Below is the schedule, as determined by you through our lottery draw:
March 24th
Veronique and Krista
Kayla P and Kim
Heidi, Ashley, and Kayla S
March 26th
Elena and Katie
Emily and Amanda
Kayla Sh.
March 31st
Sarah Y and Amanda W
Alicia and Esther
Mallory and Jennifer
April 2nd
Kayla R and Stephanie
Nicole and Sarah W.
Robin, Sarah, and Kirsten
April 7th
Chrystal and Tiffany
Keshia and Matt
Holly and Dana
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Team Teaching Activity: Questions and Answers
During the week of March 10th, I spoke in class at length about our team teaching activity. Hopefully many of you took notes. Here are my notes, for those of you unable to attend the class.
What is your responsibility?
KEY STATEMENT: Your lesson / task / activity is to be an open-ended problem solving activity/task taught according to the NCTM Principles and Standards.
What is your responsibility?
KEY STATEMENT: Your lesson / task / activity is to be an open-ended problem solving activity/task taught according to the NCTM Principles and Standards.
You will provide the class with an example of great math teaching (☺) through a twenty (20) minute problem-solving mathematical activity that is a strong example of what to do with children.
Please review process standards here if you are in need of a refresher.
I will be looking for evidence of interesting mathematics and your understanding of that mathematics.
I will be looking for evidence of your growing understanding of how to manage time, materials, groups, diverse students, whole group conversation and technology if appropriate.
Remember, please do not use your valuable time making pretty things for your lesson. It is not necessary or important for this assessment. I am looking for a thoughtful approach, evidence, of your understanding of mathematics education.
When you are not teaching a lesson you will be participating as a learner. You will provide brief written feedback at the end of each teaching activity.
What do you pass in to me?
Please pass in a one-page explanation of your activity in paper form just prior to teaching. This one page should explain in clear language what it is that you will be doing, the important mathematics that the lesson takes up, how you will assess understanding, how it is connected to curriculum, and how you will extend it for diversity. This one page is not the place for detailed descriptions. Please do not use a cover sheet or accessorize with clip art.
What manipulatives do you use?
You are welcome to use any of the class manipulatives but you will need to make certain that the manipulatives you need actually exist and are available. Please have the materials you need organized and your teaching space (chairs, tables, materials, computer, overhead) ready.
How will you share lessons with each other?
You will post your teaching activity on your blog (each of you) after you have taught the lesson. It will include a reflection on the activity. How did you feel your activity went? What worked well? What didn’t? What you would do differently? Your written description of the activity should be clear so that others can take the lesson and do it themselves during their internship or teaching future.
What’s this about having a conversation during the lesson?
When it comes to your teaching activity, part of the lesson will include a mathematical conversation facilitated by you, the teachers, with the 'students' after they have had time to experience the activity, since we know that whole group conversation is a significant part of any good mathematics lesson. Getting students to communicate their thinking and ideas is key and takes practice.
Yes. You will need to keep track of the time and to use your time well. You will be stopped when you reach twenty minutes.
Before you leave class, you will have a brief reflective conversation with me. You will also receive feedback from your classmates in written form after I have read their comments.
What is the purpose for this assignment?
This summative assessment has many pedagogic purposes, including:
• To expose you to a variety of solid mathematical ideas that are connected to curriculum and are developmentally appropriate.
• To provide you with the chance to teach and lead a lesson.
• To allow for collaborative teaching and planning.
• To demonstrate your growing understanding of problem solving and worthwhile tasks.
• To demonstrate your ability to reflect on teaching and to articulate strengths and areas of improvement.
Please review process standards here if you are in need of a refresher.
I will be looking for evidence of interesting mathematics and your understanding of that mathematics.
I will be looking for evidence of your growing understanding of how to manage time, materials, groups, diverse students, whole group conversation and technology if appropriate.
Remember, please do not use your valuable time making pretty things for your lesson. It is not necessary or important for this assessment. I am looking for a thoughtful approach, evidence, of your understanding of mathematics education.
When you are not teaching a lesson you will be participating as a learner. You will provide brief written feedback at the end of each teaching activity.
What do you pass in to me?
Please pass in a one-page explanation of your activity in paper form just prior to teaching. This one page should explain in clear language what it is that you will be doing, the important mathematics that the lesson takes up, how you will assess understanding, how it is connected to curriculum, and how you will extend it for diversity. This one page is not the place for detailed descriptions. Please do not use a cover sheet or accessorize with clip art.
What manipulatives do you use?
You are welcome to use any of the class manipulatives but you will need to make certain that the manipulatives you need actually exist and are available. Please have the materials you need organized and your teaching space (chairs, tables, materials, computer, overhead) ready.
