Math!

This week in math we learned all about fractions, or more specifically how we can teach fractions.  We started off by having some of our classmates present some learning activities about fractions to provide us with some interactive ways that we can teach it to students.  My group did an activity that involved rolling dice to get fractions and then using operations to create equations that would end with particular results.  We then also attempted a fractions problem using manipulatives to visualize the splitting of fractions. At the beginning I was slightly hesitant about this session because fractions was one of the strands that I found very challenging while in school.  I know now of course after three weeks of this class that it may in fact have had a lot to do with the teaching style of my teacher and not so much my ability to understand the concepts of fractions. Almost all of the theories behind teaching various math strands so far have been ones that I wi...

This week we focused on the variety of algorithms that are useful for teaching students to solve whole number operations.  This ties in very well with what we learned last week about problem solving methods, specifically about how different methods will help different students to solve the same problem.  I hope that by implementing a wide variety of these algorithms, I can minimize the number of students who struggle to complete any math problems they are given. I came into this week feeling very comfortable with my knowledge of this area as I had always done very well in school with my preconceived strategies for solving these types of problems.  I was pleasantly surprised to discover how many additional strategies there were that had never been taught to me as a child.  Although I personally solved these problems with only the techniques I had previously learned, there were certainly some in my classes who could've benefited from the alternatives that we learned...

This week a lot of the online material I was reading talked about the importance of understanding mathematical concepts, not just knowing how to use the formulas etc. and portraying that to students, particularly related to problem solving. One particular example I found interesting was a video done by Dr. Deborah Loewenberg Ball from LearnTeachLead. During the video, they go through a simple math problem and how it can be approached as a teacher. In connection to this line of thinking was an example problem we did in class focused on problem solving.  In this question a woman is selling and buying a horse multiple times and we were tasked with determining whether or not she made a profit on the sales.  When coming up with solutions, my colleagues were able to come up with several different solutions including ones different from how I had solved the question.  It stressed the importance of recognizing the different thought processes that would exist within your clas...

Hi everyone, welcome to my math blog! I am a junior/intermediate (J/I) Brock teacher candidate and on here I'll be sharing my thoughts and reflections as I learn how to teach grade 4-10 math. Up until around grade 9 I was decent at math but since then I haven't had the best relationship with it. I'm a little nervous to teach but hopefully I'll be ready when the time comes. This is where I will be posting my weekly reflections on my journey into teaching math so stay tuned for more!