Monday, December 9, 2019

Qatar teacher uses Arabic poetry to teach math

     Today I call your attention to an inspiring story -- Mohamed al-Janahi is an engineer-turned-elementary-school-math-teacher who uses Arabic poetry to help students understand mathematical concepts.  More of this story is found here,   In Arabic, in this YouTube video, al-Janahi tells of his work.
     And to add a bit of poetry in English, I offer a couple of stanzas of "Time" from my collection My Dance is Mathematics (now out of print but available online here).

from   Time       by JoAnne Growney

                  I

          The clock goes round —
          showing time a circle
          rather than a line.
          Each year's return to spring
          swirls time on time.  

                II

          Time's not
                    as Newton said —
                              the same for all —
          for I
                    am punctual,
                              and you are late. 
         You waste
                   the savings
                             I spend on you   . . .

 More stanzas for "Time" and other mathy poems are available here.

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