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We know that many of you have been wondering, "who else is involved?" We want to share with you an initial list of the teachers who have contacted us. (This list may grow as there is still time for classes to sign up.)
We're excited about your participation. As you'll see this is a diverse and fascinating group from many countries around the world, many languages, and many different age groups.
Petru's group from Romania was the first to send in their student introduction - a great description of both Romania and "fractals". You'll find a copy under the topic "Math Introductions"
We look forward to hearing from each of your classes!
Teachers Diana
Segovia and Ana Parra
Age level of students: K-4th grade Bilugual
School: WT Machan, Phoenix, AZ
We would like to participate in English and Spanish.
WT Machan is an urban city K-5 school in Phoenix
Arizona. WT Machan school has over 800 elementary students, and approximately
85% of the students are of Latino descent .Diana Segoiva's class consists
of 29 bilingual 3rd & 4th graders. Ana Parra's class
consists of 29 monolingual Spanish kindergarten kids. Diana and I are excited
to work on the project. We were wondering if you could hook us up
with another Spanish speaking class that we could keep in contact with.
We would really appreciate your help. We are new at this.
I am very interested in participating in the global network. I would like to register for my entire school.
Teacher Rosemary
Gaona
Kdg. thru 5th grade
School Name: Evans Elementary, Tempe, AZ
85281
Languages: English & Spanish
Evans Elementary School is located in Tempe, Arizona. There are 501 students at Evans in grades Kdg. through 5th grade. Our bilingual program works with the children in Kindgergarten through 3rd grade with transitioning started second semester in second grade for children who have met the transitioning criteria. Our school is technology rich in that we have a full service computer lab with 35 computers and each class room also has a computer. We would like to begin utilizing the technology we have available to enhance our students learning and give them the opportunity to learn how to research and produce information. By enabling them to share this information with class rooms located around the world and receiving information will link them to the Global learning networks.
Somos veinte y uno estudiantes de cuarto grado. Hablamos Español e Inglés. Queremos saber más del uso de las matemáticas afuera de la clase.
We are twenty one fourth grade students. We speak Spanish and English. We want to know more about the use of math outside of the classroom.
http://www.mind.net/pes/cuarto/bauer/bauer3.html
http://otn.uoregon.edu
Teacher Carole
Sutherland
Age level of students: third grade
School Name: Marengo Elementary School
Our school is located in South Pasadena which
is a small suburb just north of Los Angeles. We have 19 students
in our 3rd grade class. There are 13 girls and 6 boys in the class. We
are planning to be connected to the Internet in December. Our favorite
subjects are reading, math, science and art. I am interested in finding
a math project for my third graders.
I will soon be getting a school acct. and will
update you then. This is my home acct. I will be starting within
the next week. I am interested in "What Mathematics Means to Me"
and "Everyday Math in My Community" also "Geometry All Around US"
We will do these as special projects in three classes. I am also
trying to interest other teachers in my school to participate. I
heard about the project through Dimacs at Rutgers University and Brother
Pat Carney.
I am interested in "What Mathematics Means to
Me" and "Everyday Math in My Community" also "Geometry All Around
US" We will do these as special projects in three classes (high school?).
I am also trying to interest other teachers in my school to participate.
Thanks for a great idea.
Qué alegría encontrar vuestra respuesta! Deseo información sobre la propuestas de Proyecto Orillas, de cuyas características me interioricé en Callus, a efectos de poder proponerlo a escuelas primarias o EGB de aquí, pues me pareció muy interesante el trabajo interdisciplinario entre Matenática y Lengua ,que es mi área. Yo doy clases en una EGB y me gustaría que mis alumnos participaran, aunque la propuesta me parece interesante para hacerla extensiva a otras escuelas.
Teacher Dr.
Sally Lima
College-Pre-Student Teachers Lock Haven University
We are about 50 seniors in college, mostly white,
2/3 female, 100% elementary education majors. Many are from rural
background.
I teach Spanish Literacy and Math to all of the LEP kids at our school, a total of about 75 students from 1st through 5th grades. I am also a computer addict and would like opportunities to expose my students to the use of computers in meaningful ways. I am also very interested in connecting my students with other children from diverse communities in order to help them to grow globally". Your current projects sound just perfect for what we have planned in our classroom in the upcoming days. Thank you so much for including us!
We are from "Aguas Buenas" [Good Water], a town known for its caves and clear water. We are in the mountains, at the center of Puerto Rico. (grades 4-6?)
