Last week of class and I feel like I have learned some great new strategies! However, let me first talk about what we talked about in week 6 before wrapping it all up! This week we looked at assessment and the different kinds of assessments and how to use these assessments.

In-class Discussion

Let's start with a classic video shown off by Brock Education since year one, and it never gets old!




Assessment is something that should be taken seriously and is the way educators collect data on their students. This week we talked about how assessment's primary focus is on student learning - we track student progress. Discussing the three forms of assessment: For, As, and Of. I believe that some still do not have a complete understanding of how these forms of assessments work. This can lead to more confusion when talking about diagnostic, formative and summative assessments.

This video really helped me in my first year to understand how the assessment works and how it is seen in the classroom:



Assessment is something that is changing and educators need to learn how to differentiate our assessment for our students. There are many documents and videos that can help educators expand on their assessment portfolios.

Online Discussion:

The last math mindset module we looked at was making math real for students. The video showing how animals and insects use math to create patterns is something that can be shown to students to help improve engagement. I personally have used the sport of basketball in my previous placement while discussing angel - as this was a huge interest for my students. I love this video and want to use it in my upcoming placement:




Webinar
This last week's webinar focused on report cards. Tom and I facilitated this webinar. For me I personally felt unequipped teaching is webinar - I have no experience while developing report cards. I was comfortable talking about assessment. I think overall this was a good webinar but felt like the faculty needs to teach future Teacher Canadiates how to write report comments.

Reflection:

Six weeks have come and gone pretty quick. I had a good understanding of math and felt that my math pedagogy was pretty solid prior to this class from the help of last year's course and through my last two associate teachers. However, with that being said I feel like I picked up a few things that I will be trying to implement in my third placement.

1. SAMR 
This was the first time I was exposed to this model and is something I will be trying in my placement and future classrooms! I am not afraid of using technology, however, I do not want to use technology just because it is convenient. Week 5 blog post is something I will be going back to read for resources and understanding about the SAMR model.

2. Rich Tasks
This is something I have seen in my past placements and is something I was unable to implement in my teachings. It is now something I want to do as a minds-on to help my students all join in the conversation.

3. Open-ended and Parallel Tasks
I knew about open-ended questions prior to this class. However, I feel like I did not implement these types of questions in a good manner. Parallel tasks are new to me and I want to give it a try next placement with my students! I will be utilizing the website provided by this course while developing questions going forward.

These were the big three things I pulled from this class! However, everything else was a good refresher or helped me better understand the concept even more! My favourite takeaway from the class was the idea behind knowledge vs understanding. That topic helped me reflect on my teachings and challenged me to think about ways to help students get a better understanding on both knowledge and understanding of the questions.

Hello and welcome back to my week 5 maths blog. This week we looked at how to integrate technology into our classroom!

In-class Discussion:

Technology is a wonderful thing and is now a crucial aspect for 21st-century learners and educators!
Here is a quick video that helps show how we can use technology in the classroom!




One of the biggest takeaways I took from this class was the SAMR model and how it something we should practice when trying to implement technology into a classroom. Here are two videos, one video describes what the SAMR model is and one shows how to use it in a math classroom.





As educators, we should be using technology to help students create pieces that were not possible with just paper. Previous placements I feel like this was not the case most of the time - I felt like the school was just substituting paper with a Chromebook. The question that should follow that is "so what?" Okay, that is awesome you are using the technology but students are only using like 5% of that technology's potential. The best use of technology I have seen in my past placements were using it to differentiate for students. Google Speech-to-Text was what all schools are using and with the recent development of Microsoft Immersive Reader, we see educators differentiate even more. As new educators, we are striving to include technology even more with the development of our units and lesson plans.

Online Discussion

   This week's math mindset module looked at making sense, represent and understand ideas for mathematics. One of the biggest movements in math has been representing math visually. In past placements, I have seen teachers use arrays to help show math - though it was not for all students it is a good practice for UDL. Here is a quick video showing off arrays!



