Weekly Math Updates

December 29 , 2007

Contents:

  • BYU's Math Grant
  • Media Articles - Principal tells teachers to dumb it down for the kids
  • Warriors of the Promised Land (Book of Mormon Card Game - LDS readers)

I hope you've all had a great Christmas break.  I've got a couple things to share real quick so you know what's going on.  There are a number of things getting geared up for the legislative session and there's been progress through the efforts of one of you in getting the state board to examine a few things to help improve math.  More on that to come.

BYU's Math Grant

First and foremost is the major event happening right now.  BYU, as you should know, was the primary mover that got Investigations math into ASD. ASD had constructivists in the right place at the right time (administrative positions) and then got UVSC to "constructivize" it's ed department, but BYU was already ahead of that game.  For years people have thought there was a grant of some kind given to ASD to put the program in but we couldn't find anything in the way of evidence of it.  Now details about BYU's grant are being forced out into the public sector.  Read about Margaret Dayton's efforts here:

Orem senator wants to know how BYU grant money is used
http://www.heraldextra.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=247954

Media Articles

If you're a principal, here's what not to send out in a memo to teachers:

"If you are not passing more than 65 percent of your students in a class, then you are not designing your expectations to meet their abilities, and you are setting your students up for failure, which, in turn, limits your success as a professional."

Read the article here:

http://wcbstv.com/local/central.park.east.2.610529.html

Another article sent to me examines why public education is failing.  The author after pointing out the fuzzy math problem goes into the social engineering aspects of public school and what isn't being taught anymore.  He examines a book being used in some classes called "The Book of Questions" which no longer uses actual facts to teach from but gets kids to learn why the Sierra Club should be their hero, and are taught about human rights under the U.N. instead of the constitution in civics class.  There's more disgusting stuff if you want to read it here:

http://www.newswithviews.com/DeWeese/tom100.htm

Warriors of the Promised Land (Book of Mormon Card Game - LDS readers)

I know a lot of you aren't LDS but most of you are and this was so cool to me I had to share it.  Just before Christmas I was in a Seagull Book store and saw this card game.  Normally I'm not impressed with the LDS game market but the price was right (under $10) and the cards looked pretty neatly done, so I took a chance and purchased the game. 

Christmas morning we opened it up. I was thinking the game was like the Pokemon trading cards game or Harry Potter collectable card game and in a way that's correct except there are no booster packs to purchase and more than 2 players can play at the same time.  I can't tell you how impressed I am with the game.  There are 2 very large decks of cards in the set.  The first deck contains all the major characters from the Book of Mormon.  If they are righteous or wicked it's noted with a yellow or red colored dot respectively in the top corner.  Each card has icons on it that represent what types of "armory" cards (second deck) that the character can use. For example, Captain Moroni can use a sword card but Amalakiah can't use a faith card.  Captain Moroni gets bonuses when played against an opponent using a deception card as well. 

The game is just brilliantly thought out and with historical facts on the cards it teaches players about the book as well.  Here's a link to see how beautifully done the game is and I encourage you to pick up a copy.  Click the quickstart tutorial if you want to see how the game is played.

http://www.bookofmormonbattles.com/Game/WotPL.htm

Till next time,

Oak Norton

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