Teaching Mathematics

"The only way to learn mathematics, is to do mathematics" -Paul Halmos Bitter-sweet moment, now that math class is complete.  Going into this course in September was highly nerve wracking; starting with the math refresher course and knowing literally nothing made me feel entirely ill prepared to teach students math.  Now only 3 months later, I am about to embark on a 2 month placement with grade 7/8's wherein I am responsible to teach the entire math unit.  The best part about this, is I feel prepared! Throughout these 3 months, we all have been introduced to a plethora of fun and intriguing math activities that actually help you learn!  Further, I have learned some highly important lessons throughout this course to be mindful of when I am teaching my own students. Math Lesson #1 Welcome differences!   This is something I am entirely guilty of often neglecting.  This may be because in my own elementary school days, the way in which math quest...

"Everybody is a genius.  But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing it is stupid" - Albert Einstein The way in which we conduct assessments in schools is one of the many ways the education system has changed in the 21st century.  Measuring a child's intelligence strictly by their ability to hand in a piece of work that has robust guidelines is an outdated and ineffective way to measure student success.  What about the student who is intelligent, but not engaged?  The student who excels in one subject area, but not another?  The student who has great work ethic, but marks do not reflect this.  This form of assessment does not take into account a wider range of student skills and promotes the tragedy of lost potential in students. The way in which I have seen math assessment conducted highlights this change in assessment through the emphasized importance on work habits and learning skills.  It is n...

Growing up, math was always my least favorite subject, it was boring and tedious and I was never particularly good at it.  This course however, has taught me to see the fun in math!  Measurement in particular is another great unit to incorporate alot of hands on games for the students. Whats great about measurement is that it encompasses various different components, which makes activities fun for students.  One great way to get students engaged and learning about measurement is through measurement Olympics.  Whats great about this activity is you can differentiate it to be geared towards your students specific needs.  Areas of improvement can be incorporated and you can add different mini games that focus on the specific areas of measurement you are looking at in class.  Measurement Olympics is also great to have students practice their predictive skills.  Having students guess what might happen and explain why they think that can help students arti...

Who doesn't love shapes?  Geometry is all about shapes and their attributes and properties.  Students who are very visual and have a passion for drawing have a particular interest in geometry.  This is a great unit to get those students who otherwise may be checked out during harder lessons such as fractions or algebra.  This unit can also increase student morale as it is very interactive and engaging for all students- even those who struggle.  Geometry encompasses much more than just shapes however!  Geometry also helps students to discover patterns, find areas, lengths, angles and volumes.  All the these properties are embedded in our everyday lives, therefore geometry helps us better understand the world around us.   Though geometry is all about shapes and seems very fun, there is  a lot  of information to cover in the unit and it can be very easy for teachers to fall into a routine of worksheets.  The issue with thi...

Proportional thinking and reasoning is perhaps one of the least obvious of curriculum strands as well as, one of the most difficult as it requires a high level of critical thinking.  It is the strand of mathematics that requires students to be able to compare and make ratios and further, have the ability to mentally store and process several pieces of information.  Though this is maybe one of the least obvious of strands, it may also be one of the most used strands in everyday life. The above picture is an example of a problem solving question that we attempted in class.  It really highlights just how prominent proportional thinking is in our everyday lives- especially when grocery shopping!  I think most of us, at least us students are always looking for the best deal when shopping.  Being able to compare quantities multiplicative is a mathematical process we have gained over the years maybe without noticing, as shown above through grocery shopping. ...

Counting integers can be a tricky concept for students, especially when dealing with larger numbers. This week I was introduced to a multitude of engaging games that make this process a whole lot easier for students!  There are a number of rules when dealing with integers- when adding two negative integers, it will equal a negative, adding two positive integers will equal a positive.  But, subtracting two negative numbers could equal a positive depending on the number sizes and subtracting two positive integers could equal a negative or a positive depending on the number size.  I'm sure we can easily see how this can become easily confusing when simply written.  C. Duffy. (2016). I25 Game Rules. [phone image] Retrieved October 20th, 2016 from my Iphone. Instead, fun games and exercises can be more effective for students and while they're having fun playing the game, they are also simultaneously learning these rules without even realizing.  One game to int...

Teaching math can be quite intimidating for many teachers.  This is not limited to us new teacher candidates, even my encounters with long term teachers show that they too struggle with effective math instruction.  Math is a subject that many students dread, but why? Students dread math because teachers dread teaching math! Its a cycle that needs to be broken- we need to find the magic in math again.  Math is everywhere but how often do we hear, "when will I ever need to know this?"  Dan Meyer talked about making math applicable to daily life in his Ted Talk,  Math Class Needs a Makeover , because this helps to bring back the magic!  In another Ted Talk Christopher Edmin talks about bringing that magic back into the classroom.  He urges teachers to find the magic again, this is especially imperative for math.  Check out his video below. After watching Christopher Edmin's video, I thought how this resonates to be true too often when it com...

Nelson Education Textbook [Online Image]. (2016). Retrieved October 3, 2016 from http://www.nelson.com/school/elementary/mathK8/math7/ Who remembers these textbooks?  I think most of us remember lugging these very heavy textbooks home after school, but students in the 21st century are having the luxury of rarely having to.  The way mathematics is being taught to students has dramatically changed since my days in elementary school.  These textbooks are not obsolete, but certainly do not hold the same value as they did 15-20 years ago and this is great news for students. Teachers still utilize such textbooks however, not in the traditional sense of here's the lesson, here's your example now do questions 1-7.  Teachers gather ideas, and concepts form these books and may even photo copy a couple pages, but rather, students are now being more interactive with their learning of mathematics.  Prodigy is an excellent example of how mathematics is changin...

Hey guys! Welcome to my blog on teaching mathematics. As a junior intermediate teacher candidate at Brock university I knew I was going to have to enthrall myself into the world of mathematics (a world that gave me literal nightmares as an elementary school and even high school student), however upon entering the program I realized something highly comforting- the vast majority of teacher candidates are just as terrified to be in this course!  I guess this really isn't surprising considering alot of teacher candidates are the English majors or Arts majors etc. And all the math majors are probably more likely to be pursuing careers in accounting and finance- this is great news!  We're all bad at math and we're all re-learning at the same level. As a student I had several math tutors, some being notably better than others.  These particular tutors made certain math stick in my very right sided brain.  This is my aspiration, my goal coming out of this course...