Somos de Aguas Buenas, el pueblo de las cuevas y las aguas claras. Estamos en la montana, al centro de PR.
Our school serves K-8 grades, 298 students (1 class at each grade level) We have a small lab which accomodates about 15 students at a time. Children will work in the computer lab at least 2 x per week. I want them to learn the excitement of exploration and research with other children around the world.
My students are a group of inner city eighth graders who range in skills from fifth grade to high school and are learning how to work together on small group projects. So this would be great one for them. (interested in society, equity, math, geography)
An Idea of Your Own "Watch a fractal, or watch
infinity" We are studying in Romania, Enescu's and Nadia Comaneci's country.
Math is our passion. A lot of students won some prize at National Math
Contests. We want to connect you and to share our experience! A new idea
is fascinating us! Fractals in Logo Geometry. We invite you to discover
a new world!
(middle school)
In this message you'll find the student introduction from Petru's group. If you'd like to say hello now, send a note to petrud@estcomp.ro with a copy to orillas-math@igc.apc.org Otherwise, we'll plan on exchanging comments and reactions to the different messages at the beginning of December.
We are Math Group from School Nr. 10, Focsani, Romania! We'd like to participate in project "Connecting Math to Our Lives". We are living in Focsani (pron. foc-shani), Vrancea county, Romania. Our town is situated in Europe (East longitude 26 grade and North latitude 46 grade).
"The Vrancea county is the image of the Romanian country at a small size. Various relief and the most different vegetation is to be found here..."[Simion Mehedinti (1869-1962), born in Vrancea, Romanian geograph, professor at the University in Bucharest.]Vrancea county, loaded with history and legend, blending together the memory of the past and the present, is situated at the South-Est of Romania at the crossing of old commercial roads, in a zone of incomparable beauties in the split point of the Oriental Carpathians. The total surface of this region is about 436 skm. You can find here a various forms of relief as mountains, hills and plate also. This very complex physico- geografical unit organized as archaical human comunity is one of the most interesting region of Romania. The first Vrancea's map was published in 1737 by Dimitrie Cantemir, prince of Moldavia. The most important cities of county are 5: Focsani, district capital, Adjud, Marasesti, Odobesti and Panciu.
CULTURE
Vrancea's art is rich and varied. The roots of
literature grew up from the chronicles written by Miron Costin and Ion
Neculce, in the XVth century. The literature from the 15th to 18th century
was primarily religious. The dominant literary form in the 19th century
was history and a number of major works promoted the idea of the Latinity
of the origins and language of the Romanian people. The major figures of
the period where Grigore Alexandrescu, Alexandru Vlahuta, Hortensia Papadat-
Bengescu, Duiliu Zamfirescu (the creator of the cyclic romanian novel)
and Alecu Russo,that one discovered "Mioritza"="Little Ewe Lamb"-is the
most famous folk poem:
"Where the mountains mate
There is Eden's gate... "
The most outstanding figures from Vrancea are:
Gheorghe Tattarescu, a painter, Ion Mincu, a remarkable architect, Stefan
and Gheorghe Longinescu, Anghel Saligni, Simion Mehedinti, men of science.
HISTORY
Vrancea was the link between the 3 historical
regions Moldavia, Muntenia and Transilvania.In 1859, when colonel Alexandru
Ioan Cuza was elected the common prince of the Muntenia and Moldavia, the
center of the Vrancea's county, Focsani became the symbol of the Union.
In the First World War, Romanians bravely struggled for their freedom.
The Romanian Army fought for each piece of their land."No one goes further!"
was the slogan of the Romanian solders. In Marasesti, Marasti, Soveja they
victoriously succeeded to stop their enemy. 4 mausoleums were built in
order to glory their memory.
ECONOMY
The level of economic development is the result
of interaction between the mains field of activities: agriculture, industry
and forestry. There is almost 35,000 ha of vineyard and from this point
of view, Vrancea being the most important vineyard in Romania. Also there
is a large scale of agriculture products as cereals, fruits and vegetables.
The main industrial activities are in the chemical area, textile, metallurgy,
woodwork.
We are proposing an idea: "Watch a fractal, or watch infinity"
Introduction:
In March 1980 the mathematician Dr. Benoit Mandelbrot saw appear on his computer screen something that would change his life completely. Many compare his discovery to Newton's discovery of the universal laws of mechanics. On his screen for the first time the Mandelbrotset appeared, a graph of an extraordinary nature. When magnified the same graph appears again. It repeats itself into infinity. This discovery introduced a completely new field in Mathematics: Fractal Geometry.
