Sometimes you have to match the lesson to the mood of the day, where the students are. It was on a rainy gray day this week that I decided that rather than work on programming we'd have some quality time with the compass.

I asked the fifth graders to make an isometric grid of triangles by hand. This isn't difficult at all using a compass. If you keep the radius the same and just keep making more circles at every intersection the grid emerges.

It was a good lesson.

I think I must be their strangest teacher. Half of the time I'm asking them to convert numbers to other bases, crack encoded messages, write short programs.

The other half I'm like "let's relax and draw a billion circles and think about how lovely the patterns are."

Using tools like the compass is on the list of "mechanical tool/skills" and I worry that young people don't get enough practice with things that require that kind of dexterity.

I think it's great.

I think I must be their strangest teacher. Half of the time I'm asking them to convert numbers to other bases, crack encoded messages, write short programs.

The other half I'm like "let's relax and draw a billion circles and think about how lovely the patterns are."

Using tools like the compass is on the list of "mechanical tool/skills" and I worry that young people don't get enough practice with things that require that kind of dexterity.

I think it's great.

@futurebird I wish I had a math teacher like you

I think I must be their strangest teacher. Half of the time I'm asking them to convert numbers to other bases, crack encoded messages, write short programs.

The other half I'm like "let's relax and draw a billion circles and think about how lovely the patterns are."

Using tools like the compass is on the list of "mechanical tool/skills" and I worry that young people don't get enough practice with things that require that kind of dexterity.

I think it's great.

@futurebird good job. i'm convinced dexterity enhances thinking.

@barrygoldman1

Personally, I think so too. There is a kind of thinking one can do through drawing, it isn't about the result of the pen on the paper but the motion of creating it. It helps to make the geometric forms tangible things that you can feel.