8P29 Week 2 Post

I loved this game as a kid! Go-to game during computer lab free time
Anonymous. "Math Circus Start Menu." Retrieved from
http://www.myabandonware.com/game/m-a-t-h-s-circus-1gg

This marks the first official week of class for 8P29 (introduction classes never really count the same). Most of class was devoted to working on “The Handshake Problem” and how you could use this problem for multiple grade levels, depending on what you focus on and what tools you use e.g. do you use manipulatives, do you have an algorithm, etc. I actually really enjoyed the underlying point of the exercise, because it showed how fluid some math problems are. The only limit is the creativity of the math teacher. I like that math problems are versatile; it makes my job as an educator easier because resources or problems may work regardless of what grade I end up teaching.  

            I think what makes an excellent mathematics teacher is a person who is a creative and easygoing. Every student has a story about losing marks on a test because they didn’t solve the problem in the way the teacher wanted them to. Knowing and allowing for the fact that there is more than one way to do things will hopefully keep students creative and open-minded too, rather than hunting immediately for the magic formula they can plug in without any further thought. These types of teachers are something math really needs considering the bad rap it gets.

            Carolyn Y. Johnson’s article and the montage she posted really reminded me how anti-math we are as a society. I would argue that North American culture is increasingly anti-intellectual in general, but that is a rant for another day. Many people, myself included, are still infected with some of the older, ineffective ways of teaching math, through drills, and boring problems that seemed to have no bearing on real life and mainly just through working through questions in a textbook and calling it a day. I don’t feel the same as my younger self did about math; now I’m envious of people who are naturally good at it, and wish that I had continued with it past grade 11.

            I know very little of mathematics education; I’ve tutored students grade 6 and younger that had some math questions/difficulties, but in terms of teaching it in a classroom setting, I know pretty much nothing. That can be a good and bad thing. Bad in the sense that obviously you need to know what you’re talking about it you want to be an effective teacher. Good in that because I have no preconceived notions on what I want to do in a math classroom, I can be built from scratch into something interesting and useful.

            I do have some strategies I’d like to use in a J/I classroom though. First, I’d like to be very visual. Using manipulatives or technology, I’d like to help students visualize what’s happening in a math problem, which helps with memory retention because now they have a visual and a written example of a problem, and if we’ve done an activity in class, there’s kinetic memory thrown in there as well. I’d also like to make use of the many apps and math-related games that are out there, or even try to make math more game-like in general. If students think of things more as a puzzle to solve than a homework question to do, it makes the experience much more satisfying.

The sections of the mathematics curriculum I’d like to focus the most on in this course is well, all of them, but if I have to pick, Number Sense and Numeration, Patterning and Algebra, and Data Management and Probability. Many students seem to have trouble with fractions, decimals, and percent, so I’d like to make sure I have good resources to be able to teach those concepts well. Patterning and Algebra is something that is incredibly important as you get into the higher grades, so I want to make sure I know how to prepare students well for more abstract math. Data Management will probably be pretty fun to teach because it is relevant to everyday life. I want to make sure I have some strong strategies for bringing the real world into the classroom with Data Management.

Anyways, that’s enough musing for one week. Stay posted for more fun updates on my journey through mathmagic land. 

Anonymous. "Math Circus Screenshot." Retrieved from
http://www.old-games.com/download/3310/m-a-t-h-s