What was your greatest 'learning' this semester with regard to teaching children mathematics? How has your thinking shifted?
Reflecting back on this semester, and when we had our first math class I had no idea what to expect. I was walking in with no expectations, and a little nervous. I have always had a love hate relationship with math, and that has always made me nervous when I thought about how someday I would have to teach it. After having hands on experience with a number of activities in class and participating in the SNAP math fair, as well as teaching a lesson. I feel that I now have more confidence to teach a math class, that will not only be fun for the students but for me as well.
My greatest learning definitely resulted from the realization that math is more than just one 'right' answer. I have always thought of math as being right or wrong, you either solved the problem correctly, and got full marks, or you didn't. I was so surprised by how open ended math could actually be, and that you can design lessons where students can be told that they are right, even if they did do a problem different than another student. It makes me feel a lot more comfortable knowing, that I won't have to tell a student of mine that they are wrong, or mark an X on their paper. I also come to realize, that math is much more then just assessment, it does not have to be all about assignments, and tests.
I really enjoyed the SNAP math fair, and being able to go around and view a number of different problems that were all open ended, and had more then one correct answer. It made math fun, and less frustrating because you didn't have to worry about if you solved the problem the right away. I really wish we did more activities like that when I was in school, instead of always doing seat work from the textbook or handouts. I also really liked teaching a short lesson that dealt with open ended questions too. It was a great learning experience finding a problem and forming a lesson plan with it, and then being able to teach it. There are a lot of materials that you can use in your classrooms to help teach math to students and make it fun and enjoyable for them, which was something I never knew until this course.
Overall, I enjoyed this course and all it had to offer, it was a great learning experience and I feel better prepared to teach mathematics!
Thanks for everything!
Sunday, 6 April 2014
Monday, 3 March 2014
Exploring Mathematics From Kindergarten To Grade Six
Last week during our math class, we got the opportunity to take a look in to what each math curriculum looks like for both the primary and elementary grades. For me, this was the first time I have had the chance to look at each grade and become familiar with the outcomes and materials. Before this class, I had a total different perspective on math, especially in the primary level. I was expecting we would walk into a classroom be giving the curriculum guide and textbook without any other teacher resources. I have had the chance to see a few math classes being taught during my observation days, but I never got to become really hands on and have the chance to actual look through the materials.
I have always been nervous about the idea of teaching math to the primary grades, because it isn't like the elementary grades where they learn about multiplication, division, geometry, or any other harder math concepts you can think of. For me, the primary grades made me almost scared because this is the beginning of many math courses to come. If you teach the basic math skills at this grade level poorly, then you will affect many students in the next grades to come, it always seemed like so much pressure to me. I was actually surprised to see how many resources are available for teachers, like illustrated storybooks that can be used to help teach basic number skills and concepts, ideas for activities that were listed throughout the storybooks and curriculum guides. Also the language is wrote in such a way that it would be easy for young students to understand and make meaning from. After reviewing each primary grade, I now feel much better and that I would be able to teach a math class much more effectively knowing that I have many resources to help guide my teaching.
As the grade levels increased I was surprised about how much more in depth the textbooks were, and how much more boring the pages became. There was no colourful pictures like in the primary resources, no storybooks, it almost seemed like math became less fun. The textbook was nothing but examples and problems on each page that the students could complete.
Overall, I was happy to become familiar with what is available resource wise that I can use in my classrooms for teaching mathematics. I feel that knowing I have something to reflect back to when teaching will allow me to become a more effective teacher. Also, it reminded me that every teacher is going to approach each math class differently, and that it is really up to the teacher on how we want to teach the material. Another important thing to remember is as a teacher, its extremely important to keep the students interests and needs our top priority, and not to get caught up in teaching the curriculum exactly how it is wrote, but to incorporate our own creativity into it and be sure to make learning fun for the students.
