The Last Math Blog Year Two

It has all come to an end. This will be my final post from my math class of year 2. It has been an amazing experience and I feel that my mindset has grown a lot over the last 6 weeks. I am really happy with the work that has been done in my time in the class. I really enjoyed using online tools to create lessons and broaden my background in mathematics. I am also thankful that we had the opportunity to create a math unit plan that I can use in my class and when I am in my placement. It is often hard to come up with different ideas and differentiate instruction but with the help of my peers we were able to create an amazing unit plan that I would be happy to use and show to my other colleagues.

I think the biggest improvement in my development as a math teacher would be the ability to incorporate technology and manipulative's into the class. Experiencing all of the webinars really provided great insight into the world of teaching with technologies. Often traditional math excludes the idea of resources outside of just pen, paper and calculator. As an educator I want to avoid that mindset and adopt the various technologies and games that we learned about throughout the course into my classroom. I also enjoyed the different manipulative's that were discussed in that class. The use of manipulative's inspired my lesson on multiplying single digit numbers by multi-digit numbers. I really wanted to do a lesson that used both physical objects and visual representations to teach a more difficult topic in grade 4 math.

The link to my lesson is below.

Math Lesson- Multiplying single digit numbers by multi-digit numbers

Finally, I think that i am ready to tackle my final placements as my second year of teachers college comes to an end.

Week 5 - Focusing on Visual Representations

We are now in the final stretch of our math class and have come across visual representations and creating a visual of our problems. Now this for me is a big struggle. I am a poor artist for one, and secondly I never wanted to spend the time drawing out my problems unless I was asked too or its was during Physics class. In Physics class, I suddenly became an artist. It was weird. Why I did not enjoy visual representation was mostly because of the instance where I spent too much time on one question trying to draw it out for bonus marks and I could not finish my test. Well, that never happened again. I could not be bothered to draw out a problem again. Until now. I've realized that it is very important depending on our learners. Not everyone is like myself, rushing through exams, finding the short-cuts and eliminating all the extra work. I know now that some individuals need that extra work sometimes just to help them understand the problem. It can be something as simple as a stick picture or some base ten blocks that can help someone take a step in the right direction. So as a teacher my attitudes have changed from when I was the student.

The manipulative I had the pleasure of using were some that I had never seen before and at this point I am not too sure if I would use them again. They were similar to base ten blocks and provided the same visual representation as them but did not have any value to them. When you think of base ten blocks you think of the single 1, the 10 stick and the 100 square. these had no values assigned to them so it was a bit confusing and I ended up using them wrong to solve my problem. I did however find a different way of using them which I found pretty interesting.

Finally I looked at the online module that was provided about visual representations and I found out that many common methods can often be recreated to be a visual representation. The example is the FOIL method. A student created a visual representation similar to area, that broke down the parts of the equation, which I thought was really interesting. It can be seen below.

Really cool week in math class, see you next week. 

Week 4-Strategies and Webinar

This week the in class and online portions of our math classes focused on the different strategies we can show our students and the different that our students may come up with. As a teacher I find being open to the idea of different strategies other than your own personal ideas extremely detrimental to a students learning. Creating a learning environment that is flexible and allows for differentiation is one way to increase a child's learning. Another would be to ask the right questions. Questions that have a wide base and high ceiling, that basically allow anyone to answer them are important. Backwards design can also be used. Start with the answer. Have your students figure out as many ways to get that answer. Do not put any limitations on their learning. The example we used in class was the number 13.

How can we make 13? Well, there are hundreds of ways to make the number 13. We can be simple and choose the equation 7 + 6 = 13. We can also be complex and say 2^3 + √25 = 13. We can then make rules, like you have to use at least six different numbers so you can have 7 + 6 +5 +8 + 3 + 10 = 13. Then our learners can be as creative as possible, fostering the creative process.

