What Have I Learned About Math?

As another semester comes to an end and I sit back and reflect on all that I learned, I think I have really been opened up to a lot more to what mathematics really is and what it can look like in the classroom. I have to say, it is very different than what I experienced in the classroom. 

I guess I have always had the mindset, as shown to me through my education so far, that math basically is what it is. What I mean by that is that math always looks the same, the formulas and rules are there and we have to present them to students and give them the strategies they need to work them out through practice, practice and more practice involving worksheets and text books.

Wow, was I ever wrong.

 I have to say that the aspect of this course that will truly stick with me is that I now understand what mathematics really is and how it can look in the classroom. It can be dynamic, creative and offer students choice and a place to explore and find answers for themselves. As the teacher, we are there to support and encourage and not to tell students if they are right or wrong. In life, we know there is typically never only one correct way to arrive at the best answer and the same is true for mathematics.

The approach taken to teaching us how to teach mathematics to children has really impacted me personally and how I now look at education. Being a teacher is never about being above your students or being the person with all the right answers. It is about being the person who offers endless opportunities to find their way through a problem and to show them the many possibilities.

What I have learned here gives me a lot of hope as I prepare to move into my internship and shortly after into my future career. The types of attitudes shown to me here in this course, I think, can be transferred to any subject area within the curriculum. I have to say this semester has really opened my eyes up to what it means to teach mathematics and to teach in general. 

I think I definitely have a way to go before I am fully comfortable with all of this, but I definitely feel a little more prepared after this course. It's been an amazing (and I have to say unexpected) experience that will stay with me as I continue on! 

:)

Mathematics Resources in the Classroom

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?

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.

 

What do you think? Check out YouCubed for yourself!

What is mathematics anyway?

When I sit and try to come up with a meaning for mathematics, I find it rather difficult to define in concrete terms. After searching the internet for a definition and asking people around me, apparently they find it a difficult word to define as well. Some of what I found included things like:

 

"The study of the measurement, properties, and relationships of quantities and sets, using numbers and symbols." (Free Online Dictionary)

 

"mathematical procedures, operations, or properties." (Dictionary.com)

 

"Mathematics is a human endeavour, a discipline, and an interdisciplinary language and tool." (University of Oregon)

 

While all of these definitions have certain traits in common, they are all different from one another. I first think of it in terms of it's subject matter: addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and so on. This is what is taught to us in the school system which is why I think these are my first thoughts when exploring this topic. I believe it is a combination of all of these things, plus much more we are still unaware of.

 

 

So, what do we do with this information? What does it mean to do mathematics? Just as the definition of math spans wide across many areas, I feel that the concept of doing math does as well. As I remember from my school years in doing mathematics and from what I have seen through my observation days in both the primary and elementary grades, math most commonly done through a process of teaching a concept, doing examples and then working on questions from a text book or a worksheet. Since we cannot define math is concrete terms, why should try to constrict it's practice to something as basic as this? Doing mathematics involves all kinds of mental capacities such as numerical reasoning, spatial reasoning, linguistic reasoning as well as the ability to handle abstractions and when these are paired with a combination of creativity and a desire for success, students will see great personal growth in areas of mathematics. It is a variety of thought processes and actions all leading towards one final goal.

 

As I write this, I realize that I am thinking mathematically. I am wondering and reasoning about all this information I have found in order to come up with a definition, I feel, is sufficient and encompasses what I feel mathematics is. Doing math and thinking about math does not always need to involve numbers, it is about sorting through your thoughts and ideas in order to come up with one of many possible answers for a question, problem or even just an idea.

 

"Mathematics may be defined as the subject in which we never know what we are talking about, nor whether what we are saying is true."

 

This quote by Bertrand Russell may say it best, and even though it seems to express a sentiment of uncertainty, when you really sit and think about it, it makes perfect sense. 

 

 

 

 

Do Schools Kill Creativity?

In class last week, we watched Sir Ken Robinson's TED Talk video "Do Schools Kill Creativity?" In this video, he shares many of his thoughts and opinions on the school system and how they treat creativity in the classroom.

 

 



Robinson makes many very interesting points throughout his talk, many of which cause us to really think about what is going on in the education system in today's society. One point which struck me as being very significant in the video was when he says "if you're not prepared to be wrong you will never come up with anything original." As we progress through the primary and elementary grades and into junior high and high school there is a notable decrease in the appreciation for creativity and originality and a move in favour of correct answers and factual information.

