Math, what I learned

The most valuable thing that I learned from this class is that math can be fun and engaging.  I was amazed by how creative teachers can be to make their lesson fun and interactive.  I really enjoyed learning about the uses of manipulates in classrooms.  I am a visual learner and actually playing around with miras, algebra tiles, and virtual manipulates like GeoSketch helped me understand math concepts better.  When I was in school, I didn’t learn math through using a whole lot of manipulates.  It was more of the drill and practice thing.  I think I would’ve enjoyed math if I did have all of these great resources around me to understand.  I hope to incorporate what I learned about the uses of manipulates in my own classroom to make learning more enriching and FUN.   I also like the idea that math can be learned better in groups than alone.  Like real Mathematicians, students can learn so much from sharing their ideas and thinking with one another.  I hope to incorporate this idea as well into my own classroom and make the learning collaborative and enriching.

Math, week 8

This week in Math, we learned about TinkerPlots.  TinkerPlots allows the user to play with the data plotted in variety of formats. I think this software is great for students to develop a stronger understanding of what their numbers mean. 

 We also talked about the wolframalpha.com site, where kids can get answers to almost everything in a click.  It is amazing what technology can do for us, making it so convenient to get the answer to any math problems in just seconds.  Things are not the same anymore.   Teachers need to know their students, where they are and what they need to learn.  This leads to the 4 questions Robin gave us to ask ourselves whenever we are creating a lesson. 1) What do they already know? 2) What do I want them to know? 3) How do I get them there? 4) Did they get there?   I think these four questions are crucial and I will try to use these four questions every time I create a lesson.

Math, week 7

This week, I learned how graphic calculators can be fun and exciting.  Learning how to use the graphic calculator for the first time was no fun for me.  It had so many buttons and functions that I needed to know which made me feel really overwhelmed.  There were certain rules and codes I needed to input in order to make my graph.   Robin's demonstration of graphing our movement was fun and very engaging.  I wish I learned how to have fun with my graphic calculator when I was in high school.  Showing our movement on graphs would've really made sense to me back in high school and I think I would've enjoyed learning it.
What other ways can we make graphing calculators more fun and engaging without using a motion sensor?  I would love to learn other ways to make my teaching more fun and engaging. 

I also enjoyed working with GeoSketch and Fathom.  Trying to fit all of the geometric shapes was difficult than it looked. I think primary kids will have fun working with GeoSketch eventhough it can be a little challenging for them.  I can picture couple of my second grade students enjoy working with GeoSketch.  Trying to figure out and fit in all the shapes into a given pattern will stretch their thinking and help them better understand the characteristics of each shapes.
What other strategies can I use to integrate technology and math in primary grades to make my teaching more fun and efficient?

Math week 5, Geometry!

I had fun learning geometry through folding up a paper box.  It was fun and interesting to hear how other people explained their thoughts and thinking on geometry.  It was challenging for me to explain how I knew a square shape.  We are just so used to saying "I know it's a square because it looks like a square."  We are not used to expaining our thinking.  It was challenging but I think I learned/refreshed my understanding of geometry through the activity. 

My question is: how can I make my teaching fun  and creative to engage all my students? 

I am in a second grade classroom for my Main placement, so I haven't had the chance to teach them geometry yet.  I think folding the box activity (or something similar) can be fun to just teach them the concept/idea of geometry.

Math Week 2

I learned that manipulates such as beans or algebra tiles can be very powerful.  I was amazed by how algebra tiles made it so simple and easy for me to understand quadratic formulas.  When Robin demonstrated how the FOIL method can be so easily understood by using the manipulates, I thought of how this would've helped me so much when I struggled learning algebra in high school.  I think I would've enjoyed math a lot better if someone taught me different strategies to solve the math problems (like using algebra tiles to visually see and understand the idea) than just trying to memorize rules and formulas to solve.  I think that these strategies we learned in class today will definitely help me in the future when I'll be teaching math to students who struggle.

Question: manipulates are great teaching tools.  How many strategies should I teach to students but not have them feel overwhelmed?

Never Say Anything a Kid Can Say!

I really enjoyed this week's article on Never Say Anything a Kid Can Say!  I liked how the author gave tips and strategies that were student-centered and problem based approaches.  Students need to be able to explain their thinking to learn and teachers should do the listening part.  The one strategy that I really liked was point 3 on page 480, use more process questions than product questions.  We want our students to stretch their thinking.  Teachers need to ask questions that require more thinking rather than just a yes or no response. 

In class, we worked with partners to solve three algebraic problems.  These problems allowed us to share our thinking and to learn from each other.  When I was stuck with a problem, my partner helped me understand the question better and we worked together to come up with an answer.  It was fun seeing how other colleagues solved the problem.  I feel that we can learn so much from each other and it's important for us to build a safe community for us to share our ideas and thinking.