Simple mathematical formulae that can generate complex patterns, patterns that resamble natural shapes and that seem to repeat themselves again and again. When we look at the wiring in our brains, the way plants grow, de structure of rockformations, clouds, it appears that there is a general law as to how nature generates complex patterns.
Applying fractal geometry is a subject of study in many scientific fields Medical science, meteorology and telecommunication benefit from this new science. By the year of 2001 every image you see, no matter on television or in a newspaper, will be sent by using fractal formulae. In this program Mandelbrot looks back at his discovery: 'The beauty of the Mandelbrotset was extraordinary especially because it came so unexpectedly. That day in May 1980 my life was enlighted by an intellectual and esthetic revelation.'
Why fractals? A new world was borned last
year, when we try fractals with Logo. Let's discovering this math's beauty
together!
Idea original: Poesia y la geometria
La actividad consiste en que los estudiantes
redactan poemas utilzando lenguaje y conceptos geometricos. La segunda
actividad, Informes orales sobre sus pasatiempos y en que medida ellos
aplican la geometria o algun concepto matematico.
High school students write poems using geometry concepts and language. Also reports about hobbies than are related to geometry or math concepts.
Kirill
Kyrgyzstan (English)
Hello, my name is Kirill. I am from Kyrgyzstan.
I am interested in math project.
I am searching for math patterns in literature.
I am sure that you already know some texts about numbers or triangle....
in your national treasure (poems, paintings.....). Or write a poem
about formula or find mathematicians (if any) in your money bills... What
do you think how many mathematicians, who ever
lived are printed on banknotes or post stamps? Do we even see
those pictures?
I will make a central web page on our server.
You can send material to me, I will put them on web or you
can make your own web and I will make a link
to it. I will send you an URL soon. Best wishes to all teachers
in Orillas center....
Hello there! I am a mathematics teacher currently busy in my first year of teaching. I would like to hear from other mathematics teacher who are willing to share ideas and advice. (note from Kristin: Zena's students are taking exams and won't be able to participate now but she was interested in staying in touch with the group).
Welcome to the students of Willow Elementary! iBienvenidos!
Teachers: Gabriela Mafi and Virginia Robledo working in partnership
http://www.members.aol.com/GabrielaAM/ENLACE.html
http://www.members.aol.com/GabrielaAM/Enlace2.html
Age level: 11-12 years (6th grade) and 8-9 years
(3rd grade)
School: Willow Elementary in ABCUSD
Activities which we are most interested in are:
Everyday Math in my community
Statistics and society and some student-driven
math research involving equity issues
At current, we have only access at our school site to regular mail, but hope for district funding for wiring and hardware to facilitate e-mail and the WWW.
Our two classes, third and sixth, are already buddies. We are just beginning a buddy reading and technology mentoring program between our two classes, with students meeting with their buddies weekly for reading and technology. Mrs. Mafi's 6th grade class is very heterogenous, consisting of 32 students from many ethnic/racial backgrounds: African-American, Latino, Philipino and South-east Asian. Mrs. Robledo's class of 20 is primarily Latino, mixed with African-American and Caucasian. Our students reside in a very multiethnic, low socio-economic area of East Lakewood (some reside in Hawaiian Gardens).
My homeroom (6th grade) has already been doing
some statistical studies, creating their own relevant questions, surveying
students, organizing the data and creating pie charts using Word '97. Our
computer access, at present, is very limited, with one computer shared
between a grade-level (3-6 teachers, depending on the level). We're hoping
that our participation in this project might also help us to secure district
funds for additional access, including wiring for internet, which we currently
do not have. At home, I do have this e-mail account and I have created
a few school web pages on my own.
Student
Spotlight! is one such page, and a link to the other three, which will
be updated in the next week with our sixth grade update /newsletter created
by students. I'd be happy to include a mention of the networking project
on those pages.
Since we've just come aboard, we may not have as much to share within the next few weeks, but will be working these next few weeks to prepare for the anticipated interaction in December. Until we get on-line access at school, I'll have to have students write in Word or Works and send things as attachments through my home computer.
Teachers: Michelle
Gonsalves & Sarah
Lazarotti
School: Don Gaspar de Portola School
In which language(s) would you like to participate?
