Hello everyone. I am currently finishing the second year of my Bachelor of Education, and that requires me to complete various reflections regarding how I feel about a variety of pedagogical topics.
One of these reflections requires that it is posted publicly, to act as an artefact for other educators to use. The reflection is about using multimodality in teaching, and mine in particular focuses on multiple means of expression in mathematics pedagogy. If you are not interested in this, please do not continue reading. Maybe you can take a look at my main page, with many other interesting articles for you to read! If you are so inclined, however, you can read the reflection document here. I was unable to write the article in Medium as it is heavily footnoted, something that Medium is not super supportive of. I also created a full website which hosts these reflections, which, in my opinion, renders this article entirely moot. But I don’t make the rules, so take a look at that here.
Much of the reflection is a meandering response to various readings I completed during the course, and as such offers little to those of you who have not completed the same readings, or who do not have a pedagogical background. However, a portion of it is dedicated to promoting multiple methods of showing and sharing knowledge in math, that most stuffy of subjects. I wish to showcase some of the multimedia highlights of this portion of my work, each representing an unorthodox method of teaching and learning math. If you are an educator, perhaps you can use these resources as a starting point for some interesting mathematics assessments using art and language.
In case this is unclear, and for plagiarism purposes, I would like to note that each of these resources was completed by me, under anagram-style pseudonyms because I think they’re fun.
The first is a poem in the form of a villanelle which discusses the Pythagorean Theorem and its use in ancient Greece. The poem is shown in full below:
The Monument
Foundation laid, to square the sides?
The question plain, how to proceed?
A rope produced, twelve knots tied
Plans set out, obelisk shall rise
Foreperson stands, her word they heed
Foundation laid, to square the sides?
Exalt the gods and tame the tide
A mirror image in name and deed
A rope produced, twelve knots tied
All tilt forbidden, only plumb lines
Peril in collapse, nation shall bleed
Foundation laid, to square the sides?
I know the key! Foreperson cried
The workers hush, all noise recedes
A rope produced, twelve knots tied
Rope on the ground, three men astride
Two lain sides are four and three
Foundation set, now square of side
Rope is taut, last length is five
- By Rex Michel
I hope you liked it, it was fun to create. The second artefact is some artwork completed using sinusoidal functions as its base. The art is below, and its mathematical basis can be found here. Credit for the artwork goes to my sister, Julie.
The last artefact was my favourite, a video completed in the style of a TEDx Talk regarding brain teasers and puzzles as a way to increase engagement in math. It was my favourite because I wore a fun hat. You can watch it below:
That’s it! I’m done! See everyone later!
