From: Pat Ballew (for Teacher2Teacher Service)
Date: Aug 26, 2000 at 08:37:47
Subject: Re: Bulletin Boards

  Put what you are interested in, and what attracts you in math on the boards.
One of my students referred to me as a "wordologist" because I like to find
the origin of math terms, the etymology and history. So when I add a word to
my web page I print it out and post it on my bulletin board.  I'm also big on
independent problems so I post a lot of problems from the Math Forum POWs
(Problems of the Week), and others I have found.  A third interest is in the
history of math so I often print out postings from Math History newsgroups,
and I actively search out stories about living mathematicians so that my
students know some by name.  Few kids escape my class who can't identify John
Conway, David Moore, or Persci Diaconis; and I first heard about the death of
Paul Erdos from a student who knew he was one of my heroes.

Infect your students with what you love about mathematics, make your bulletin
board a scrapbook for your favorite math stuff, and encourage them to bring in
their favorites too.  Students love to bring in Math jokes they found in
papers and magazines, so encourage that as a start, and if they find something
related to what you are studying, post it conspicuously, then point it out in
every class and mention who brought it in.  Pretty soon it will be the kids'
bulletin board and take care of itself.

 -Pat Ballew, for the Teacher2Teacher service

Post a public discussion message
Ask Teacher2Teacher a new question