We spent today's class period exploring the resources that are available in Newfoundland and Labrador for teachers in the primary and elementary grades. How would I describe this experience? Surprising. Informative. Interesting. Somewhat relieving. As well as many other things which I can't seem to come up with a word for right now.
I appreciated having the time to take to explore these various resources that we will have in our classrooms, including everything from curriculum guides to textbooks to student workbooks and picture books (which I was very surprised to see!), before we are actually out there as teachers and begin to use some of these. It was relieving in the sense for me in that it was good to see how many supports are out there for us and we are not just thrown into it, somewhat blindly. This will be especially important, I think, as substitute teachers when notes and lessons left for us may not be as detailed as we would like.
While, yes, having all these resources is wonderful, I think we need to remember that they are only suggested - we can achieve our curriculum outcomes in any way we see appropriate. As they discuss in our text book, consider your students and develop your lessons that will best suit their interests and abilities in the classroom. This opposes the view of using a text book as your main source of teaching, which many teachers do, and it's not that they're doing anything wrong, I feel they may have just been a little mislead. It was always my impression, both as a student and future teacher, that we had to use the text books provided to us and I'm sure I'm not the only one who held this view. For me, half the excitement of teaching is having the freedom to be creative and plan our own lessons and activities for our students. So, why not leave the text book on the shelf sometimes and bring in something different that you know will excite your students to learn!
Imagine a world without textbooks - what do you think it would look like?
Wednesday 26 February 2014
Monday 3 February 2014
Exploring YouCubed
YouCubed is a not-for-profit organization that provides free mathematics resources for students, teachers as well as parents. Jo Boaler, founder of YouCubed, says the goal of the website is to strive to make mathematics fun and interesting for students, describing it as a "revolutionary way to teach math education."
I was a little confused when I first went on to the website in how to navigate my way around it. It is designed a little differently than most other websites you normally encounter as it is one continuous page which as you scroll down reveals more and more intriguing content which comes in the form of lesson plans, videos, games, articles and much more. Once you figure out how to work your way around, YouCubed is actually quite impressive!
The first thing that caught my eye when exploring YouCubed was the lesson plans and mathematical games. They are written in a very detailed manner but are easy to understand and any teacher could use these in their classrooms. One I found especially interesting was the example of "Glow in the Dark Geometry" where students will get to make various geometric shapes out of glow sticks. To me, this takes a very different approach to teaching essential mathematics concepts and give teachers a better way of using creativity in the classroom. This is something I would definitely use in my future classrooms is only one example of many of the games and lessons this site has to offer.
What I probably found most intriguing about this website was the viewpoint that Jo Boaler takes on mathematics and the teaching of this subject. It runs on the assumption that all children have the potential to excel at mathematics, which I feel is a very innovative approach. Typically we rate ourselves as either "good" or "bad" at math with this usually being determined by the grades we receive in school, at least, this has been my experience. As future teachers, I think we need to encourage our students to think differently than this and not to fear math but rather enjoy the subject for all it has to offer. YouCubed offers many different ways to instill this attitude within our students and I definitely feel it is onto something.
So, is YouCubed the next mathematics revolution? It may be a little early to say as the website is not fully operational yet (but will be in the next few months!) but it is definitely a step in the right direction. I am always excited, as a future educator, to find a new resource that I feel will be helpful in my career and I will be keeping an eye on this website in the future.
I was a little confused when I first went on to the website in how to navigate my way around it. It is designed a little differently than most other websites you normally encounter as it is one continuous page which as you scroll down reveals more and more intriguing content which comes in the form of lesson plans, videos, games, articles and much more. Once you figure out how to work your way around, YouCubed is actually quite impressive!
The first thing that caught my eye when exploring YouCubed was the lesson plans and mathematical games. They are written in a very detailed manner but are easy to understand and any teacher could use these in their classrooms. One I found especially interesting was the example of "Glow in the Dark Geometry" where students will get to make various geometric shapes out of glow sticks. To me, this takes a very different approach to teaching essential mathematics concepts and give teachers a better way of using creativity in the classroom. This is something I would definitely use in my future classrooms is only one example of many of the games and lessons this site has to offer.
What I probably found most intriguing about this website was the viewpoint that Jo Boaler takes on mathematics and the teaching of this subject. It runs on the assumption that all children have the potential to excel at mathematics, which I feel is a very innovative approach. Typically we rate ourselves as either "good" or "bad" at math with this usually being determined by the grades we receive in school, at least, this has been my experience. As future teachers, I think we need to encourage our students to think differently than this and not to fear math but rather enjoy the subject for all it has to offer. YouCubed offers many different ways to instill this attitude within our students and I definitely feel it is onto something.
So, is YouCubed the next mathematics revolution? It may be a little early to say as the website is not fully operational yet (but will be in the next few months!) but it is definitely a step in the right direction. I am always excited, as a future educator, to find a new resource that I feel will be helpful in my career and I will be keeping an eye on this website in the future.
What do you think? Check out YouCubed for yourself!
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