Strategies such as arrays help the student understand math - helps them make sense of the question; like last week's math blog when discussing "18x5". We push more and more for students to understand the main ideas of math. Some teachers resort to ideas such as arrays while others think the traditional "drill to kill" method is the way students will learn the key ideas of math. It comes down to your school classroom and what they respond to the best too. I have seen both be effective to students but I have also seen some students not respond well to the techniques. It comes down to use trying new strategies that fit best well for our students and make sure they understand the concept of mathematics.

Webinar 

This week's webinar focused on Financial Literacy. This is huge and I think most educators, me included, do not utilize the document enough or implement it when developing a lesson. This was a great webinar and I learned a lot from it. It made me go to YouTube and other websites to look at videos and research on how to integrate it more into lessons (not just in math). EduGains has a great resource to help educators implement Financial Literacy into lessons (http://www.edugains.ca/newsite/financialLiteracy/teachinglearningexamples.html).

Last week is the last blog post!

Welcome back to my week 4 maths blog! This week we looked at developing concepts through rich tasks!

In-class discussion:

We looked at rich tasks this week. However, what is a rich task? Here are a few quick videos that help explain what rich tasks are:




During my last two placements, I saw some rich tasks that include estimations and "what does not belong". Both these tasks generated a lot of discussion and engagement - it allowed students that were not "good" at math an opportunity to join the conversation.

A guide to making rich tasks:

● Accessible to all learners (provide interest, motivation, and a challenge to all learners)
● Real-life connection (authentic, meaningful)
● Allow for multiple approaches and representations
● Allow for collaboration and discussion
● Engagement, curiosity, and creativity
● Not all tasks will have all of these characteristics, but the richer the task, the more it will fit these qualities.
● This list is not meant to be all-inclusive.
● Your description of a rich task will expand as you begin to recognize and use rich tasks with your students.

Online Discussion:

This week's math mindset module looks at number flexibility and how to solve questions using various strategies. The example of "18x5" reminds me of my first placement. My AT showed me the resource that Marian Small created - "number string", where students are provided many multiplication and division questions that were related to each other. Once we reached the "18x5" like questions we had class discussions like in the video. "How did you get there?" and "what helped you get there?" were questions we asked the students. What was amazing about this activity is the different ways students reached the answer. Once again, these tasks opened up the floor for all students. Students that struggled with multiplication would show off how they got to the solution using addition or using subtraction.




Lastly, another thing that my first placement teacher and second placement teacher did was making math collaborative. The use of think, pair and share was implemented so that students can discuss their way of thinking - it allowed students to see how other students found the answer. Lastly, making math applicable to real-world problems help students be more engaged with mathematics - rather than doing a math problem that does not resonate with them they would do math questions that they can relate to.

Webinar

This week's webinar looked at how we can differentiate in a math class. EduGains has a great resource when it comes to teaching and giving examples to differentiate (http://www.edugains.ca/resourcesDI/SchoolLeadership/Improving/KnowingandRespondingtoLearnersMath.pdf). Last week's blog had other great resources when it comes to differentiating, so check that out!

Until next week!

Welcome back to my week 3 maths blog post! This week we looked teaching math for all learners! Let's dive right into it.

In-class Discussion

This week we talked a lot about differentiating learning - however, what is that? Well, it is something you need to know going into an interview that is for sure! What does it look like though? Well here is a video to help better understand what differentiate learning is and how it looks like:





During my first placement, I was able to see stations implemented in a math classroom - the kids enjoyed the concept and were happy they got to work with their friends. However, the math was still not differentiated for the students. What I mean by this, is there were limited entry points for students and students that struggled with math had a hard time understanding the concept. Luckily both my AT and I were able to conference with these students. However, students still had a hard time understanding the concept. One of the concepts we talked about in math class this week was making the question open-ended. This video and website helped me personally understand how open-ended questions work and look like (https://thelearningexchange.ca/videos/open-ended-and-parallel-learning-tasks-for-instruction/). Lastly, the last concept we talked about was parallel tasks. This last link also showed how parallel tasks were developed and helped students achieve other tasks while doing math.