Spanish & English
Sarah and I team teach, in order to serve 2 bilingual first grade classes (Bilingual classes = 50% native Spanish speakers and 50% native English speakers). We are located in Livermore, CA, just off highway 580 East, in the East Bay San Francisco area, in a suburb. Our school population is diverse in terms of socio economics, approximately 1/2 of the students' parents work in service industries and 1/2 are professionals. All the students in our first grade classes are learning in both English and Spanish.
Bienvenidos a los estudiantes de Chugiak, Alaska!
Teacher: Nerissa Torres
Hola yo soy la Sra. Torres desde Alaska y soy la maestra de 4to y 5to grado en un programa de inmersion en espanol en Alaska. Le enseno matematica a 32 estudiantes de 4to grado y otras demas asignaturas en espanol a 32 estudiantes mas de 5to grado. Todo lo que enseno lo hago en espanol y me encantaria que mis ninos participaran en este programa. Estamos en Chugiak, Alaska a 25 millas hacia el norte de la ciudad de Anchorage. Ahora es frio pero no tan frio gracias a el Nino. Nos ha traido un invierno bastante bueno hasta hoy.
Estoy interesada pero siento tengo mucho que aprender antes de poder participar activamente. Este es solo mi segundo ano como maestra y todo es nuevo para mi. Gracias por su ayuda. Ahora mismo el sistema que estamos utilizando para ensenar matematicas es Everyday Math y no todo esta traducido al espanol y yo enseno en espanol asi que hay cosas que tengo que traducir.Que programas utilizan ustedes en este proyecto de matematicas?
Hi. I received your message about the International Networking Project from the NCEA. I am _very_ excited to have found more teachers who share an interest in socially relevent math, and I hope to take part in the future. I have a project of my own that I'd like to tell you about that is directly related to your work. But first, an introduction:
I am a HS math teacher with two years experience. I am currently doing a Masters degree at the University of Wisconsin- Madison and plan to return to the classroom next fall (At that point I would be interested in taking part if the school where I find a job has the proper equipment). I bring experience in the fine arts, engineering, and work for social justice to my job. After a recent discussion with Bob Peterson about his work and my project, the Critical Mathematics Library, he invited me to submit an article about the need for socially- and critically-oriented math teaching to Rethinking Schools. (I will probably mention your project in my article unless you object.)
...I've created a form letter about the Critical Mathematics Library. It's a bit long, but it gives all of the relevent information. I would very much appreciate your reading it... What I would like from you is that you too would share any information or materials you can with the collection, and that you help me get in touch with potentially interested teachers.
What I will do for you is to forward your message to about 100 math educators worldwide who have expressed interest in my project. I look forward to working together in one way or another in the future. Best of luck as you work to get your project off the ground!
I have started a project with my students aiming to relate math with future careers that students are interested at. We have some discussions in class and students made up questionnaires to take home and interviewed friends and relatives on how math can help them to succeed at work. Students have also done some research on different careers and wrote reports on their findings. Some of the professions that they are interested at are: Architect, Accountant, Actuary and Astronaut.
We are now looking for contacts whom we can send
e-mails to and find out more on the part of math in career development.
Eventually, my class will use video conferencing
to talk to different professionals so that they may have some first hand
information without leaving their classroom. Your names were given to me
by our technology consultant, Kristin Brown. I greatly appreciate your
input in our project.
Hello to all the classes in the "Connecting Math to Our Lives" Project!
We'd like to introduce you to Melin Martinez and Cecilia Rodriguez, and their students at Mission View Elementary in Tucson, Arizona. In her introduction, Melin wrote:
"I have 18 students, 10 Spanish and 8 English. I have one girl with special physical needs. We started our math collages. We interviewed some adults re: math in their life. We are working with multiplication, division and money problems at this time. (We don't want to ignore the other strands.) We also have an idea of our own for the project: Boys vs. Girls attitudes towards math in 1st grade and 5th grade."
Participation: Kelly joined late and said she would carry out a stats project in April. But her ideas were fascinating and critical (I met her at CABE) and so I'd like to include them. Felipe Zatarain gave her some good feedback which we might want to include.
Hello to all in the math project. In this message you'll find a message of introduction from Patti McLain.
Saludos a todos. A continuacion encontraran una
descripcion de las actividades que los estudiantes de Patti McLain estan
llevando a cabo en su clase de matematicas.
