1) What is the purpose behind this week's investigations and video-watching? I think the purpose was to make us more comfortable with math class since I know a lot of people don't feel comfortable in a math class and I appreciate that because I think it's important to make people feel comfortable. 2) Give an overview of all activities and videos So first we did a problem about making as small a number of squares possible in a 11x13 square. The next mini-project was the Squares To Stairs, in which we had to analyze the pattern of the steps, activity three was the hailstone sequence! Activity four was painted cubes, where we had to calculate how many sides of the squares would be covered in paint if the cube was to be dipped in paint. 3) Choose two messages from from any of the five videos we watched, then explain the personal significance. I choose to do the Mistakes Are Powerful and Our Brains Think About Math Visually videos. I chose the Mistakes Are Powerful because I make a lot of mistakes and in Middle School, I had the same teacher for all my three years attending, and she just got fed up everytime someone made a mistake, even when we just started out. She wanted us to get everything right immediately, and she just seemed very saccharine to me, because she would act like it was 'good' that we made a mistake, but then instead of exploring why we did and how we could fix it, she just gave us instruction and told us to fix it. I chose the Visually video for very much the same reason. This teacher, who no longer teaches at our middle school, did not like it when we counted with our fingers/doodled or did anything that wasn't uniform. I, a notorious finger-counter, did not do well under this, so it's refreshing to hear that it's good and I should. 4)Provide a write-up of the problem you chose to extend. I chose to extend the hailstone sequence. I did this because I actually enjoyed this activity. I like patterns, I'm actually a very visually-artistic person and being able to see a pattern forming was awesome. You can see the photos above to view my work! (I apologize for the ink splotches-My pen was acting up when I first drew them up!) A challenge I faced was when I did # 2- You can kind of see it where I snuck in my 32! I messed up my numbers! I guess I saw a four somewhere and included that instead of the three I should have. But that's okay, because Dr. Drew pointed it out and I realized what I did wrong, so it's all good. 5) A reflection of your work and effort during the Week of Inspirational Math: how will this week inform your effort and participation in math for the rest of the year. I've noticed that if I'm actually comfortable in a classroom then the work turns out better. I was sitting with people I was comfortable with, which let me feel like I wasn't about to be judged given there was only one person I wasn't a fan of at our table. I don't like speaking out unless I want to, which is why I'm a fan of not using sticks to call out students because all you're doing then is inducing anxiety and fear into your students. I think that if we keep up on the volunteers before sticks and keep letting students feel comfortable you'll be good.