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!