Introductory note from Kristin & Enid
Dear Patti and the teachers at Fairmount and Almond Avenue Schools,
Welcome to the "Connecting Math to our Lives"
project! This sounds like a wonderful research project. As we mentioned
in our last note, many teachers are now ready
to move into a phase of using math to raise critical questions and solve
problems regarding equity issues and other situations at their schools
and in society. We looking forward to hearing more as your project develops.
If other schools would like to join the students
in Livermore and San Francisco in the biographies project, please see the
"Connecting Math to Our Lives" project announcement for more details about
this activity.
(Or write to orillas-math@igc.apc.org)With
warm regards, Kristin and EnidQuerida Patti y todos los maestros de
las escuelas de Fairmount y Almond Avenue,
Bienvenidos al proyecto Conectando las matematicas
a nuestras vidas. Su propuesta de trabajo parece ser un proyecto muy interesante.
Como hemos mencionado antes, muchos maestros estan en la etapa de
integrar las matematicas mediante procesos criticos para cuestionar y resolver
asuntos de equidad, asi como otros asuntos en sus escuelas y sociedades.
Estaremos pendientes del desarrollo de tu proyecto.
Si otras escuelas desean unirse al proyecto de
las biografias, favor de referirse a la convocatoria del proyecto
Conectando las matematicas a nuestras vidas para mas detalles sobre
esta actividad.
(O escriba a orillas-math@igc.apc.org)
We are an elementary school in Livermore California. We are working with K-5 students on this project. We are working with buddy classes from a school in San Francisco. We are looking at biographies in school libraries, local neighborhood libraries and together we will study the San Francisco Main Library Childrens Section. If anyone would like to do the same in another place, we could compare our results.
This project has taken off in so many directions! What fun! We have 6 classes all working on different aspects of the project and a buddy class from an immersion school in SF. We discovered that we needed to begin by helping students understand what a biography is - they begin by writing one about a person they know.. and one about a person that they don't know but simply have information from an interview (how do you know the data is correct??). Then they're counting the biographies at school, main library and in SF with buddies. They're learning about using other people's data to prepare reports (asking how should it be interpreted and what kinds of questions can be asked about validity of data now that you have been a part of the process of collecting the data). It all sounds complex for 6-7-8 year olds, but we've got it down to some really fun activities. Be more than happy to share all with you...because it involves two languages, writing skills, internet and culture, math...could we get more in there?
Mensaje de Patti:
Estamos localizados en una escuela elemental de Livermore, California. Estamos llevando acabo un proyecto con estudiantes del K al 5 grado. El mismo consiste en crear parejas entre clases con una escuela en San Francisco. Los estudiantes estudian las biografias que se encuentran en la biblioteca escolar, la biblioteca de la comunidad y juntos estudiaremos la Seccion para Ninyos de la Biblioteca Principal de San Francisco. Seria muy interesante que otras escuelas se unan para poder comparar los resultados.
Hello!
I am facilitating a bilingual after-school program with 16 students in grades 2-6. I have one Mandarin Chinese speaker and the rest are from Spanish-speaking homes. This can change because my program is open to any limited English proficient students who choose to participate.
We are located in an inner-city school with children
coming from predominantly low socio-economic backgrounds, although the
Mandarin Chinese-speaking student's parents were both doctors in China!
Our school is located 5 blocks from the Hudson
River and 5-10 blocks from the State Capitol building. Our city numbers
less than 100,000 at present. I'd be glad to share any other demographics
and geographical information that you might find helpful.
The Bilingual EXCEL after-school program meets Tuesdays and Thursdays from 3pm to 4pm from January 27th to May 28th. The present participants include 6 second graders, 4 third graders, 5 fifth graders, and 1 sixth grader. Fifteen of the students are from Puerto Rico and one student is from China. We have written poetry and are presently researching and reporting about different countries in Latin America as well as China. At the moment, the school is not on the Internet, but we've been told that we may be before the semester is over. ¡Vamos a ver! (We'll see!)
I'm especially interested in "Promoting Equity at Our School Site/Community". My students would like to work on the biographies/ math project. I like the idea Patti Mclain shared with us regarding going through the school library and public library to tally the gender, ethnicity, race, social class, etc. of the biographies.
I originally heard about Orillas a number of years ago at a New York State Association for Bilingual Education conference. I read about it again in Brave New Schools. I see the Orillas project as being qualitatively different from some other projects because it is focused on gathering and analyzing information for social justice purposes, whereas pen-pal connections are more individually student-oriented as opposed to collective-response based. I tend to see Orillas as an extension of what Paolo Freire embodied, but for young people!