I have always been nervous about the idea of teaching math to the primary grades, because it isn't like the elementary grades where they learn about multiplication, division, geometry, or any other harder math concepts you can think of. For me, the primary grades made me almost scared because this is the beginning of many math courses to come. If you teach the basic math skills at this grade level poorly, then you will affect many students in the next grades to come, it always seemed like so much pressure to me. I was actually surprised to see how many resources are available for teachers, like illustrated storybooks that can be used to help teach basic number skills and concepts, ideas for activities that were listed throughout the storybooks and curriculum guides. Also the language is wrote in such a way that it would be easy for young students to understand and make meaning from. After reviewing each primary grade, I now feel much better and that I would be able to teach a math class much more effectively knowing that I have many resources to help guide my teaching.
As the grade levels increased I was surprised about how much more in depth the textbooks were, and how much more boring the pages became. There was no colourful pictures like in the primary resources, no storybooks, it almost seemed like math became less fun. The textbook was nothing but examples and problems on each page that the students could complete.
Overall, I was happy to become familiar with what is available resource wise that I can use in my classrooms for teaching mathematics. I feel that knowing I have something to reflect back to when teaching will allow me to become a more effective teacher. Also, it reminded me that every teacher is going to approach each math class differently, and that it is really up to the teacher on how we want to teach the material. Another important thing to remember is as a teacher, its extremely important to keep the students interests and needs our top priority, and not to get caught up in teaching the curriculum exactly how it is wrote, but to incorporate our own creativity into it and be sure to make learning fun for the students.
Thursday, 30 January 2014
YouCubed a new approach to math teaching and learning
As a future teacher having access to different resources will become extremely helpful when developing lesson plans, and can also be used for finding new ideas/examples that you can include in your teaching. Youcubed is a new resource that a future teacher or a parent can use to make reference to for mathematics. Youcubed is a non-profit organization that provides FREE Kindergarten to Grade 12 resources as well as professional development for teachers and parents.
After taking some time to explore Youcubed, I found several things that surprised me and things that also intrigued me;
One for example is in the article, Twelve Steps To Increase Your Child's Math Achievement and Make Math Fun, it says that you should not call your child smart because it can be damaging to the child. This surprised me because in my opinion I would want to be praised when I do good, and to be told that I am smart. It improves your self confidence, and even when you do fail and make mistakes it should not make you feel less smart because you got it wrong, everyone makes mistake. Which is what I would explain to my child when the situation occurred and they did not do their best or received a bad mark. It doesn't make them less smart, it gives them an opportunity to learn from their mistakes and to try again.
Another thing I found surprising was that they encourage teachers never to time children or encourage faster work. All through my school years, we were given deadlines on math assignments and homework to be completed, as well as regularly scheduled tests after each unit that we were expected to write in an assigned period of time. Now there is research that shows pressuring students like this can result in math anxiety. I agree that for many students feeling pressured causes them to freeze up and do poorly on exams. It will be interesting to see how much students may possibly improve if the stress of being pressured is no longer a factor in the classroom environment.
I liked how this website lists various links to games that you can use in your classroom for every grade level. Like the Glow-in-the-Dark Geometry idea, it lists the overall outcome of the activity, supplies needed, how to set up the classroom, and how to go about conducting the activity. Activities like this that are all planned out and ready to teach would be beneficial for teachers who need to think quickly on their feet for a new activity, or for a substitute teacher to follow if they need to prepare a lesson on short term notice.
There is also many more games that are available for a classroom teacher to use that they can include in their math learning center or for the students to work on once they have their assigned work completed. Also since this website is free parents can access these games and do them with their child outside of school to further help their math development.
Overall, once Youcubed gets fully operational I think it will turn out to be an excellent resource about mathematics and different approaches to take towards teaching. It is definitely something I will refer back too when I'm stuck for ideas or need help!
*For anyone who is interested in this website click here Youcubed *
After taking some time to explore Youcubed, I found several things that surprised me and things that also intrigued me;
One for example is in the article, Twelve Steps To Increase Your Child's Math Achievement and Make Math Fun, it says that you should not call your child smart because it can be damaging to the child. This surprised me because in my opinion I would want to be praised when I do good, and to be told that I am smart. It improves your self confidence, and even when you do fail and make mistakes it should not make you feel less smart because you got it wrong, everyone makes mistake. Which is what I would explain to my child when the situation occurred and they did not do their best or received a bad mark. It doesn't make them less smart, it gives them an opportunity to learn from their mistakes and to try again.
