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Why should teachers use the Forum?
Posted:
Sep 29, 1992 1:33 PM
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Dear Forum reader:
One of our student workers was at the Regional Geometry Institute at the
University of Utah. She took along some of our brochures, and she was
asked why teachers should bother taking the time to use the Geometry
Forum, since time is something they do not have in great supply. My
response follows. I'd like to know whether it makes sense to you.
Thanks-- Gene Klotz
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Dear Lani:
I've been mulling over your high school teacher's question of why
they might want to use the Geometry Forum. Basically, it's that there
are a lot of materials, services, and ideas out there which would enhance
the teaching of geometry. With the Forum we're trying to provide the
means for teachers to access all this in a fast and convenient manner.
From my discussions with teachers, I'd expect that if you were a
high school teachers you'd want to use the Geometry Forum to
-- get some broadly-based advice on a course you're teaching (geometry or
geometry-related--which includes lots of possibilities),
-- let other teachers know of a really successful approach you've just
discovered,
-- ask other teachers why an approach which should have been successful
wasn't,
-- get hold of some SAT-type geometry problems,
-- find some current articles relating to geometry that might help make
the subject more alive for your students,
-- set up or find a class project which could be done with a school in
another state (e.g. measure the distance from the earth to the moon),
-- keep in touch with people you meet at conferences or at summer
institutes,
-- find out what's available in geometry videos to enhance your course,
-- find about where to get some new geometry software you've just heard
about,
-- ask the publisher a question about using software you're working with,
-- find out what other teachers have done with the software,
-- ask a college teacher whether the theorem your prize student has
discovered is really new,
-- let your students correspond with an astronaut or an architect about
how they use geometry,
-- discuss with college teachers the role of proof in geometry courses,
-- discuss with fellow teachers how the new NCTM Standards should apply
to your geometry course or your teaching approach,
-- find sources of geometry models which your students will enjoy
building and which also teach them something,
-- talk with other teachers about how they handle time pressures and
manage to spend time reading the Forum,
-- be a part of the lively geometry community which already exists but
which currently lacks no convenient means of communication.
I'd be very interested in your teacher's response to this--which
of the possibilities are or are not interesting? I'll post this and try
to get other teacher's comments as well.
How are your courses?
Best, GK
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