Online Discussion

This week's math mindset module looks at making mistakes and speed while doing math.




I am a strong believer in making mistakes - mistakes lead to deep reflection and better results. No one develops the "perfect" thing in one take. Everything around us took time and trial and error before being presented to the public eyes and are still being "touched" up to this day. One of the things I tell myself before trying something new or out of my comfort zone is that it's a leap of faith and that we will not know how it ends up until we try. This is the mindset I want to instill in my students going forward. Take the leap and try, together we can solve and fix our mistakes. Once again, this goes back to having a growth mindset and not fearing mistakes. Students should be able to make mistakes and learn from them. It is up to us as educators to model how to reflect and learn from our mistakes - this can be done if we mess up a lesson or a task. If students acknowledge their mistakes but take no steps into fixing it this leads to being an "unsuccessful student".

Lastly, being fast at math does not mean you are good at it. One thing I saw during my placements were students rushing math in order to be done - just to be told by either me or the AT to return back to their desk to fix a mistake. During this time you will either see a determined student or a defeated student - most of the time the latter. Discussing not rushing their work helps, but the students are usually no longer motivated to continue on with the task; this is when one-on-one teaching is done.

Webinar

This week was our first webinar! We looked at inquiry-based teaching. This is something we talked about a lot during our time here at Brock. It is one of those things are much easier to discuss in theory than in practice. I have seen both my associates try to incorporate some aspects of inquiry-based learning. However, it is difficult at times to develop proper inquiry.

It is a practice that I will continue to develop and improve. There are plenty of resources that are out there to help support educators to implement inquiry-based learning into their classrooms.

That is what I pulled from this week! Until next time!

Hello and welcome back! This week's blog focuses on Knowing, Doing, and Understanding of math. We also looked at more math mindset! 

In-Class Discussion

   One of the main ideas about this week's class was the idea behind knowledge vs understanding. Which one is more important? This is a tricky topic - I sometimes believe the knowledge is more important than understanding. What I mean by knowledge is that students know the main concepts of math rather than applying them. However, time and time again I see students struggle to apply their knowledge on problem-solving questions as they do not understand the math question. This last placement my associate teacher and I tried really hard to tell students that every math equation is a "sentence"  and tells us, the reader, some sort of information. Basically what we wanted the students to understand is that they do not just write down a math equation down without understanding what it is saying - even in a post-secondary setting I have seen students struggle to understand this concept. One can argue that problem-solving questions are flawed and need to be revamped going forward. If there are language barriers or language issues in general students will struggle with word problem-solving questions. This is always a good conversation to have with other educators!

In-class we saw a video called How Old is the Shepard, here we see students not fully understand the question and just apply their knowledge to what they think is right.

This is what I saw when I did EQAO practice with my students this past placement. However, rather than being a "trick" question like this, my students were not able to understand word problem questions. A strategy my associate and I did was to try and emphasize keywords to students when reading the questions. This helped some students - also just reading them the question was also extremely beneficial for the students as well too. A good resource that my teacher showed me was this website: http://www.ldonline.org/article/62401/. These strategies help out target other multiple intelligences - such as visual and auditory learners. I think this is what we need to start doing with word problem questions - differentiate the questions so that students can understand it much better!

Online Discussion:

This week's math mindset module focused on the growth mindset and how it looks like in a math class. During the 1st year of teachers' college, the beginning portion of it talked about the growth mindset and what it is and how it looks like in the classroom - here a quick video to illustrate growth mindset.