Another thing I found surprising was that they encourage teachers never to time children or encourage faster work. All through my school years, we were given deadlines on math assignments and homework to be completed, as well as regularly scheduled tests after each unit that we were expected to write in an assigned period of time. Now there is research that shows pressuring students like this can result in math anxiety. I agree that for many students feeling pressured causes them to freeze up and do poorly on exams. It will be interesting to see how much students may possibly improve if the stress of being pressured is no longer a factor in the classroom environment.
I liked how this website lists various links to games that you can use in your classroom for every grade level. Like the Glow-in-the-Dark Geometry idea, it lists the overall outcome of the activity, supplies needed, how to set up the classroom, and how to go about conducting the activity. Activities like this that are all planned out and ready to teach would be beneficial for teachers who need to think quickly on their feet for a new activity, or for a substitute teacher to follow if they need to prepare a lesson on short term notice.
There is also many more games that are available for a classroom teacher to use that they can include in their math learning center or for the students to work on once they have their assigned work completed. Also since this website is free parents can access these games and do them with their child outside of school to further help their math development.
Overall, once Youcubed gets fully operational I think it will turn out to be an excellent resource about mathematics and different approaches to take towards teaching. It is definitely something I will refer back too when I'm stuck for ideas or need help!
*For anyone who is interested in this website click here Youcubed *
Wednesday, 22 January 2014
What is Mathematics Anyway?
So what is mathematics?
This is a question that does not have a direct definition, when you type it into Google you will find pages upon pages of people, researchers, mathematicians, and many others defining mathematics in their own personal ways.
Here is what I think about Math:Counting
Numbers
Graphs
Equations
- Involves to think in depth
- Number lines
- Word problems
- Geometric shapes
- Use of calculators
- Division/multiplication
- Addition/subtraction
- Trigonometry
- BEDMASS
In a more a basic way on a website I found called www.mathisfun.com, math is defined as "The study of numbers, patterns,space, and change." This website can be used as good teacher resource for defining various terms throughout the mathematic curriculum, as well has games and practice math problems for grades 1-8.
What does it mean to do mathematics?
Everyone participates in mathematics on a daily basis without even realizing it. Math when you come to think about it is extremely important part of life, not in technically terms of doing algebra of calculus everyday or those lengthy word problems that most times make no sense whatsoever, but in terms of adding and subtraction, or counting money. These things we participate in doing everyday; like buying something, if you pay in cash you have to count out the right amount of money to pass to the cashier, and then the cashier in return has to count back out the change that you receive. If you are at the gym, you count the number of reps you do for each exercise, or when adding weight to your machines you are counting by adding and subtracting. Making supper or baking, you have to know the correct amount to measure out, or how much of an ingredient to add in. Without mathematics the simplest things we do unintentionally would become much more complicated, imagine then how confusing everything would be.
If you are thinking mathematically, what is going on?
When you think mathematically, you are using your past knowledge about mathematics and what you have been taught to solve a problem or a situation. You're using your mind to correctly solve
a mathematic equation, most times we think mathematically without even realizing that we are doing it. The good thing about math, is that even if we do not get the correct answer at first you have endless opportunities to try again, and that's all that matters at the end of the day is if you try.
Do School's Kill Creativity?
For us future teachers out there this is a question we all should put some deep thought into. If you have never put much thought into this then watch this video by Sir Ken Robinson, maybe after watching you may have a different opinion..
This quote really sums it up, like in the video Sir Ken says something along the lines of that young children are not afraid of being wrong, they will give you their thoughts and feelings without being embarrassed or afraid of the response in return. Think back to when you were younger, there probably was not much that you were afraid of, you felt invincible, that you could take on the world, many of you even pretended to be super heroes at some point. Our creative minds would run endlessly, and we had no problems to keep ourselves preoccupied. Now think to when you first started school, and you got your first test back and seen the tiny little x marks, or your teacher made you feel embarrassed for speaking your mind. After so many times of getting your comments and opinions felt to be wrong, that invincible carefree feeling we once had as young children soon being to vanish and we lose our spark of using our imaginations and creativeness in the fear of being WRONG!
