Math / Mistakes &Success

      This week, we looked at making mistakes in math! Mathematics is one of the subjects that people often find it very difficult to allow for freedom in. Everyone believes that math has one right answer- and that is not necessarily true. Math work has multiple ways people can express the same numbers in different sequences or formats, and oftentimes the answer can be found in a variety of ways. It is important to recognize that creativity is available in math work, and if honed in on, can encourage students to make mistakes and thrive in an environment of imperfection.
       I also took the time to read the Math and Speed Forum because I feel like this is something I personally struggle with in math and was reminded of this week. During class, we did a Minds On activity that had us doing very quick math work on the fly, without calculators! This was something I had not done in a very long time. I was shocked at how long it was taking me to do more simple math without a calculator.
      Upon reading Charlene's post on the Forums on the Math and Speed section, I was enlightened by what she was saying. She stated, "speed does not equal intelligence" (Charlene Day). This is a super important thing to teach students when learning fundamental math skills. When teaching younger grades basic math such as multiplication and division, its important to repetitively practice at the students own pace to ensure that they have the skills before pushing them to do it faster.

This week was also the first week of Webinars! This took up a lot of my math-brain this week, because Charlene and I had to prepare our 30 minute interactive lesson. We had quite a challenge on our hands, but we pushed through and managed to come up with a Webinar based on creating a safe environment for math inquiry.
This is a topic I am pretty passionate about as a future educator, because I feel allowing for inquiry is super important. Inquiry allows students to freely explore what they find the most interesting in a subject. For mathematics, allowing for this to happen in an emotionally safe environment is extremely essential. Math somehow, and for some reason, often brings out the sensitive side in people, maybe because there is that fear of judgment in relation to a persons intelligence. This means that creating a positive learning environment for students is absolutely necessary to encourage a safe learning environment that allows for students to make mistakes! Charlene and I detailed a variety of ways to allow for safe exploration of inquiry. I am very proud of the work we did, and loved using the tools Charlene had explored during her first teaching block. I really learned a lot from the Webinar process, and loved facilitating it!
I also had the task of watching Ally and Nicole's webinar, focused on problem solving. I super enjoyed the way they played out their webinar! I loved learning about problem solving in a very realistic way. I really feel like I learned a lot of new math strategies this week.

Math-ittudes

This week was another challenging one in the world of math! During our online tutorial, I watched a really inspiring video about math mindsets and maintaining a positive attitude. This is something that I think is super important as a future educator. I want to be the kind of teacher that encourages that little voice in my students head that says, "I can do it if I work hard!" I want my students to maintain that growth mindset, and feel like they can take on the challenging work of mathematics.

I also read an article about spatial reasoning. I chose this article because I do not have a lot of information on the topic, and wanted to learn more. The document states, "Spatial thinking, or reasoning, involves the location and movement of objects and ourselves, either mentally or physically, in space. It is not a single ability or process but actually refers to a considerable number of concepts, tools and processes" (3).  The benefits of studying spatial reasoning are clear in all aspects of mathematics, as the concepts often intertwine with one another and all of them work together. As stated in the article, "By exploring the spatial aspects of mathematics, we make it more accessible, more engaging and more relevant" (4). Below is a picture I took from the article that I found very helpful. 

Support Document for Paying Attention to Mathematics Education (4). 

Further, I found that this week, I am really starting to notice the way that math works together to assist students everyday life. Creating connections to real life allows students to find meaning in mathematics in an easier way. Also, using creative ways to present information will allow students to subconsciously learn math, like through the card games we have been doing as a Minds On portion of our classes. Metacognitive thinking allowed me to acknowledge the way I am learning in math lecture, and apply it to how I want to teach in the future. I plan on being the kind of teacher that uses positive words, that acknowledges the negative but tries their hardest to make it into a positive.

Back @ it !

Almost a year later, and here we are again, bloggin', teachin' and doing some learnin'.

I am excited at the opportunity to really work on my blog this year and make it look pretty, as well as flush out some math content on it! I am hoping to employ Charlene to help me! (Fingers crossed!) 

This week , we began our math class again, and I'm not going to lie, the first class was a little stressful! We had a lot of stuff to organize, groups to get together, and math to learn. I am once again scared at the thought of being in a math class again, but excited and feel more prepared this time around. 

At the start of the week, we were assigned an online module in place of our Monday class. This is excellent for me, as a commuter and person who loves online learning! We got to watch a variety of math videos, all of which I loved and each which had its own excellent and thought-provoking message. My personal favourite is this one: 

     I personally like this one because while I was watching it, I was thinking of all the ways students eyes could be opened up to the way they see math, and why they see it that way. I was also thinking of the cross curricular intersections I could do with math and language based on a video like this! How awesome would it be to be able to write about math perceptions from a social media/ TV and movie perspective. I think the students would have some very interesting opinions on a video like this.

Attitudes Towards Math. 2017. Retrieved from Pinterest. 

         In class this week, we really discussed dispelling myths about math. I loved having an in-depth conversation with my fellow teacher candidates about why a large majority of us feel uncomfortable with the idea of teaching math, especially to higher grades! Really getting into why we still hold onto these math myths that we have been taught at a young age was enlightening.

       As we move into the semester full force, and I prepare to teach math in my second teaching block, I am really hoping to remember not to fall into these math stereotypes. There is no such thing as a "math person". And one of the biggest things I learned this week was that there is still a very deep need to dispel gender stereotypes in math. The fact that students as young as grade 2 are identifying and associating "boy" names with math, and "girl" names with reading is astonishing. As a teacher and a feminist, that is something I would really want to work to break down. I would never want one of my students thinking, " I cannot do this because of my gender". I really look forward to the day when I can make lessons that work towards creating students with a positive math mindset.