Notes on process

by

Michael asked in the comments recently:

One question: how are you preserving all these amazing conversations?

The answer is surprisingly low-tech.

See, I have this notebook.

20130811-090211.jpg

And it’s pretty much always with me and I use it to keep track of pretty much everything in my life. So whenever we have a talk, I write it down as soon as possible afterwards. Usually within minutes.

20130811-090224.jpg

My children are now accustomed to Daddy writing in his notebook as one of many needless delays in their lives. But then it takes them like 10 requests and 20 minutes to get their shoes on and out the door, so I figure we’re even at worst.

I have made a few videos of our math talks. But that requires set up which usually spoils the moment.

I have made a few audio recordings. But people listening to them have noticed that it’s frustrating not being able to see what we’re talking about.

I will share some of each of these in future posts, and you can hunt them down at my blog, Overthinking My Teaching if you need to see or hear Griffin or Tabitha talking math with me.

Also, I applied to be a Google Glass Explorer. I never heard back. It strikes me that the first-person view of a conversation could be powerful, and that Glass would mean no set up time. Maybe someday?

In the meantime, text and photos are our medium, and the details are captured in a notebook. Photos are mostly from an iPad, which I got from the good people at TED-Ed when I made that “One is one” video.

Follow Talking Math With Your Kids on WordPress.com