First Contact!

Yesterday I received my first 'pack' from the University regarding the MA. My initial thoughts were 'Yay. I'm on the course. I'm doing an MA!'

(Second thoughts 'What have I done?')

So what's included? A letter detailing how to prepare for the first session and a copy of the 1985 document 'Mathematics from 5 to 16'. I'm assuming that this is the response to the 1982 Cockcroft report - which I have have only learnt about many moons ago whilst on PGCE.

Our task before the first session (which is Wed 22nd Sept 2010 - must remember to put in for cover) is to read the document and make notes "with respect to similarities and differences between the mathematics espoused in the document and your own experiences and observations".

The notes are to be brought to the first session.

We are also asked to bring in something that encapsulates OUR OWN view of mathematics. It can be an object, a picture, an artefact, a document, anything we want...but we must be prepared to justify our choice.

What to take? What is mathematics to me? It's everything. It's puzzles, tasks, problems, times-tables, I'm finding it hard to pinpoint one object.

My initial thought is to find someone with a globe that I can borrow. Maths to me is about making sense of the world, explaining why and how things work in the way they do. Or a Rubik's cube? To show that maths is about the solving of problems. How about a model of the solar system? To expand the idea of explaining the way the world works into explaining the way things work in our entire universe. Other initial thoughts include a Newton's cradle, a model of the Great Pyramids, a Soma cube, a wheel, my favourite Galileo quote.  I know I'll be thinking about this for some time yet!

I'm a little concerned about a paragraph that says I should have heard from Admissions to confirm my place and complete a pre-registration process. Maybe this will come through in the next week.

So I have 17 days to do my homework - and I'm the type to leave it all to the night before! If I get a sec I might try to take a look today and make a few notes.

But first, to plan my lessons for next week!

Full time teacher AND part time student may be a tough job me-thinks!