-written due to political influence, but math seemed to be one of the untouchable subjects. I see now that this is untrue.

I saw many similarities to the concepts of instrumental vs relational understanding. As has been mentioned in class, instrumental understanding is more quickly grasped, while relational understanding leads to better applications of one's knowledge. It is apparent that society chooses which type of understand to prioritize depending on the society's needs. 

The most difficult part of this reading is that it is apparent that there is no right answer, and there is no pleasing everyone. It is humorous that parents who wish to protect their child's future will argue about which path forward is best. Parents will argue both for and against changes to the curriculum, both with the exact same end goals.

My big takeaway is that becoming a math teacher does not make you immune from politics. It will be my duty to fight for what I see to be in my student's best interests. 

TPI Reflection

 I am very happy that I was categorized as Developing and Nurturing. I related very strongly to these categories after reading their summaries.

Developing means that I meet students where they are and work with them towards their goals. My experience focuses on those who need concepts broken down into simple terms before being able to approach the complicated ones.

Nurturing means that I recognize the emotional aspect of teaching, keeping students engaged by supporting their abilities and congratulating their efforts.

I think this both of these qualities stems from my origin as a tutor for failing students. They required me to teach with a developmental mindset, for the were only in the emerging category. They also required me to teach with a nurturing mindset, because they thought they were terrible at math and therefore had lower self confidence. 

I am unsure how this profile will change after I teach in a classroom. I think that as my class size increases, and as the skill level of my students increases, my profile will change.

My Mini-Lesson Theme

 I'm going to teach the class the fundamentals about installing swing stage scaffolding. I used to do this work.

Reflection on Assignment 1

 Our group presented on Serpinski Triangles. We focused on two aspects their design, Cellular Automoton and the use of different cells. Cellular Automoton was taught by showing the class the different rules that generate different triangles, while the concept of creating fractal shapes one level up was taught by having the class play around with physical cells that we cut out.

This project was a great experience for me. Every time that we hit a road block, it felt more like a puzzle to solve than a challenge to overcome. I had genuine fun with this assignment. I understand how much more enjoyable math is when it is in the form of visual art, contrasted with its traditional form. The best part of this project was that I did not have to practice at all. Typically when presenting on a topic, I have to rehearse. For this project I was so engrossed in the subject that I learned everything on my own time. Once we began presenting, the ideas just flowed out of my brain to the class. This happened because I chose to learn the topic in side and out, as opposed to memorizing a script. I could improvise everything because I had relational understanding, not instrumental.

Teachers cannot prepare for every possible outcome. The tiling activity did not at all go according to plan, but went better than I could have dreamed. While they were not fractals, the patterns which the class came up with had an incredible mathematic beauty. When I am a teacher, I will be very open to ideas that students propose, and will improvise around them. I want to promote inquiry in my classroom, and that is best done when students are allowed to take the reigns.

I have no current ideas for projects at this time, but because of this project I will have the eye to see them in my daily life. Both math and art exist around us all the time, and I now that I can recognize them everywhere I will bring them into my classroom.