Discovering the Whys of Geometry, Not Just the Whats

Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month

This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.

My Students

Remember that time in geometry class, where you finally discovered why the angles of a triangle added to 180 degrees? Probably not. Most people learned math by learning the steps to solve a problem without the understanding as to why something was the way it was. That is what I am striving to change.

My school is located on the south side of Oklahoma City in the heart of gang territory.

The school population is over 90% free and reduced lunch. The students in my geometry class come to class with lots of baggage from their lives: broken families, little food at home, parents working 2 jobs, having to babysit younger siblings, as well as just being a teenager and finding who you are. I have some very bright students that find school as a refuge away from their daily lives. When I see a student stand in front of their peers and defend their work and the conclusions they have drawn from the investigation activity I have given them, that is what makes me get up in the morning and come to work.

My Project

I am not asking for anything fancy. I am asking for basic geometry supplies like compasses, packs of graph paper, packs of composition paper, rulers, protractors, of pencils,and well as some reference books. We are still using compasses, protractors, and rulers that would have been put in the trash long ago if we were at another school. Most of them broken or missing parts. I teach from the book, Discovering Geometry, which asks students to investigate scenarios and draw their own conclusions. I guide them to draw, sketch, construct, etc. and they figure it out. I am asking for notebooks, so that all the students will have a place to write down their findings and leave it in the classroom. I tried asking them to bring one for my class, but many can't.

We can all agree that America is falling behind in the race for global success in mathematics.

We need more teachers having students learn the whys of math and not just the whats. This will create better problem solvers, which will in turn create better citizens and better prepare them for the next step in life (trade school, college, military, etc.).