Week 6 Reflection

 At this point in time we have reached the half way point in this course and it seems fitting to reflect a bit on my learning since then.  When I compare myself now to during week 1 of this course I have definitely improved in regards to my confidence when approaching multiple math strands.  I feel as though I now have the right mindset and approach towards these strands that make it easier for myself to understand how to teach them, but also how to most effectively have students learn them.  I have also discovered a number of different resources that can be used in the math classroom beyond traditional block manipulatives, as these were the most frequent tool I was given to use during my time in elementary school. 

I've found that for most of the strands covered so far, a common approach has been to provide visual representation of the concepts you want to teach.  This was always something I had trouble with before in creating ways that I can take the concepts I know I can do in my head, and translate them into something the students can see for their own eyes as opposed to me explaining.  This week was no different as we looked into the world of ratios and some of the ways in which we can help students visualize the different components and meanings behind them.

Something that immediately stood out to me was the use of real world applications, one of my classmates had prepared a presentation for today of a lesson plan based on ratios.  He used something as simple as a person going grocery shopping, determining which sizes of a product are best worth it at its price per unit.  This provided a very useful way for myself and my students to connect their learning to real life, as something frequently heard from my students is "how will this help/affect me in real life?" and this is the real challenge in my opinion of teaching math, is getting students to care.  As it also turned out, this application of ratios was the first time growing up that I had actively used my school math in my own life, realizing that I could calculate the exact price per gram of my favorite cereal to get the best deal opened up my 11 year old self to a whole new world of math concepts, as I was able to finally see who math was going to be important in my life.

 By consistently bringing in a real life situation that most people are confronted with on a daily basis, it encourages my students to become engaged in their learning.  Expecting that they wouldn't be able to wait to show off their new skills to their friends or family, I can preface lessons with how this is something they can "show their parents at the dinner table" as a lot of my old teachers used to say.

Quadrant Dan. (Sept 29, 2014). 'Grocery Comparisons" [Photograph]. Retrieved from https://danburf.wordpress.com/tag/unit-conversions/

As noted above, a lot of major companies have started to see the value of "real world" math and begun integrating it into consumers in an accessible way.  This begs the question of "why do we need to teach this if companies or google will do it for us?" and although this is a valid question, I would still argue that having students able to understand and explain where these values come from is crucial.  Students who are still being taught how and where things come from will help encourage them to become critical thinkers, which can be applied to a wide array of skills outside of math.