October 17th - Body Measurement Exit Slip

Today’s class began peacefully, with each of us sitting in our garden "sit spots" and reflecting on its mathematical beauty. Writing a thank you note to the garden set a tone of appreciation and connection that influenced the rest of the day.

Initially, I was tired when I arrived, but taking a moment to simply sit, observe, and write helped me reset my energy levels. I wrote the following: 

Thank you to the garden deities who’ve erected such colorful symmetries. The radial symmetries of flower petals protruding from the center of the flower. The fractal symmetries of the now dead but preserved vertical flowers. Whose buds occur in ascendingly smaller sizes but with more togetherness as they reach toward the sun. What a gift to be in the presence of plants that grow next to bunches of friends and look wild from a distance but, when observed in close proximity, maintain such an obvious orderly mathematical structure.

The garden deities seemed to orchestrate a balance between chaos and order, an interesting perspective to potentially carry forward into math education.

Later in the class, we used body measurements as a tool to understand distance and size in the garden. Jacob and I were genuinely shocked at how accurate these body-based measurements were.

The reenergizing feeling I got from simply being outside again reminded me that learning doesn’t always need to be rigorous or formal. Sometimes, it’s about being present, observing, and letting those observations lead us to our deeper thoughts. Judging from the stimulating and funny conversation, the garden seemed to have this effect on many of us today.