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.