As a future teacher, I appreciate that our professors take the time to show us videos like this, to help us realize that we do take the fun and creativity away from school and we do play a huge role in why children lose their creative talents and their imaginations. It gives us the opportunity to be the change in the school systems to allow each child as they enter school and go through each grade to be able to keep their creative mind without altering them to be like everyone else.
“Creativity is contagious, pass it on” – Albert Einstein
Last Thursday in our Mathematics Class our professor played this video for our class, for most of the class this was a new video to them, but for me it was my second time hearing this wonderful explanation,(the first time being in a class about the gifted child). This video captivated me yet again, Sir Ken Robinson mentioned so many true and realistic problems that happen within our school systems that I think many teachers forget is happening, and as a future teacher issues I hope I can prevent from happening.
Looking back on my days in Elementary School and High School even the first few years of University, I can remember times where my own personal opinion or my thought and ideas were considered to be "wrong" or "incorrect", but really how can someone say that your own personal opinion about a topic be wrong? Everyone is unique and different, and this is where the school systems begins to show its flaws.
“If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original.”— Ken Robinson
This quote really sums it up, like in the video Sir Ken says something along the lines of that young children are not afraid of being wrong, they will give you their thoughts and feelings without being embarrassed or afraid of the response in return. Think back to when you were younger, there probably was not much that you were afraid of, you felt invincible, that you could take on the world, many of you even pretended to be super heroes at some point. Our creative minds would run endlessly, and we had no problems to keep ourselves preoccupied. Now think to when you first started school, and you got your first test back and seen the tiny little x marks, or your teacher made you feel embarrassed for speaking your mind. After so many times of getting your comments and opinions felt to be wrong, that invincible carefree feeling we once had as young children soon being to vanish and we lose our spark of using our imaginations and creativeness in the fear of being WRONG!
“I believe this passionately: that we don’t grow into creativity, we grow out of it. Or rather, we get educated out if it.”— Ken Robinson
As a future teacher, I appreciate that our professors take the time to show us videos like this, to help us realize that we do take the fun and creativity away from school and we do play a huge role in why children lose their creative talents and their imaginations. It gives us the opportunity to be the change in the school systems to allow each child as they enter school and go through each grade to be able to keep their creative mind without altering them to be like everyone else.
“Creativity is contagious, pass it on” – Albert Einstein
Wednesday, 15 January 2014
My Math Autobiography
Looking back on my K-6 mathematics experiences:
Primary and Elementary School happened in what seems as a life time ago, but this is what I do remember about my math experiences:
- I don't remember much about how math was set up in our classroom, but I do remember that we were always seated in groups of four. I remember our teacher grouping us together in the beginning of the year and rearranging us into different groups every month.
- In grade 2 when we started with our multiplication times table our teacher made us do up a chart that we were too tape onto our desks and look at whenever we were stuck for an answer.
- We also were responsible for learning one row of of our multiplication times table every week. In the beginning of every class at the end of the week, our teacher use to ask us questions about our times table, for example what is 2x2 and we would all reply 4.
- I remember using blocks to help figure out problems. Each student was allowed to get so many counting blocks, of hundredths, tenths and ones to use at their desk. We also used coloured counters for adding and subtraction.
- My best memory of mathematics was when our grade 4 class put off a class mathlete competition against the other grade 4 class. I remember it taking place in the lunch room, and we were divided up into teams. My team had gotten second place, and I remember being so happy to go home with a ribbon to show my parents.
- I would like to think I was good at math, I always received good marks and I use to like math class and doing worksheets. Our teacher also use to allow the students who were done first to go around helping the other students and I use to enjoy being able to help my friends.
-My home room teacher was always my math teacher, I remember that I really liked my grade 2 and grade 4 teachers. They always use to make math class interesting by allowing us to help our classmates, by quizzing us and receiving a prize if we got all of their questions right. Grade 4 we did our competition against the other class that resulted in a pizza party afterwards. I would like to think that our teachers enjoyed teaching math, they always seemed to look forward to our math class, and the different activities that they would prepare for our class to participate in and they always tried to make learning math fun for the whole class.
- From what I can remember we always had unit tests, and assignments or worksheets to complete.
