8P29 Post 11

I like to hope my tests will be more reasonable than that.
"Math Test Joke on Professor's Door." Retrieved from
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/hilarious-note-posted-maths-teachers-4565393

The more I spend time in the classroom, and attend the math course at Brock, the more I realize how different math class is now from when I was a child, and it is definitely a change for the better. There are far more activities and collaborative work compared to just sitting at your seat and answering textbook questions and there seems to be a greater focus on finding different ways to assess student learning than merely taking tests.

Of course, doing practice questions in the textbook or taking quizzes and tests still have their place in the classroom, and they will still be a reality in my own math class, but those don’t have to be a teacher’s only options anymore. Students should have opportunities to explain their thinking and to develop their metacognition, so that they can start to think about and even refine their problem solving process and figure out what strategies work best for them while problem solving. Students should have opportunities to work on math that is appropriate to their grade level, but also problems that could be applied to multiple grade levels and challenge their reasoning and math skills.

Lucky for educators, we have the internet, and there are a ton of cool resources to help us out with this endeavour. Dr. Khan showed us an example (Challenge 03 Finger Counting) from www.collaborativemath.org, which has a variety of challenge questions posed, but that is only one of many other places that you can find riddles and math problems that will engage and challenge students. Students could work on a difficult question like the Finger Counting over the period of a week or more, and then record their solution and reasoning in a brief video using the app Show Me. This is a way to assess students without having to rely on the traditional test-taking method. I don’t think this should be the main source of assessment material, but it is certainly a way to differentiate based on student interests, skill sets, etc.

 The main form of assessment will be observational notes, which makes a lot of sense. As I’m circulating my placement class and looking over student work, I’m making tabs on who seems to be getting it right out the gates, and who seems to need more practice. It’s important to have those moments so you can help the student build their knowledge before the test or quiz where there’s an achievement level associated with it. As an example from my own experience, I noticed one of the students (we’ll call him Abdul), was mixing up some of the steps when it came to multiplication and regrouping. I spent extra time walking him through the process and in my absence, my associate teacher sent home some additional practice problems for him to work on. When I saw him on my next observation day, there was such a difference! Abdul was solving problems quickly, often figuring out the answer well before many of his classmates and his work was free of error. If that had not been caught in my initial informal assessment, his mistakes may have adversely affected his test scores, and all over errors easily fixed through some addition instruction.

This first math course is nearing completion and I’m starting my practicum within a few weeks. I’ve learned a lot, but I’m sure I will make twenty-five million mistakes and when I think I’m finally getting the hang of it, I’ll make another mistake. But that’s teaching and that’s life. It’s best I just get in there and start trying.    

Here is a link to my digital portfolio, which is a "greatest hits" if you will of math resources compiled over the term: http://8p29digitalmathportfolio.blogspot.ca/