This week was also my week to present a webinar. I really enjoyed my experience with the webinar. At first, I did not know what to expect, I had never participated in or created a webinar, so I was nervous. Presentations aren’t really my thing. We (Brittany and I) prepared very well for the webinar, creating a very user-friendly webinar with multiple resources and plenty of time to prepare for participation.  When presenting our webinar things ran fairly smooth, with no technological interruptions. We had the topic of incorporating technology and games into financial literacy in the classroom. We chose to present games that had clear negative and positive attributes to create discussion, not to present the perfect game. Brittany and I wanted our participants to explain and discuss what a good technological tool is, and how they would use it in their classroom, which was our goal from the beginning; hopefully our colleagues now better understand the importance technology and financial literacy in the classroom. A big thanks to our participants for coming out and being a great audience.

                

Our webinar can be found at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9FnwheLdiI

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VAfNJLE9odOqr88pC81fUnvqjnpM8m_PpNGxz7TJuDI/edit?ts=59c152b9

Week 3 Teaching Math for all our Learners

Back at it again and this week we are taking the time to focus on all of our learners. Yes that means more differentiated instruction. This was a big topic first year and continues to be stressed this year. Basically it comes down knowing your learner, planning appropriately for those learners and being willing and able to adapt your teaching styles for your students.

This class we focused on the different types of learners you may have in your classroom. The three learners we looked at were kinesthetic, auditory and visual. I myself am the farthest from an auditory learner, as I cannot stand listening to anyone, especially if they are barking instructions at me. I am probably something in between a kinesthetic and visual learner. I like to think I can notice and see things others cannot, always analyzing what I see in my head. I also focus on moving around and being athletic; I cannot sit still, which probably also makes me a kinesthetic learner.

We also attempted to create our own mini activity in class with some of the resources in our library. Catherine and I choose to do a simple trick with some dice.

Using three dice have a friend or student roll the dice and then stack them one on top of the other. Do not look, you don't want them to think you are cheating. Tell your friend or students you will find the sum of the five faces you cannot see.

The 5 numbers you cannot see are :
the bottom of the top dice
the top of the second dice
the bottom of the second dice
the top of the last dice
the bottom of the last dice

In your head subtract the very top face of the three dice from 21 to find the answer. Why is this the answer? Well the opposite faces of each die totals seven (1+6, 2+5, 3+4), and since you are subtracting the top number from the total of 6 faces, you subtract from 21. 

Finally the online portion discussed how we can learn from making mistakes and more importantly, how our learners can succeed from them. I believe in the idea of backwards design and I think making mistakes and backwards design go hand in hand. From the forum decided to choose to try seemingly wild ideas.In this forum we discussed strategies for teaching success from mistakes and decided that I think some learners will benefit from trying something new or something absurd. I know I personally would much rather be given some time to work at a problem, not knowing how to do it, and trying to figure it out myself than to be told how to do something and do it repeatedly for homework. That way if I don't figure it out, I will learn from my failures. 

Week 2 , a Growth Mindset.

Unfortunately, I had to miss the in class portion of this weeks math classes. I was able to participate in a webinar this week as well as complete the online module.

This weeks online module focused on what your mindset might be when it came to mathematics. Breaking down the two types of mind sets we have growth versus fixed. A fixed mindset related to mathematics is that you do not believe that a person can develop or grow in the field of mathematics, that you either get it or you don't. A growth mindset focuses on an individuals ability to grow, that with practice any learner can develop new skills and progress in mathematics. When it comes down to it, instructors really need to have a growth mindset as well encourage their learners too as well. Having your learners and students understand that with practice, effort and confidence they can be as successful as the next individual will increase positive results as well as self esteem.

Often, when I was in elementary school, I could tell the teachers did not have a growth mindset. I feel as if once they had an impression of a student that was it. As an example I am going to use my friend Billy. Billy struggled with his multiplication and division but he was alright when it came to addition and subtraction. He did not score well on the test. Mrs. Smith's impression was that he was struggling to do his multiplication and division. When she tried helping him with her way of instruction and assigning extra homework, he was still struggling. Mrs. Smith simply "wrote off" Billy and multiplication and division, she thought he was a lost cause. Poor Billy never succeeded in Mrs. Smith's class. This example shows a fixed mindset, the instructor is just assuming the student will not be able to improve even though she tried helping. It is important to have a growth mindset and use different teaching strategies. Students will fail, as an instructor it is your job to get them back on their feet and be positive so that they can be successful from their mistakes.

