Final Thoughts...

After all of the experiences that this semester brought, I can't believe that my attitude at the start of this course was a little like this:

But I'm happy to say that now it is more like this:

I now view math as a way to teach children to express themselves. It is amazing to see how through a single open-ended problem you can learn so much about how students think. It really gives you a glimpse into their way of thinking.

I feel like I am now finally able to be enthusiastic about teaching math! I honestly thought that would be the last thing I would want to teach, but after all of the information and skills we have acquired in this course, I find myself excited to just get out there and try to teach some math!

I think I am most excited to teach math because I understand the "fear" that some students have about math, because I have gone through those same feelings (and feel a HUGE step closer to conquering that fear once and for all!).

Too Dramatic?

I feel capable (and obligated) to create a safe and motivating environment for learning math. I want math to be integrated in many other subjects so that instead of feeling like a chore, it will feel like one piece of a bigger puzzle. I am a huge advocate for a student centered classroom where students learn by experimenting and exploring! I would love to have a classroom that is focused around collaboration and creativity which works toward making a very positive and authentic learning environment.

Math shouldn't be something that students HAVE to do, it should be something that students look forward to doing.

SMART Boards

On Tuesday we had a guest from the Eastern School District stop by to give us some tips for using SMART Boards in mathematics classrooms. It's always so exciting to hear about new resources to spice up a math lesson!

Here are some great sites to make note of for using a SMART Board in a mathematics classroom:

http://smarttech.com/
SMART Board program

http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/vlibrary.html
The NLVM website for mathematics manipulatives on a SMART Board -- Also great for parents to use with students at home for some fun extra practice!

3.14159265359...

It's that stressful time of the semester when work is piling up in every class...

Here are some corny jokes in celebration of a very 

mathematical day!

***

What do mathematicians eat on Halloween?

Pumpkin Pi

Why do plants hate math?

Because it gives them square roots

What did the acorn say when it grew up? 

Geometry

And finally...

Happy Pi Day, everyone! :)

Sesame Street

We recently had a class where we watched some mathematics themed Sesame Street videos which got me thinking about some of the songs that I remember hearing but didn't realize they were about math...

Here are a few of my favorites. Enjoy!

Counting to 12 at a Ladybug Picnic!

My Triangle by James Blunt

Jack Black finds an octagon!

Elmo's Ducks

Just a quote...

I found this while browsing aimlessly on the internet and thought it fit in with things we have been talking about in class lately, especially our conversation about having more complex worksheets or activities available for students who enjoy an extra challenge. It seemed like a nice little thought to share, so here it is!

This poster is on the site http://zenpencils.com/ which has a bunch of illustrated quotes from inspirational people.

Newfoundland and Labrador Mathematics Resources

During our class on Tuesday, our class was exposed to the many resources available for each grade in the K-6 curriculum. I was pleasantly surprised with what was available!

One of the biggest surprises I found was that the primary math books (especially kindergarten) were focused on learning through stories. In kindergarten, each concept is taught through one of the small books which also match the child's reading level (they are organized by reading level - emergent, early, etc.). In grades one and two, the math books look more like workbooks, but each new topic has a story to start that section of the book. One of the things that I liked most about these books, was that they seemed very student-oriented. All of the small books had either pictures of children at that age level, or had pictures of things that students were used to seeing. They were very relatable! 

I was overwhelmed with the resources available for some of the elementary grades, especially grade 5. I love that there are so many resources available, but for me, I think it would be hard to stay organized if I had so many different books to look through.

One thing I did notice in all of the textbooks was the use of pictures next to long word problems. As I have said in my math autobiography, I used to fear problem solving.  I could never relate how the words in the problem matched with the math I was supposed to be using. In the textbooks available now, there are pictures that are directly related to the word problem right next to the words on the page. One problem in grade six was talking about a bucket with water, and right next to it was a picture of a bucket with water, including measurement lines. I loved this idea! It is so important to be including clues and tools that can facilitate learning through the multiple intelligences.

I think the most important thing to take from all of this is that as teachers, we won't be thrown into a course without anything to help us. There are plenty of tools available to us, but we have to think critically to see which resources are best suited for the students in our class so that we teach meaningful lessons instead of just circling problems in a textbook.

Curriculum Front Matter

We have been discussing the NCTM principles (I have mentioned some of them in my previous post) and the Newfoundland and Labrador curriculum guide front matter for the past few classes. This blog post is a reflection on some of my thoughts while reading the guide.

Can you see the influence of the NCTM principles and standards?

Absolutely! This was taken directly from the curriculum guide:

• "Students are curious, active learners with individual interests, abilities  and needs. They come to classrooms with varying knowledge, life experiences and backgrounds. A key component in successfully developing numeracy is making connections to these backgrounds and experiences."
• "The learning environment should value and respect the diversity  of students’ experiences and ways of thinking, so that students are comfortable taking intellectual risks, asking questions and posing conjectures"
• In Instructional Focus: "By decreasing emphasis on rote calculation, drill and practice, and the size of numbers used in paper and pencil calculations, more time is available for concept development."

