How should the Math Fun class be sturctured?  :Responses

Response by Dani to all your responses:

Dear Class,

I am truely touched and moved and greateful for your thoughtful responses.  I am also grtaeful that this was brought up.   I know that together we can overcome the difficulties and find a balanced approach without threats yet with motivation and hopefully Love for Learning.  It is really up to us to make it work or not.  I preapred some interesting lessons for this week and am looking forward to see what happens and what will be your response and feedback to them.

Sincerely,

--Dani

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Response by Katie

 About class on 1/28:
i think that class on friday was pretty productive.  people got their
opinions out and so did dani.  i really like the idea of having a less
structured class, but at the same time taking a little time out of every
class or every few classes and learning a few new skills or going over
things we might have forgotten.
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Response by Lauren

 Response on Friday, Jan,
28th class:
Personally I find that the way Dani structures his class is fantastic. I
am used to math classes to be stuctured and everything mechanically
transfered into my brain. I like that this class is more about learning
slowly and in different ways. I have been very excited to work on the the
webpage and i know i will definetly be using math when i do it. A webpage
is something different that I think will motivate me to try harder at
math. in high school I never looked foward to math class, it made me sick
to even think about it. Dani's class is different, i get really excited
and happy because I know its different and there are none of those
dreaded problems that you can never understand. Instead there is an
alternative to being frustrated and wanting to burn the math book, I can
have fun and learn at the same time. I want our class to stay like it
was. I have already tried to do math the structured way, I want to try it
this way. Why not give it a chance?
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Response by Kelly

 I really enjoy working with
our groups. I think many people work better when interacting with others.
Maybe we can pick groups according to what people want to accomplish. If
some people want to work on math problems then they can form a group and
if others want to work on their current activities they should stay in
that group. I think this class should be fun for everyone. People can do
whatever they need to feel fullfilled from the class. I like the way we
are learning out of the box. I think in the long run it will help us
more.
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Response by Marietta

 Usually I enjoy our class
very much. Today I was pretty disappointed. If people want to go over the
traditional methods, they should join one of the math problem groups. I
want to continue with this new way of looking at math; I'm tired of the
usual, dry way of teaching it. I suppose we could go over some regular
things during class but let's not totally abandon what we had going.
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Response by Lonnie Simmons

 I guess today’s class was a little different then I expected.  I truly believe that the
people, who are upset about the curriculum we are coving, don’t truly
understand the concept.  Dani is trying to get people to understand the
logic behind math, but more importantly everything, which has a
connection to math.  For example today, Dani broke down the concept of
figuring out the area of a circle in 15 minutes with out using any “prior
knowledge math skills”, now to me I learned that Pi times r squared is
equal to the area of the circle when I was in 6th grade, the funny thing
is that my sister is learning it right now and she’s in 5th grade and yet
some people in college refuse to learn it themselves.  I think my point
here is that anyone who doesn’t understand Dani’s ideas, in turn refuses
to try new things, like how Dani’s teaching strategies is to make you
figure out your own formula for everything, which all has its bases on
things like adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing- which carries
over in all math, no matter if it’s a binary tree, poetry, percents,
area, calculus, geometry, or adding your bill at the grocery store.  In
conclusion, maybe if you spent less time worrying about the complexity of
the class compared to your current math “expertise” you might learn
something that you can carry over in your next math class, and as Dani
wishes, in the rest of your classes and life. This is the reason I chose
to take this class, not to relearn math skills I mastered 5 years ago,
but to learn skills I can apply in the rest of my life…maybe before you
judge someone for how they do things, take a chance and explore what is
truly going on…think about it
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Response by MG

 I'm a bit worried about this
course.  I don't mind straying from the norm, but I am concerned about my
grade, and what I will be learning over the course of the semester.  So
far, I'm afraid that I haven't really learned anything new.  I don't
really understand how to use the see-logo program, which I tried over the
weekend.  I don't know if it's just me- maybe I'm too used to ordinary
teaching methods or something.  I hope this week will put me more at
ease.

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Response by erin

 i am in the math problem
group. i think i am a bit confused about what we are supposed to be
doing. are we supposed to make up problems on our own, or find them from
other sources? im not good at making them up, and where would i find
other math problems? and what are we supposed to do with them once we
find them?

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Response by sarah valek

 One thing I have
noticed with so many students is that we are afraid to let go. We want
the
structured syllabus, we want the reviews, or else we don't feel like
we're learning anything. I see
many responses of "what did I learn?!" in all my alternative classes.
But we must try a new approach. I believe we all are in the math class
because the traditional
system has failed us... not the other way around!!!!! We are frightened
into thinking that we are
bad at math. If we keep thinking that we're dumb, will our minds ever
open up to learn something
new? This is my second college math course and I have another one yet to
go. Trust me when I say
that reviewing the basics WILL NOT help. Haven't we been doing that since
elementary school?
There must be a new way.
I decided to join the Math Problems group, not because I craved the
traditional teaching of math,
but because I loathed it. I wanted to rip those numbers off the paper and
bring them to life. I
wanted to conquer a test that I "failed." If anyone wants to go over
problems, please join this
group. The traditional problems must be approached in a non-traditional
way-- instead of
listening to someone drone on about how to solve these, you must do
research and figure the
process out for yourself. I feel that this is a superior way to solve
problems.
We need to open up to new methods and transform our fears. Trudging along
the same old path
won't work-- we need to pave a new one.

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Response by Shane Taylor

 I thought that the
class discussion on Friday was very productive; however I feel that the
way Dani has been running class seems to work well. All of us in the
class have already experienced traditional learning strategies and it
still hasn’t work. I feel that Dani’s method will allow a different view
to our brain and expand are thinking.

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Response by Allison

 I think that Dani's class
is a interesting and new approach to learning. I don't disagree that it's
harder to learn and we might feel like we're not getting anything out of
this, but I still think we should give it a chance and see what Dani has
to offer. This technique might be a lot different and/or more effective
and we might appreciate math more in the longrun.

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Response by Alix Scoblionko

 Dear Dani,
I think that the discussion we had in class on friday about a new
approach to teaching, might be more helpful to students. I think that
each day of class we should talk about and learn a new fundamental aspect
of math that is chosen to go over by certain students. Then maybe at the
end of the week when we have gone over a few different areas, we can get
together in groups and review what we have learned to make sure everonye
is on the same page. After the class learns how to learn together i think
everyone will feel more comfortable working in groups or doing projects.
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Response by Britney

 In response to the
direction in which the class should go, I believe that we have to work
out a balance
between traditional formats and non-traditional projects. To be honest, I
got nervous and panicky the
minute we started doing math problems in class. They give me a headache
to look at them. I would love
to try some non-traditional methods and approaches to math because I
can't stand the traditional
format. it makes me physically upset to see math problems. However, we
also have to be aware that
most, if not all, of us have to take another math course and we would
like to be prepared.
I think the balance between traditional and non-traditional methods and
evaluation quizzes would be
ideal. This way everyone feels like they are being prepared.