This leads me to this weeks webinar on differentiated instruction. The group focused on interactive math games that engage the learner. First, I just want to say the group did a great job. I really enjoyed how interactive they made the webinar. They also linked interactive games that can be used in the classroom, helping make math more enjoyable. Throughout the year and a bit as a teacher candidate, we have always been reminded about how important it is differentiate instruction.

First Week of Math Class Second Year

Well we are back for another year (our final year) and ready to take on the new challenges and strategies of teaching math to junior and intermediate levels. Our first class was more of an introduction class however I really enjoyed the introduction activity.

Our instructor used a simple card trick that involved slight of hand and simple mathematics which resulted in the final product yielding the four queens on four separate piles. After observing, we were able to go our own separate ways to learn how to do the trick and to figure out the mathematics behind it. This exercise was an excellent way to get us to collaborate our own ideas and come to out won conclusions.

For the online session of our class we focused on the stereotypes associated with mathematics and why people tend to dislike math. Well, often people dislike math because they just do not get it. This can be for a number of reasons, the most common reason being a poor instructor. Mathematics takes practice and often repetition to understand certain formulas and concepts, and an instructor who is not willing to put in the time and effort to teach often hurts the learner. At this point the learner will give up. Sometimes you hear students and people in general saying you will not need math when it comes to the "real world," so why put in the effort to learn. Yet there are many basic strategies and concepts that will help you in the "real world." I am sure many of my colleagues can agree with me and say they have heard one of the previous statements about poor instructors and not needing math in the "real world". As for the stereotypes, there is no such thing as a "math person." Everyone has the opportunity to be successful in math. All it takes is confidence and the will to learn and continue to learn and believe in yourself. Now this may seem like a simple fix but I know there is some discipline to this. It is a lot like learning a new language. With practice and dedication simple math can be made to be as easy as holding a conversation in English and even advanced math may become easier to understand and comprehend. 

Simply keep up the hard work and math will come to you!

no more math class

Well, this is the end, Math class has come to an end yet I feel I have only unlocked a fraction of my knowledge (see what I did there). What I mean by this is that I am looking to gain more knowledge through my experiences as teacher. So far, I have learned so many new techniques that I can translate into my class. I can’t stress enough the ability to differentiate instruction and adapt to your students. Unfortunately, a lot of teachers still follow their old-fashioned ways. Just this week I was discussing a situation that happened with a student my associate teacher knows. The teacher, of 20-30 years refused to allow a student to use scrap paper on a multiple choice advanced functions test.  The student was better at written response and preferred to write out the answers. However, the teacher denied the use of paper and the student struggled. I personally do not think that is fair at all, and could not think of a reason for that rule.

This week I did a micro lesson on integers. I did not realize how much physical manipulatives helped until I had the opportunity to use them with my students. Using the counters (red for positive and blue for negative) in my lesson the students really started to understand equations with different signs and the same signs. For the visual learners, I used a basket being weighed down by weights but floating because of balloons, showing the zero principle.

I appreciate all of the cool lessons and teaching techniques that were presented in the class. I did not like the amount of blog posts but I guess you won’t like it all. Having small lesson presentations at the end of each class was really helpful. It opened up a lot of opportunities for discussion and differentiation as we are able to see both the ways different people teach and the ways different people learn. It also gave us the opportunity to be the instructor which is something more classes should do. As the instructor, we have to create a lesson plan and activity that is inclusive and adaptive. Then we have a chance to gain experience in charge of the class. Today was my assessment and I mean it when I say the more time we have at a front of the class before assessment the better. I was nervous beyond belief.

When it comes down to it, Math was a class that had a limitless learning environment. It did not matter what the topic or stand was, even if I thought I knew everything about the topic, there was still something I learned everyday. I often looked forward to this class because it was something that helped me with my placement. Math is a tough subject, both to learn and teach, and this class broke everything down to make it easier for us as educators to help our students understand math. From now on, my students will never say they hate math again.

via GIPHY