Tech Task #3: Edublogger

I have been following a very interesting and uplifting blog for the past little while, that I would like to share with you. You can access the blog page, titled “Math with Bad Drawings” at: https://mathwithbaddrawings.com

 

The author of this blog is Ben Orlin of Saint Paul, Minnesota. Ben has taught all levels of mathematics to children ages 12 to 18. He has several recently published books, titled “Math with Bad Drawings” as well as “Change is the Only Constant”. I would encourage you to follow Ben on Twitter, at twitter.com/benorlin, for more regular updates and interesting content. 

 

The Math with Bad Drawings page contains a lot of funny pictures and drawings related to math, that will make your day. This is of interest to me, since my major is mathematics and that is the subject that I hope to end up teaching. People often say that math is dry, or math is boring, which is why I think it is important to share fun posts like on this page. If people can laugh at the humour behind many of these math posts, that means they understand the math. It also helps students to think critically about the jokes that they do not understand, and perhaps do some research to understand the comedic value. I think that mathematics is a fun subject, and it all depends on how it is taught. 

 

One of my favorite images on the Math with Bad Drawings page is this one: 

 

This is not necessarily a mathematical image, but it is one of patterns. I simply find it fun to look at, as students have played games of Tic Tac Toe within a game of Tic Tac Toe, calling it “Ultimate Tic Tac Toe”. Beginning class with something like this could help introduce some mathematical language (like horizontal, vertical or diagonal), or to demonstrate a concept on patterns. My point is that math does not always have to be boring, and as teachers we should find interesting ways to help make sense of the sometimes cumbersome concepts. 

Following this blog has helped inspire me to become a more interesting math teacher, and to constantly seek joy from my career. It is clear that this author cares about his subject, as is evident through the blog and his published work. Humour can be used to foster engagement, and can even be used as an assessment tool. I want to do my best to make math classes interesting for everyone, with some laughs as my reward.