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.