Random Thought Thursday part 4

I wish I could tell you that what you see in the photo above is all the writing instruments I have in the apartment, but I am an honest person, and I must confess that this isn't all I have to make my artwork. I mainly teach students geometry in my school, but I am such a social butterfly that I end up subbing in many of the classrooms if a teacher is away due to illness or other absences. Every year I buy sets of crayons, pencils, and markers for my students to use in the classroom, and I encourage kids to explore the subjects I teach in creative ways. I never want a lack of art supplies to get in the way of my teaching, so I always have them on hand. If we are reading a text, many times my students will end up doing group work to explore the concepts and present their understanding of the information. Everyone in the group has a role in the presentation, and one of those roles is the "artist" for the group. These visuals help the students consolidate the information into a single image, and they help their peers remember the key points with the images created. My geometry students are encouraged to explore their hobbies when presenting four projects a year to demonstrate knowledge and application of theorems and postulates learned in the course. Sometimes my art supplies can be helpful to get a project sketched out before completing it at home.

All good things must come to an end, though, and so as the school year comes to a close, my art supplies get retired to my home, where I get to play and create with them all summer. Something about the teacher in me still gets a kick out of buying fresh school supplies for my students at the beginning of a new school year. Humor me; it is my small, guilty pleasure, but I try to stay out of the art store the rest of the year! ;-)

My mind is a playground. Sometimes I confuse myself as to whether I am more math-minded or artistically inclined. I think it depends on the day, but really great days are days when I combine both art and math. They REALLY merge well together. The old masters used to incorporate math and art together. When I was changing majors in college from Computer Engineering to Graphic Design with a minor in math, I tried to incorporate a lot of art into my math work and a lot of math into my art work. I once did a presentation on the Fibonacci series and the Golden Ratio using Geometer's Sketchpad to demonstrate the proportions in some famous paintings and statues. It was one of my favorite projects, and my professor had me present my work to the math department of the university. I wish I still had access to my work, but this was in the time of ZIP disks! I have not been able to find a zip drive to open my file, and unfortunately, I did not save my work in any other format.

When I play chess, it really excites my whole brain, and my creative mind and mathematical curiosity are satisfied in a really well-matched game of chess. It seems obvious why math lovers would love the game of chess. When playing well, it involves a lot of calculation and combinations. I love when I can actually concentrate and play a good game. I have many chess sets, as mentioned in one of my previous blog posts, and I really do appreciate the beauty of a well-made set. I would love to have a creative, hand-carved wooden chess set. I have yet to find a beautiful set that really stands out as a conversation piece for my coffee table, mainly because the most interesting sets are unaffordable to me. This is all about the physical beauty of the game, though. Like a great song, I believe chess has a more poetic beauty as players compete in the wonderful rhythm of the game. I love to play in a rather rowdy chess club with a lot of fun banter being dished out often. Every now and then, when fewer people are present, I get to enjoy a long, classical game in the open air with just the sound of the breeze and the birds chirping in the background as I and my opponent play through the moves. The motion on the chess board, like a dance, holds our conversation for us. Those moments are a thing of beauty for me too.

Back to my pen collection: I am a very visual learner, so often I color-code what I am trying to remember in my notebooks. Once I have written my notes, I rarely have to revisit the pages because I can see the image of the page in my mind. The colors make it easy to recall because text converts to an image in my mind. If you are a note-taker, I wonder if adding colors might help you boost your memory too. If you try it out, leave me a comment; I would love to hear about it. As for the sub-title of this blog post, "Where's my pen?" It's kind of an inside joke with my sons. Whenever I say that, I get sarcastic looks from them like, "Seriously, mom?" They know we are not at a loss for writing instruments around here!

Have a wonderful day!
Cheers!