How will you share lessons with each other?
You will post your teaching activity on your blog (each of you) after you have taught the lesson. It will include a reflection on the activity. How did you feel your activity went? What worked well? What didn’t? What you would do differently? Your written description of the activity should be clear so that others can take the lesson and do it themselves during their internship or teaching future.
What’s this about having a conversation during the lesson?
When it comes to your teaching activity, part of the lesson will include a mathematical conversation facilitated by you, the teachers, with the 'students' after they have had time to experience the activity, since we know that whole group conversation is a significant part of any good mathematics lesson. Getting students to communicate their thinking and ideas is key and takes practice.
Do you need to use all of the 20 minutes?
Yes. You will need to keep track of the time and to use your time well. You will be stopped when you reach twenty minutes.
Before you leave class, you will have a brief reflective conversation with me. You will also receive feedback from your classmates in written form after I have read their comments.
What is the purpose for this assignment?
This summative assessment has many pedagogic purposes, including:
• To expose you to a variety of solid mathematical ideas that are connected to curriculum and are developmentally appropriate.
• To provide you with the chance to teach and lead a lesson.
• To allow for collaborative teaching and planning.
• To demonstrate your growing understanding of problem solving and worthwhile tasks.
• To demonstrate your ability to reflect on teaching and to articulate strengths and areas of improvement.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Monday, March 9, 2009
Greg Tang's The Best of Times provides children with an intuitive understanding of how to multiply.
"Four is very fast to do when you multiply by 2. Here's a little good advice --please just always double twice!"
Publisher: Scholastic, Inc.
Pub. Date: August 2002
ISBN-13: 9780439210447
Age Range: 6 to 10
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Thinking Mathematically
Today I showed you the text Thinking Mathematically by John Mason, Leone Burton, and Kaye Stacey. This revised edition takes up the processes of doing mathematics. We discussed the notions of specializing, generalizing, conjecturing, convincing and justifying.
We also looked at the three stages of a problem:
1. Entry
What do I know?
What do I want?
What can I introduce?
2. Attack
3. Review
2. Attack
3. Review
And remember that being STUCK is an honorable state!
Assessing the Quality of your Blog
Blog Self-Assessment
This is a reminder that Thursday’s class is an independent working session. Your task is to get caught up in your blogging and to revise or edit your work to your own degree of satisfaction based on the following:
• Is my blog free of grammatical/spelling errors?
• Is it easy to read?
• Have I been careful to avoid statements that make sweeping generalizations?
• Have I used appropriate examples to explain my ideas?
• Have I come up with good questions that are interesting, important, or provocative?
• Have I gone further than simply retelling events to trying to unpack and understand events?
• Have I shown evidence of growth of understanding through my reflections?
• Have I been careful to avoid identifying teachers, students, and schools?
• Have I been clear in my writing and choice of words?
• Have I satisfied 4.8.3 MUN University Regulations on Good Writing as described below?
Good writing is characterized by the following qualities:
1. Content
a. critical insight and freshness of thought,
b. clear and penetrating ideas,
c. perceptive, pure grasp of subject,
d. intelligent use of primary and secondary sources, and
e. a sense of completeness about the handling of the topic.
2. Organization
a. effective introduction and conclusion,
b. main idea is clear and logical development follows,
c. smooth transitions, and
d. good use of details.
3. Style
a. appropriate, accurate, precise and idiomatic diction, and
b. sentences varied in kind, length and effect.
4. Mechanics
a. consistently correct spelling,
b. accurate use of punctuation,
c. grammatically correct sentences, and
d. well organized paragraphing.
Please create a brief self-assessment (to be printed and brought to class on Tuesday Feb 17th) of your blog in one paragraph, addressing the following two questions:
1. How is my blog strong?
2. What do I need to do to improve the quality of my work?
This is a reminder that Thursday’s class is an independent working session. Your task is to get caught up in your blogging and to revise or edit your work to your own degree of satisfaction based on the following:
• Is my blog free of grammatical/spelling errors?
• Is it easy to read?
• Have I been careful to avoid statements that make sweeping generalizations?
• Have I used appropriate examples to explain my ideas?
• Have I come up with good questions that are interesting, important, or provocative?
• Have I gone further than simply retelling events to trying to unpack and understand events?
• Have I shown evidence of growth of understanding through my reflections?
• Have I been careful to avoid identifying teachers, students, and schools?
• Have I been clear in my writing and choice of words?
• Have I satisfied 4.8.3 MUN University Regulations on Good Writing as described below?
Good writing is characterized by the following qualities:
1. Content
a. critical insight and freshness of thought,
b. clear and penetrating ideas,
c. perceptive, pure grasp of subject,
d. intelligent use of primary and secondary sources, and
e. a sense of completeness about the handling of the topic.