Some things that interested me, surprised me, or caught my attention:

• I was pleasantly surprised to read about "suggestions for teaching and learning and suggested assessment strategies". I think that before reading the details in the front matter, I was under the impression that the things listed in curriculum guide were the way that material should be taught.
• In Resources: "Teachers may use any resource or combination of resources to meet the required specific outcomes listed in column one of the curriculum guide."
• I was also surprised that the curriculum guide offered many helpful resources and that the textbook wasn't the one sole resource for teaching. 
• The quote listed above definitely caught my attention. It states right in the Beliefs About Learning that teachers should be making connections to students' experiences in order to successfully teach numeracy.
• In kindergarten especially, it mentions the importance of a positive and active learning environment.
• The many uses of technology caught my attention, especially how it mentions both calculators and computers. Many teachers debate the use of calculators in the classroom, but it's nice to see a list of ways it can benefit students.
• The overall layout of the curriculum guide was very organized and gave suggestions for when to teach each topic, but didn't state that it had to be taught specifically in that order

As a preservice teacher, it's nice to know that there are many different ways to teach the same thing so you can alter lessons to fit your class instead of trying to change your students to fit the curriculum.

So What?

We spent our class going over the first chapter of our textbook and reviewing topics that we found important and useful. So what does the information from Chapter One and the NCTM have to do with me?


"Your knowledge of mathematics and how students learn mathematics is the most important tool you can acquire to be an effective teacher of mathematics" (p.1)


First of all, I should answer some important questions:


What does the NCTM do?

From their website:
""NCTM provides professional development opportunities for members, such as regional conferences, annual meetings, and online workshops. We also offer books on mathematics education and other special products for classroom use in the NCTM catalog. More material for teachers, including archived journal articles and free downloadable resources such as the Principles and Standards for School Mathematics, as well as links to other relevant sites, can be found on our Web site"

"Student Explorations in Mathematics (SEM) is published five times each year (September, November, January, March and May). The availability of a new issue is announced in Summing-Up. Each SEM presents classroom activities and problems appropriate for upper-elementary - to high school students on a single general-interest topic (such as the Olympics, baseball, or election statistics). Student Explorations in Mathematics is not available as a separate subscription."

Link to the NCTM website: http://www.nctm.org/

Why should anyone care about any of the stuff we are discussing and thinking about this semester?
Everyone should care about math.  Not everyone loves math, but each person should have the chance to learn the skills that you develop by doing mathematics. Everyone should be able to get that rewarding feeling after you struggle with a stubborn problem and find the answer without too much frustration. We should be able to teach and learn skills in mathematics that allow us to approach problems so that we can be successful and build up our abilities, no matter what level you start from or what your strengths and "weaknesses" are.

What should you care as future teachers?
As future educators of math and other subjects, it is our job to care. We will not be able to grow into caring and supportive teachers if we don't have the enthusiasm or basic interest needed to show our students how important math is. We can't expect to have a class of excited learners if we don't have the skills it takes to have a safe learning environment for children to explore.

 Why should children care about mathematics and about learning mathematics? 
Mathematics is everywhere! I missed the opportunity to get truly excited about math when I was in school, because I didn't have effective math teachers. The earlier students start caring about math, the more they can enjoy it and explore it.

So What?

Why do I care? 
I care because I relate to the information in Chapter One. Although I agree with each of the content and process standards, I have listed some sections of Chapter One that really stand out to me personally.

• The Six Principles fundamental to high-quality mathematics education:
• Equity - doesn't mean "the same" for everyone. It is high expectations for all students.
• Curriculum - teach students that mathematics isn't isolated bits and pieces, it is an integrated whole.
• Teaching - for high-quality education, teachers must understand the mathematics they are teaching, understand how children learn the mathematics, and select instructional tasks that will enhance learning
• Learning - using mathematics to develop the ability to think and reason in order to solve the new problems and learn the new ideas that students will face in the future, and develop their reasoning skills
• Assessment - not to be done to students, but to be done for students to guide and enhance their learning
• Technology - using calculators and other technologies as essential tools for doing and learning mathematics in the classroom (p.2-3)

• Curriculum - instead of teaching straight from the textbook, lessons should be planned using a number of resources to develop students' deep understanding of concepts (p.7)

• The Teaching Standards - I agree with the importance of each of these standards. but the two that stand out the most to my views are: Reflection on Student Learning, and Reflection on Teaching Practice.

Overall, this chapter has many important points that I feel are important to reflect on, but the points listed above strongly relate to my personal teaching philosophy. I feel strongly about teaching authentic topics instead of memorization or regurgitation of facts because I believe that school should be about learning important ideas that can be integrated with developing life skills. I think teachers should always reflect on their own teaching and reflect on how his or her students are learning so that fun and meaningful learning can take place in the classroom. 

TEDtalks Do schools kill creativity?

In class on Wednesday, we watched a video of Sir Ken Robinson from a TED Talk in 2006.  It was focused around the subject "Do schools kill creativity?". 