We have all probably heard the before that you learn more from your mistakes than your successes, and this is definitely true in the classroom. We should encourage students of any age to take risks when it comes to learning and give them the opportunity to express their creative thoughts without worrying about being wrong or embarrassed if their answer is incorrect. As a future educator, I feel that we should never look to instill fear in our students of any age. The classroom should always be a safe place for them to be who they are and express their thoughts with creativity and imagination. While there will be many times where we will need them to arrive at a certain answer for a question, we must teach them to do this with a sense of encouragement and an openness for learning.

I most definitely see the significance in showing this video to us, as future teachers, because it raises our attention to some of the issues within the school systems that we will very soon be working in. I realize that the issue Robinson has presented in his video is one that can not be solved quickly nor easily, and I feel that there is a shift beginning to be made, but is something we can continue to work towards as we enter into our profession.

To end this post, I will leave you with another quote from Robinson, which I feel sums up very well my thoughts and feelings on this subject:

"Creativity is as important in education as is literacy, and we should treat it with the same status."

Math Autobiography

When looking back at my experiences in mathematics throughout the primary and elementary grades, I quickly realized that there is not much that I do remember. From what I can recall, however, it seems to be quite opposite of the experiences of many other people I have discussed this with.

I completed the primary grades in a school in a small community on the Burin Peninsula and we were always told to work quietly and independently through various worksheets and only ask for assistance from the teacher. The only lessons where we were encouraged to work together was when we were using various manipulatives, such  as blocks, counters and cards (which we were all very excited about when we would see the teacher pull these from the shelves!), and that seemed to be only because there was not enough materials for each student to have their own. My family and I moved to a town just outside of St. John's before I began grade four where I completed the elementary grades in a much larger school than I had previously attended. This school and my teachers gave me a very different experience in learning mathematics. All students were encouraged to work together through the various problems, offering assistance to each other wherever we could. For me, it transformed math into an interactive and enjoyable experience. The energy was always very high in the classroom throughout every mathematics lesson.

That seemed to be a turning point for me in how I viewed mathematics. I was always described as being someone who was "good" at mathematics and it was a subject which came quite easily to me and this was reflected in the marks I received throughout school. After my experience in the elementary grades, I began to enjoy the subject and this continued throughout my junior high and high school years.

In reflection, I find it quite difficult to gauge how my teachers in the primary and elementary grades seemed to feel about teaching mathematics. For some, it seemed as though they were going through the prescribed curriculum simply because it was something they were required to do. For others, they clearly had a passion for the subject and loved teaching it to their students. This was reflected in the creativity of their lessons. One of the most inspirational teachers I had throughout high school was my math teacher in grade ten. She shared with us that she had been diagnosed with dyscalculia, a specific developmental disorder where one has difficulty in areas such as understanding numbers and learning how to manipulate them. It was her love of the subject which drove her to overcome these difficulties she faced and through sharing this with us she taught us that we can truly become whatever we want in our lives no matter what obstacles may stand in our way.

No matter how the teacher conducted their math lessons, it seems that assessments always looked the same. It began with worksheets, assignments and unit tests and as we progressed into junior high and high school we were also required to write mid-term and final exams, all of which would be marked by the teacher. Tests and exams typically consisted of short answer questions where we were graded on our workings as well as the final answer. If there were any other forms of ongoing assessment completed by the teacher in the classroom, it was never seen or discussed with the students.

Although I would describe my experiences with mathematics throughout my school years as being mostly positive, I have only taken two mathematics courses since entering university, both of which were required for my degree program, Math 1050 and 1051. I don't feel as though there is any reason as to why I did not continue my formal education in mathematics, I guess it just comes down to the choice to pursue other interests through my chosen courses.

Math seems to have a rather poor reputation in our society today, probably because it is perceived as being difficult and detached from the real world. I'm sure we have all heard the same complaint I remember hearing countless times throughout school (and I am sure I have uttered it myself a time or two), "when am I actually going to use this in my life?". What many of us do not realize, however, is that math is all around us in many things we do. We use it in our jobs, when we make purchases, telling the time and even checking the weather. As an adult, I definitely see the importance of having good mathematical skills in our world and as a future teacher, it is a subject I will try to give my students positive experiences in, such as those I had in school, so my students can also enjoy mathematics!



Welcome!

Hello and welcome to my blog!

 

My name is Laura and I am a fifth year student at Memorial University of Newfoundland, currently completing my B.Ed (primary/elementary). This will be used for the purposes of the Education 3940: Math in the Primary and Elementary Grades course and will further explore my thoughts and feelings about topics covered in class.

Enjoy!