Monday, August 2, 2010

Let's Talk About Math!


Here I unveil my new cupcake display. I had been wanting to get one of these, but just never really had the reason. Since I decided I would make these cupcakes for an important meeting we were having I figured now was the time to buy one of these. So, you are probably wondering what in the heck these are. It's no surprise that I decided to make these with chocolate cake and cream cheese icing (I know, I need to start branching out more), but what are those funny things on the cupcakes you ask. Well, they are talk or thought bubbles to represent each of the five talk moves for having a productive mathematics discussion - Wait Time, Revoicing, Restating, Prompting, and Applying. For more about these "tasty" moves you should check out the book by Chapin, O'Connor, and Anderson where these moves originated. You can find it on Amazon. The book was written with elementary math classes in mind, but one of the projects I worked on this year was in the process of developing PD materials for middle and high school teachers centered around these moves. I also discussed these moves in my secondary methods course (so some of you might remember them!) The bubbles are made out of Wilton fondant and I used my new gourmet food markers made by TCP Global (who actually makes paint for cars - go figure!) I love the new markers. They are great! So much better than the marker I used for the iterated cupcakes. It was so easy to write on the fondant. Anyway, these were not only pretty tasty, but where great discussion pieces and since these moves are all about discussion - it was perfect!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Have you thought of using a lemon filling with your favorite chocolate? If done with enough tang, it can be fantastic.

Lorraine said...

A lemon filling does sound fantastic. Thanks for the suggestion. Keep them coming! I tend to spend so much time on decorating the top that the cake suffers! :-(

Unknown said...

WHOAAAAAAA!!!!! Math is cool and delicious.

Unknown said...

My girlfriend and I agree that it was a mistake for you to never bring cupcakes to class...

Lorraine said...

Jeff - Totally! Math is delicious - you'll have to teach your students that! I did make cupcakes like the MSU PhD cupcakes (on this blog) for the last day of TE408 this year. I would have done it for your class except I really just got into making cupcakes this past year. So, I guess I owe you a cupcake!

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