- Math in highschool was totally different, it was divided into three different categories, basic, academic and advanced. I was in advance math for both grade 11 and grade 12. This was much more seat structured work, with a lot of practice and homework from the text book. I enjoyed math in high school a lot mostly because we had such an amazing teacher, who always kept the atmosphere calm and relaxing in our class. He made sure to do lots of examples on the board when teaching and we were always encouraged to ask lots of questions. As a class everyone was able to develop a good relationship with him because we had two different math courses, and sometimes would have math twice in one day. He made sure that every student was working to the best of their ability and was always eager to help whenever we needed it.
- In University I completed math 1090, and math 1000.
- Math is not something I would say was my favourite subject, but I did enjoy math up until I came and took math 1000. I feel that some of the knowledge that you learn in that course you will never use in everyday life, and taking this course really stressed me out. So other then my bad experience in taking this course, math was something that I enjoyed throughout school.
- Math is something that I do use a lot in everyday life, like when I go out shopping and I want to find the exact price of something when there is a discount, and especially at my summer job as a cashier. My math background comes in handy sometimes when I have to figure something out on the spot without using my cash/computer to help assist me.
So that's a bit about my math experience!
Primary and Elementary School happened in what seems as a life time ago, but this is what I do remember about my math experiences:
- I don't remember much about how math was set up in our classroom, but I do remember that we were always seated in groups of four. I remember our teacher grouping us together in the beginning of the year and rearranging us into different groups every month.
- In grade 2 when we started with our multiplication times table our teacher made us do up a chart that we were too tape onto our desks and look at whenever we were stuck for an answer.
- We also were responsible for learning one row of of our multiplication times table every week. In the beginning of every class at the end of the week, our teacher use to ask us questions about our times table, for example what is 2x2 and we would all reply 4.
- I remember using blocks to help figure out problems. Each student was allowed to get so many counting blocks, of hundredths, tenths and ones to use at their desk. We also used coloured counters for adding and subtraction.
- My best memory of mathematics was when our grade 4 class put off a class mathlete competition against the other grade 4 class. I remember it taking place in the lunch room, and we were divided up into teams. My team had gotten second place, and I remember being so happy to go home with a ribbon to show my parents.
- I would like to think I was good at math, I always received good marks and I use to like math class and doing worksheets. Our teacher also use to allow the students who were done first to go around helping the other students and I use to enjoy being able to help my friends.
-My home room teacher was always my math teacher, I remember that I really liked my grade 2 and grade 4 teachers. They always use to make math class interesting by allowing us to help our classmates, by quizzing us and receiving a prize if we got all of their questions right. Grade 4 we did our competition against the other class that resulted in a pizza party afterwards. I would like to think that our teachers enjoyed teaching math, they always seemed to look forward to our math class, and the different activities that they would prepare for our class to participate in and they always tried to make learning math fun for the whole class.
- From what I can remember we always had unit tests, and assignments or worksheets to complete.
- Math in highschool was totally different, it was divided into three different categories, basic, academic and advanced. I was in advance math for both grade 11 and grade 12. This was much more seat structured work, with a lot of practice and homework from the text book. I enjoyed math in high school a lot mostly because we had such an amazing teacher, who always kept the atmosphere calm and relaxing in our class. He made sure to do lots of examples on the board when teaching and we were always encouraged to ask lots of questions. As a class everyone was able to develop a good relationship with him because we had two different math courses, and sometimes would have math twice in one day. He made sure that every student was working to the best of their ability and was always eager to help whenever we needed it.
- In University I completed math 1090, and math 1000.
- Math is not something I would say was my favourite subject, but I did enjoy math up until I came and took math 1000. I feel that some of the knowledge that you learn in that course you will never use in everyday life, and taking this course really stressed me out. So other then my bad experience in taking this course, math was something that I enjoyed throughout school.
- Math is something that I do use a lot in everyday life, like when I go out shopping and I want to find the exact price of something when there is a discount, and especially at my summer job as a cashier. My math background comes in handy sometimes when I have to figure something out on the spot without using my cash/computer to help assist me.
So that's a bit about my math experience!
Welcome!
This is a math blog that I will be using for my Education 3940 course at Memorial University!
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