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mathowitz.bsky.social • 88 days ago

You're welcome

https://bsky.app/profile/mathowitz.bsky.social/post/3lcltkarhts2k

Reposted from Carl

Use the posters we crowd sources a few years ago!!!

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I’m going to push back on the secant and tangent not being lines in trigonometry…

https://extremelearning.com.au/trigonometry-visualised/

bobsonwong.com•88 days ago

I always get a bit embarrassed when I introduce functions and I explain to students that we use parentheses to mean inputs instead of multiplication, but we pronounce them totally differently.

And yeah, why do we represent multiplication in so many different ways? #MTBoS #ITeachMath

akismetoo.bsky.social•87 days ago

When I introduce it, I color code on the board FWIW.

bobsonwong.com•88 days ago

Ok, maybe an #ElemMathChat #MTBoS #ITeachMath person can help me. Is there a good reason for using x to represent multiplication? We abandon it later on. Why confuse students?

tcorica.bsky.social•88 days ago

Agree! I would note that part of the problem is that there is a clean, square × symbol (\times in LaTeX) used for cross product but this doesn’t help in handwriting. It seems like a centered dot could replace × in early years.

jgough.bsky.social•88 days ago

In early years, we are also working on learning to write sentences: statements, questions, exclamations, and commands. The dot represents a period, as well as part of a question mark, and an exclamation point.

tcorica.bsky.social•88 days ago

I don't think a Bluesky conversation is going to change all of elementary math teaching 😉, but re-using x, vs a center-located dot seems like an unfortunate choice. We don't get to change long-standing notation, just like my keyboard still spells QWERTY and probably will until the sun dies out.

jclevelandtran.com•87 days ago

The central dot also has the problem of not being that different from a decimal point. I’ve had kids think I wrote 3.4 when it was 3*4

chillygills.bsky.social•88 days ago

Okay. I'm not a teacher but it's because x is also the symbol for 'by' which is the most naturally intuitive way to understand multiplication, and will be how they encounter it more in life than any other way unless they go on to academia or something.

damianmolinari.bsky.social•87 days ago

It's a whole other level when parentheses can represent an ordered pair or an interval of values. I have to emphasize over and over that students need to pay attention to the context, but it's so easy to confuse it all.

bobsonwong.com•87 days ago

Yeah, the way we use parentheses in math is a whole other level of crazy.

akismetoo.bsky.social•87 days ago

We can’t change function notation, but maybe we can commit to color coding functions on introduction?

damianmolinari.bsky.social•87 days ago

How do you use color coding?

leahwrenn.bsky.social•88 days ago

Those are fabulous. ❤️

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