8P29 in review

Math: Growth Through the Year

My first thought of math was similar to many of my peers on the first day of classes. After all it was only a few days prior that I dragged myself through completing the math review tests that was required through the course. I thought to myself if I could barely finish the refresher how will I get through a full course on math? Then I walked into a classroom filled with twenty-five other students that were as nervous as me, and a teacher who wanted to change our opinions of math.  Together we were able to survive the math class, learn multiple methods of teaching the subject, felt comfortable with the topics and even had a little fun on the way!

The Key Points

Open Questions

Through the entirety of the math course Pat, our teacher, wanted us to create open ended problems and encouraged us to do so weekly. At first I did not understand the importance of the open-ended questions as I felt that math could only be done in certain ways to get the right answer. Quickly my mind was blown at how wrong I was. Every lesson started off with a question that we were encouraged to talk to our peers about and solve our own unique way. After everyone had a chance to solve the problems we shared our answers. The answers from each group varied yet we could all end up at the correct answer. Having these open-ended questions allowed for the students to work the way in which they felt was best suited for the question and allowed all students to participate. Open-ended questions will definitely be an idea used in my classrooms and something that I took away from this math course.

Children’s Literature

Story time! When I first thought of reading I immediately associate it with literacy.  Who knew there would be so many books out there that are used to teach math? The books were brought in multiple times throughout the year to reinforce the lesson that was being taught that day. Whether it was fractions and the use of the Hershey Chocolate bar or geometry and The Greedy Triangle children’s literature is a great way to grab the attention of the students. The books will even take some of the teaching off your hands, as it will explain to students the properties of a triangle or aspects of fractions. Children’s literature can be used for much more than story time.

A Student Focused Classroom

The classroom is a place for students to learn and grow. The teachers should encourage the growth of the students and we must put more resources toward this.  Students should feel welcomed to share their answers in math and not be afraid to make mistakes. Classroom congresses, group work, elbow partners all promote growth for the students. The communication can allow the students to talk to each other and solve their problems rather than struggle through them alone. As a teacher candidate I learned that collaboration in math is something that should be embraced and not frowned upon.

Growth Mindset

The biggest takeaway I had from this course is that of a growth mindset. Being open to new teaching methods, new ways of completing the task or even just trying something different are

all examples of having that mindset. An idea of positivity goes a long way in any subject, especially in math were mistakes can be built upon. Students should be encouraged to grow and have a positive outlook on math. Teachers should also have this growth mindset and not be afraid to try new things such as incorporating a game or having more group work. We can always improve and having the growth mindset allows us to do so!

Overall, this math course has enlightened me of so much. While I find the four points to be the most important there are countless other resources that I was able to gain by completing the course. With the completion of this course as well as my others I’m excited to go into my placements and put in to practice my newfound knowledge.

Data Management

Explaining the why in math

This past week in math we looked at data management and probability. When first hearing this unit I immediately think of estimation and using the phrases almost always or very unlikely. While this is a part of data management and probability I never really understood why would use estimation in real life. It was not until this class that it was actually explained to me. Using estimation can help us in the world because we do not always want the exact answer and we can get a good idea of how many or how likely something is to occur by estimation. Having this information presented to me made me realize that though I was completing the questions in math class I never fully knew why. The reinforcement of ensuring students know why they are completing the question and how it can be used in life was once again apparent. Being able to relate the questions to real life can gain the students interest and allow them to remember the information easier.

Data Collection

Data and how its collected and used is a major theme throughout the chapter in Making Math Meaningful was. One of the main points that was also echoed in class was ensuring that students are creating appropriate questionnaires and planning of how to gather the data. Students should not only be conducting a survey of 5 people and then displaying that information through a graph. The survey and coinciding graph should have a purpose for the student. Gathering the results and conducting a survey is only half of the expectations. Students then need to display the data in forms that are purposeful. The graphs that the students choose should help represent the information that they are trying to convey. Students should be able to look at the graph and make inferences or comparisons. The collection and display of data are a main concept in data and more time should be spent to ensure students have the proper skills and knowledge to do so.

Resources to Help Teach

Two concepts that were examined in class were stem and leaf plots and tinker plots. Both resources will help the student gather and organize data. Stem and Leaf plots are especially useful when trying to find the mean median and mode of an array of numbers. This plot orders the numbers with the first digit(s) being the stem and the last digit being the leaf. The organization of the array through this method will allow for easy estimation or the calculation of mean median and mode if necessary. The Stem and Leaf plot place all data into context. A tinker plot is useful for the organization of a large amount of data. The plot places the data on a graph and allows the students to find certain characteristics of the data easily. www.tinkerplots.com is a great resource to use to show students the different aspects that can be utilized from creating an online tinker plot. These resources will help the students collect that the data and be able to make connections with it more easily.