2. Organization
a. effective introduction and conclusion,
b. main idea is clear and logical development follows,
c. smooth transitions, and
d. good use of details.
3. Style
a. appropriate, accurate, precise and idiomatic diction, and
b. sentences varied in kind, length and effect.
4. Mechanics
a. consistently correct spelling,
b. accurate use of punctuation,
c. grammatically correct sentences, and
d. well organized paragraphing.
Please create a brief self-assessment (to be printed and brought to class on Tuesday Feb 17th) of your blog in one paragraph, addressing the following two questions:
1. How is my blog strong?
2. What do I need to do to improve the quality of my work?
Monday, February 9, 2009
Counting Grains of Sand and Painted Faces on Cubes
Over the last few classes you have engaged in individual and collective mathematical thinking as you worked with cubes and grains of sand.
The following are some of the topics that came up:
- open-ended math problems and what that means
- math problems that make you think more than 2 seconds
- math problems that allow for multiple entry points - for the diversity of learners
- math tasks that don't tell you exactly what to do and how to do it, step by step
- math making sense
- students using mathematics to determine if an answer is correct
- problem solving
- working collaboratively rather than hoarding information
On Tuesday, Feb 10 we will continue this work. I mentioned how critical chapters 4, 5, and 6 are to your future growth as a primary/elementary teacher of mathematics. Please be ready to discuss chapters 3 and 4 as we look at what it means to think mathematically and teach for understanding.
In class last week we discussed the following best selling children's book, The Number Devil: A Mathematical Adventure by Hans Magnus Enzensberger.
It is a chapter book containing colourful illustrations of various mathematical discoveries.
It's a best seller, so I think you'll enjoy reading it, and your students - particularly your elementary students - will find it engaging and entertaining.
I wouldn't limit it to just elementary students at all as it makes a great whole class read-a-loud. It will depend on your students of course!
Monday, January 19, 2009
What is mathematics?
What assumptions do you hold about mathematics? In class we will spend a great deal of time thinking, talking, and challenging what mathematics might be, and the impact that traditional definitions have on us as learners. Using Lakoff and Nunez's notion of the mythology that surrounds math, (what they refer to as 'the romance of mathematics') we will look at traditional notions of mathematics and bump it up against a reconceptualized view. Figuring out our own positioning towards mathematics is critical to becoming a reflective teacher of mathematics. What part of the romance do you believe? How does what you think about mathematics affect how you teach it?
Your next blog entry shall focus on the nature of mathematics. What, for you, are the big ideas? How, if at all, have your beliefs about mathematics shifted? What is it that you will need to know, to read, to figure out, to study to gain a better understanding of the nature of mathematics as something that might be a living discipline, a human activity?
Reuben Hersh is an American mathematician who has written extensively about mathematics. He takes up his ideas from What is Mathematics, Really? in the following interview that I would like you to read: What Kind of Thing Is a Number? A Talk with Reuben Hersh Be sure to click on THE TALK at the bottom of the page to read the entire interview. He delves into his view of mathematics, the teaching of mathematics, and how our stance towards mathematics impacts how and what we teach.
Please also work your way through Chapter 2, if you have not yet done so to help you with your thinking. Put some thought into this blog entry. Remember, this work is not for me to check off a list, but to help you become informed about the discipline that you will be expected to make come alive with children. Looking forward to reading and hearing your ideas.
Your next blog entry shall focus on the nature of mathematics. What, for you, are the big ideas? How, if at all, have your beliefs about mathematics shifted? What is it that you will need to know, to read, to figure out, to study to gain a better understanding of the nature of mathematics as something that might be a living discipline, a human activity?
Reuben Hersh is an American mathematician who has written extensively about mathematics. He takes up his ideas from What is Mathematics, Really? in the following interview that I would like you to read: What Kind of Thing Is a Number? A Talk with Reuben Hersh Be sure to click on THE TALK at the bottom of the page to read the entire interview. He delves into his view of mathematics, the teaching of mathematics, and how our stance towards mathematics impacts how and what we teach.
Please also work your way through Chapter 2, if you have not yet done so to help you with your thinking. Put some thought into this blog entry. Remember, this work is not for me to check off a list, but to help you become informed about the discipline that you will be expected to make come alive with children. Looking forward to reading and hearing your ideas.
Important links for you
Here is the site for the WNCP Common Curriculum Framework K-9 Mathematics that was developed and published in May 2006. Eventually, the NL curriculum documents will all be re-written to reflect this document.
Please begin to make yourself familiar with the written curriculum. WNCP is already used in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Nunavut Territory, Yukon Territory, and Northwest Territories.
