No blog this week due to being in class.

2. Why does the author, Margaret Tent, state that simply having students memorize the area and circumference formulas of circles was an unsatisfactory practice for her students?         Her students were not learning the concept and were getting frustrated at the difficult the idea was to memorize. 

B. List one activity that can be used to help students learn about π.
Tent has her class go on a tour of the school and measure multiple circles as they go. I think this is awesome because you really don't know just how many circles are in the outside world until you're asked to find and meausre them. 

C.  List (at least) two historical facts about π.
-Periin is Greek for around, and pi was first derived from the distance around a circle.  
-William Jones, an Englishman, was probably the first to use the pi symbol in 1675

I understood this week's homework and I did very well on the getting the correct answers. Just like how I had drawn out my homework for the patterns I had to re draw the shapes even though they were already there. I've always had to redraw figures it helps me understand and figure out the problem. I usually always end up with a cluttered page of mess and it use to bother me because other students would just have the answer on there but after years of doing it my way I'm no longer ashamed or feel like I understand it less!

I did fairly well with getting the correct answers to the homework. I think that kids would have a 'hard' time adding to the patterns because of the consents. If you make it into a person and separate the bottom two tiles into legs it makes the pattern easier to understand. If I were to use tiles to do this assignment I would make the 4 tiles on the bottom (the legs) and the three tiles going up (neck, head) all the same color while the ones I added on different colored. Just like we did in class. It helps a lot to see that pattern. Doing these homework questions I had to draw out the figures on paper. In class we use the tiles and the combo between the tiles and getting to draw the figure makes it so much easier. 
For the perimeter question I think that students would be able to see the pattern after counting around the four figures. Once the see the pattern they would be able to punch it into an equation much like I was able to do.

    I particularly took a liking to the section of chapter six on having a gender-friendly mathematics classroom. As a female I've ofter been told or made to feel that I'm automatically less capable of being able to be good at math. I loved the section where it talks about involving all the students. I have been a part of a classroom where the teacher is in that show-and tell mode and it really does reinforce the boys' overt behaviors like the text suggests. I also think that by telling our young girls that math and science are fields dominated by males it intimidates them and scares them away from pursing those subjects- it's counterproductive. They are less likely to try to figure out a problem or answer a question in the class for the fear of them being wrong which in turn would prove - to them at least- that boys are only good at math and science. It reinforces the passive behavior the many girls' have. 
    I think that as a teacher being aware of how you interact with boys vs girls is cruical in their development. I think that it's very easy to not even notcie if you're paying more attention or giving more opportutines to one gender rather than the other. Espically if one gender is speaking up while the other just sits back. This chapter brings up excellent points of awareness