Week 12: Report and Reflection

Well, I went into this course feeling very incapable of teaching mathematics since I have a poor background in that subject area. Now I feel very opposite to what I wrote in my first blog post. I feel very confident in my ability to teach math and I think that this class allowed for exploration of some really great tools and resources.

I found the Great Games Exploration to be especially helpful. I used Dirt Bike Proportions the other day at my placement and the students gave feedback saying that it was their favourite activity. I believe that digital games are so important to 21 century teaching, since games are relatable to students. They also enjoy the challenge without having any academic penalty as to incorrect answers, since in games they can always play again.

The digital portfolio for teaching was also a great resource that we were able to curate ourselves. I think it is beneficial that we were each others guinea pigs for potential lessons and activities we would implement in our classrooms. This allowed us to encounter what would be unforeseen mishaps with the activities and be aware of how we could adapt the activities to improve.

Through these activities I thought that the most beneficial ones were those that allowed students to collaborate with others or work in groups, that allowed for some type of experience, that had some tactile or visual component, and asked students to use what is familiar to them and relate it into a new context.

My goal for teaching math this block and beyond is to implement activities and lesson with these outcomes and allow students to explore mathematics through meaningful experiences.


Good luck at your teaching blocks everyone!

Week 11: Report and Reflection

This week we finalized our learning activity presentations with computational strategies. Basically, how we could implement technology into the classroom while teaching math. Amberley showed a Youtube video on fractions. This was effective because videos can help to engage students by taking what would be a confusing topic, breaking it down, and adding humour and visuals to capture attention and help students to better understand the topic. Amberley brought up a great point, that too many videos may be too routine for students, and then they start to get boring and predictable. Videos are good to use once in a while to perk the class back up again when they start to lose interest. Jake also made a great point, that the resources are already there for us and we don't have to constantly be reinventing the wheel. These sources are here for a reason, and that is to help us help students.

Madison had us playing Ratio Stadium in pairs. I think that these types of games allow for practice of mental math but also evoke friendly competition in the classroom. This is a great way to keep students engaged and also work together to solve problems. Maybe students at different grade levels could be partnered together so that the lower grade level student can learn from the higher level student, and also not feel as though they are losing at the game because they have help with them.

You can play Ratio Stadium here 

I really liked how Victoria looked at ways in which technology can be used as a way to consolidate a unit and check for students readiness in preparation for tests. Using Kahoot allows teachers to see how each individual student is answering and can better evaluate their position in the unit that way. The teacher can also see what questions the class is mostly getting wrong, so they know whether to work on it more before a test or not. Kahoot kept everyone in the class so engaged and it allows for something new and interesting to happen in the class. We are trying to make math as fun and engaging as possible for students and break the stigma of boring old mathematics! I think if our schools have access to technology we should harness the opportunity to bring it in as much as possible.