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!

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.

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.

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

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?

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See you on Tuesday morning.