The Companion Website for our text is also something you need to become familiar with. Please take some time and check out the web links for each of the chapters as we work through them as well as the black line masters.
Please begin to make yourself familiar with the written curriculum. WNCP is already used in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Nunavut Territory, Yukon Territory, and Northwest Territories.
The Companion Website for our text is also something you need to become familiar with. Please take some time and check out the web links for each of the chapters as we work through them as well as the black line masters.
Math Curse
I hope you enjoyed Math Curse, the award winning children's picture book by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith and published by Viking.
There is so much you can do with this book, as we discussed on Thursday. The fun begins when Mrs. Fibonacci tells the class, "You know, you can think of almost everything as a math problem...."
ISBN-10: 0670861944
ISBN-13: 978-0670861941
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Do Schools Kill Creativity?
Great to see all of you yesterday. Here is the link to the talk we viewed and discussed yesterday:
Do Schools Kill Creativity?
Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining and profoundly moving case for creating an education system that nurtures creativity, rather than undermining it. He challenges the way we look at education and children.
So what does this mean for you, as a future primary/elementary teacher, with regards to teaching and in particular with regards to teaching mathematics to children?
Do Schools Kill Creativity?
Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining and profoundly moving case for creating an education system that nurtures creativity, rather than undermining it. He challenges the way we look at education and children.
So what does this mean for you, as a future primary/elementary teacher, with regards to teaching and in particular with regards to teaching mathematics to children?
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Follow this Blog
Remember that blogs are done in reverse chronological order, so you will need to scroll down to read my postings to you.
It is most helpful for you to add your blog to mine by clicking on the "follow this blog" link on the right hand side of my blog. That way I will have direct access to your blog, as will everyone else. If you have a duplicate name, please be sure to include a last initial (or two!)
See you on Tuesday morning.
It is most helpful for you to add your blog to mine by clicking on the "follow this blog" link on the right hand side of my blog. That way I will have direct access to your blog, as will everyone else. If you have a duplicate name, please be sure to include a last initial (or two!)
See you on Tuesday morning.
Hi everyone. It was nice to meet you today. As discussed in class, I would like you to create your blog before next class. Go to Blogger to create your free blog. It might be helpful to include a small photo of yourself on your blog profile but this is not required.
Please be sure to start with a welcome post that explains the purpose of your blog - which is a place for you to reflect on your work in our course - and to give a short introduction of yourself.
Your first real post of substance is your mathematics autobiography. Please create a post where you reflect on your own learning of mathematics in school.
Rationale: Many people have difficulty remembering their mathematics education in primary/elementary grades. In order to begin to study the teaching of mathematics to children it is important to revisit your own education in mathematics. it is necessary to reflect on your assumptions, emotions, and nostalgia surrounding your experiences and to critically examine them. Consider the following:
• What did mathematics in your classroom look like (kindergarten-grade 6)? Be descriptive.
• What is your best and/or worst memory surrounding mathematics in primary and elementary? How has this affected your views about mathematics now as an adult?
• Were you 'good' or 'not good' at math? How did you know this?
• What was the role of the teacher in your math classes? How do you think they felt about mathematics?
• What did assessment look like?
• Tell briefly about math in high school.
• What math courses did you take in university?
• Did you take any math electives?
• Do you / did you engage with mathematics in your life in major ways?
• How do you feel about mathematics now?
Please be sure to start with a welcome post that explains the purpose of your blog - which is a place for you to reflect on your work in our course - and to give a short introduction of yourself.
Your first real post of substance is your mathematics autobiography. Please create a post where you reflect on your own learning of mathematics in school.
Rationale: Many people have difficulty remembering their mathematics education in primary/elementary grades. In order to begin to study the teaching of mathematics to children it is important to revisit your own education in mathematics. it is necessary to reflect on your assumptions, emotions, and nostalgia surrounding your experiences and to critically examine them. Consider the following:
• What did mathematics in your classroom look like (kindergarten-grade 6)? Be descriptive.
• What is your best and/or worst memory surrounding mathematics in primary and elementary? How has this affected your views about mathematics now as an adult?
• Were you 'good' or 'not good' at math? How did you know this?
• What was the role of the teacher in your math classes? How do you think they felt about mathematics?
• What did assessment look like?
• Tell briefly about math in high school.
• What math courses did you take in university?
• Did you take any math electives?
• Do you / did you engage with mathematics in your life in major ways?
• How do you feel about mathematics now?
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Welcome to Math Education at Memorial University
Thanks for stopping by. This blog is intended for students in Education 3940 with Professor Mary Cameron. You are welcome to follow our blog if you find it helpful in your work or study.
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