When I first started teaching and was more willing to grant extra credit assignments to students who asked for them, one of my favorite go-to sites was Mathematician's Anniversaries Throughout the Year from the University of St Andrews in Scotland.
Students click on their birthday and up comes a mathematician who was born on the same day! There's often more than one.
The assignment I'd give students was to research and write a 1-page paper on a mathematician born on their birthday. Because not all mathematicians are as well known as Pythagoras, researching their birthday twin was a fun way to bring a little history into math.
Other extra credit assignments I've offered included: researching 20 facts on i, 20 facts on the Golden Ratio, what are fractals, creating a system of equations with 3 variables.
In more recent years I have been less likely to give extra credit projects outside the scope of class. Instead, I allow students to complete quiz revisions and graded assignment revisions to bring up their grades. But I wanted to share this website in case you hadn't seen it because it's pretty fun to know we share birthdays with famous mathematicians!
I don't even know that this post is necessary, but I thought I'd write it just in case.
A few days ago I decided it was time to move from scaffoldedmath.blogspot.com to scaffoldedmath.com. Why? I am wondering this same thing right about now.
See, most bloggers hire someone to make changes like this. Me? In recent years I've been doing everything myself. Because I know what I'm doing? No way. Because I'm not sure who to even ask for help? You got it! There may be a few trust issues in there, too.
So a few days ago I went into blogger and clicked a few buttons, went into Go Daddy and clicked a few more buttons then went to bed. And in the morning I had what can only be described as a royal bloggin' hot mess.
Somehow - by the grace of God most likely - I stumbled upon a few more buttons in Google that needed to be pressed in order for a name change to go through. But at this point it was too late. Google's gears were already set in motion and no number of sitemap submissions was going to fix it.
I now had a scaffoldedmath.blogspot.com AND a scaffoldedmath.com, no more sitelinks under my blog in Google search results and a family left wondering where the heck mom went. Scaffolded Math and Science started as a way to pay the bills during my unpaid maternity leave. Since then, it's become a way to support my family and has filled a creative void that had long been left empty. So when I mess things up as I am known to do, it bothers me. A lot. In a lot of ways.
Today there seems to be some progress and things may be slowly ironing themselves out. The Google bots are doing something out there because my blog is now renamed in Google search results, though the sitelinks are still gone and my TpT store is now the #1 result. I guess there are worse things.
So I am still here, waiting, hoping that things will all go back to normal. I think in the end this will be a good thing. It's just going to take some time...
Memorizing number facts will always be important.
Why? Self-confidence!
Math test corrections template - Scaffolded Math and Science
Simple math test corrections template for students to reflect on their mistakes - Scaffolded Math and ScienceWe all want to support a growth mindset in our students and give them space to learn from their mistakes, but what does this look like when teachers are in charge of teaching 100+ kids?
Is it possible to allow students to correct their mistakes while also maintaining teacher sanity?