YouTube Link

"We don't grow into creativity, we grow out of it.  Or, rather, we get educated out of it..."

This video mentioned so many ideas about education that I can strongly relate to.  On more than one occasion, I have discussed the different types of intelligences and the organization of current school systems with my colleagues. One of the most intriguing parts of this video was the notion of educating children from the waist up, then the head, then one side (mathematical) vs the other (creativity).

Our current education system is predicated on the concept of academic ability - the system began with that concept to deal with increasing industrialism.  We are now well past that point, so why are schools still organized that way? Why aren't other subjects taught with as much importance as math and other academics? Why are we using our bodies as a form of transport for the head when there are so many other types of intelligences that we now know about? (Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences)

Intelligence is diverse

Intelligence is dynamic

Intelligence is distinct 

The idea of one person seeing a child as hopeless because she was restless, the other seeing her potential through bodily-kinesthetic intelligence was another part of Sir Ken Robinson's TED Talk that interested me.  She was hugely successful because someone realized her talent was outside the academics of our "regular" school system. 

We can use other tactics for teaching math and academics.  We can integrate subjects and make them more applicable for the different types of learning.  The world is changing, we should change the way that we are teaching subjects, especially academic subjects. I think this video is relevant to our education 3940 class because of the importance of teaching concepts in a number of ways.  It is important to be dynamic in our teaching.  We should strive for a learning environment that makes children laugh instead of groan.

Our task, as teachers, should be to educate the whole being.  Not just from the waist up, and not just for those whose intelligence fits into the academic subjects. We should be able to collaborate with one another and find new ways to teach subjects in a way that children can feel success and their skills can be applied to the real world, not just toward our ideas of what is important.

Math Autobiography

Let's take a trip back in time...

Julia's Math Autobiography

A look at mathematics when I was in K-6:

I don't remember a lot of details about my math experience from K-6, but the ones that stand out are experiences that were from teachers in kindergarten and grades two, three, and six.

In kindergarten I remember learning to write numbers.  Our teacher wrote great big numbers on chart paper.  She described the numbers in easy to remember ways, such as the number five being a man's face with a hat on top. In grade two, I remember math lessons being very hands-on, such as predicting what shapes will roll, slide, etc. then testing our guesses by trying to roll them down a small ramp. In grade three, my memory is of flash cards and my peers and I standing in line in teams and guessing math problems on flash cards as quickly as possible.  I remember there being a lot of pressure to answer as quickly as possible because our teammates would be yelling for us to win.

In grade six, and some of the earlier elementary grades, we had a lot of problem solving and learned different words for math symbols (and, sum, product, difference).  I had a lot of difficulty with problem solving.  I remember struggling and getting answers wrong but I did not get a lot of help or support from my teacher to learn the proper way to do the problems.

My best and worst memories about math:

I loved working with hands-on math activities such as shaped blocks, patterns, and the sticks and flats.  These activities were fun for me and helped me learn math concepts.  It was a positive enviroment.  Really wordy math problems confused me and I would get frustrated and lose motivation. Even as an adult I still feel the same frustration and confusion with a lot of problem solving questions.

What I consider my math skills to be:

 I was "good" and confident in my math skills up until grade six.  I used to love doing math and I would spend long periods of time practicing my times tables and long division with my grandfather.  When I was in grade six I started to struggle with math and felt embarrassed about not being able to do well on my tests.  Since then I have thought of myself as being "not good" at math.

The role of my teacher in math classes:

My teachers were a mix of being fun and enthusiastic about math, and being very serious and disinterested in their attitude towards math. It was easy to tell who enjoyed teaching and who found it a chore.

My math assessments:

I always had math tests.  The only forms of assement I can remember doing are minute math tests, mental math tests, and the "regular" math tests which were a mixture of short answers and problem solving.

My math experience in high school:

High school math for me was a terrible experience.  Starting in junior high, my confidence in math decreased every year, especially one year when our replacement teacher decided to read everyone's math mark out loud because we all had trouble with the math test.  I felt that many teachers didn't provide extra help and many of them would joke about people having trouble with problems.  It was a struggle for me to do well and stay interested in math classes.

Math courses in university:

I took the math 1090 and math 1000 courses in university because they were required for some of the courses that I was taking.  I didn't take any math electives, only the courses that were necessary for my program.

Math in everyday life:

I engage in basic mathematics in my life, such as math required for my job as a cashier/customer service position.

My feelings about math now:
I feel better about mathematics now, but there are still some concepts that I find difficult.  When it comes to teaching mathematics in a primary or elementary class, I am excited to learn new ways to teach concepts and reflect and learn from my own experiences.  I want to be an enthusiastic math teacher who is able to effectively answer students' questions and provide a safe learning environment. 

Check back next week for more math blogging!

Welcome!

Welcome everyone to my ED 3940 Math Blog!

My name is Julia Roberts and I am in my second year of the Primary/Elementary Education program at Memorial University. I have created this blog to share my weekly thoughts and responses to our Education 3940 course.

Check back weekly to see my new posts! I hope you find something useful or interesting here.

See you soon!