We want to believe that the majority of our students have a growth mindset and that we try to encourage having a growth mindset. However, it is not until you are in a placement classroom that you realize that a lot of students fear to make mistakes and even though you encourage mistakes so that "we can go through it" and talk about the mistake - here is a resource I found to help students overcome their fear of being wrong (https://www.opencolleges.edu.au/informed/features/overcoming-the-fear-of-being-wrong/). To be honest, I think I have a hybrid up of growth and a fixed mindset. In some areas, I believe that if I keep practicing I will get better but in some areas, I believe that even though I practice - I may maintain the level that I am at and not get better. After watching the video about the research about using the word smart and praising students, it is shown that when given a chance do something hard versus something easy the students that were labelled as smart didn't want to do the hard questions but rather the easy ones and the students that were praised for their efforts decided to challenge themselves and did the hard question. I believe this is the case because students that label themselves as smart sometimes will rather want to take the easy route or fear of getting the question wrong and those that are praise want to challenge themselves to see if they can continue to get better. However, during placement, I can say that most of the students that I would label as smart were always the ones challenging themselves by doing hard questions whereas the students that struggled would want to do the easy questions. Regardless of what I've seen in versus research, I do believe that creating a growth mindset environment is beneficial no long run for all students


This is what I pulled from this week's activities! See you next time.

Hello and welcome back! This blog will focus all on Mathematics. Let's dive right in!

In-Class Discussion

   As the first class, like the majority of university classes, focused on the syllabus and the rundown on what is to come going forward. Here the main points about the first class.

Game About Squares

 Game About Squares was the first activity that we did during this class and it was an addictive activity to boot! This game is a puzzle-based game that gets progressively harder as you go up in levels. It is simply a game about squares and getting the colour/patterned squares to their respective spots.

Example of Game About Squares

While playing this game we had to answer the following guiding question - what helped you succeed in the game about Squares? The way that I answered the question was with the following statement:

This game focused on making mistakes and learning from them. This game encourages the user to try things that seem unusual or "that may not work". However, once you solve the more complex puzzles you get this satisfactory feeling and or the sense of accomplishment. Guarantee everyone had an Ah-Ha moment while solving a puzzle - some of us even letting out an "AHHHHHHHH" when a puzzle is on the verge of being solved. Though it may be an optional aspect, playing this game with friends adds this competitive feeling - everyone was probably thinking what level is my friend at? Am I higher or lower? This all translates to math; we want our students to try and learn from their mistakes! We want them to get that ah-ha moment and occasionally have friendly competition amongst each other.

Ever Wonder What They'd Notice

The second activity we did was watch a video called Ever Wonder What They'd Notice. Where an educator went into a grade 8 classroom that shouldn't expect much from the students - as in they are not that "smart" according to their homeroom teacher. However, once this other educator gave them that ah-ha moment to the students, they all seemed to understand the mathematical question.

The purpose of this video is we need to change the way we talk about math with the students. Some will say this is a type of discovery math - and with the current government removing discovery math it is sad to see that at-risk students lose a way for them to understand math.

EQAO Question

The last in-class activity that we did was an EQAO question. The EQAO question is the following:

A club has money for a trip. The expenses for the trip are shown below: 

•lunches:1/4 of the money 

•tickets: 2/5 of the money

•snacks: 0.12 of the money 

•transportation: 20% of the money 

What fraction of the money is left over? Show your work.

The task we had to do was find curriculum expectations that showed how grades 6, 5, and 4 students would answer the question. What we found out that is that all grades could figure out the question. However, each grade would figure it out differently. Grade 6 would figure it out by using formulas and calculations while both grades 5 and 4 students would use more manipulatives and visuals to answer the question.

This week's online activity we looked at how media looks at math, math stereotypes, brain development, and squashing math myths. The overall idea of the videos that we watched was the following:

• Everyone can do math
• Math experience influences our confidence in math
• "Math Person" is not a thing, being good at math is not a gene
• Good experiences help us develop 
• Math is for all genders not just males

As educators, we need to keep developing positive experiences for other students not just in math but in all subjects. 

That is all for this week! See you next time.