Education in Math

During the most recent lesson we went through an interesting topic in Open and Parallel Tasks. I had never seen this before so it was a great introduction to another tool that can be used in the classroom. First, I found open tasks a very useful tool, as it is something that can be quickly and easily done in a classroom. All you need is a question, which is probably the most difficult thing to formulate, but once that's done it's up to the students to decide how they want to solve the problem. What I like in particular is that students aren't bound to work through it in a predetermined way, but since it's an open question they are able to have more freedom in how they think through  and process the question. However, despite this freedom, in the end there are still correct and incorrect answers so as the teacher you can still gain valuable assessment information through the task. I also think it's a good way for students to collaborate with each other after they w...

In our class this week we went over various manipulatives that can be used within a classroom environment to further promote learning in different ways. I have had little experience with using the various manipulatives whether it was just simple blocks, or algebra tiles. As that was the case I was unsure of what to expect going into the activity as I wasn't too sure how effective it would be for students. Through the activity I was able to gain valuable experience in how I can use these tools within a classroom in the future. Some of the activities I found more insightful then others. For example, there was a question asking if you painted the outside of a 100x100 cube, how many of the cubes would be painted on two sides. In this case having a physical cube to work with made the question much more simple to answer as we could use smaller sized cubes such as a 3x3 cube in order to determine a pattern and then apply that to the 100x100 cube. If we weren't given the objects to ...

Hello, For this next blog post I will be reflecting about an activity we did in class where we chose what our favourite class and least favourite class would be to teach, and we discussed it with those around us. At first I chose that my favourite class to teach would be one of the Grade 12 U level courses, because it's the most advanced level math and the students taking it would likely be “good” students as they are seeking to get into University. When it came time to choose our least favourite class, I instantly thought about the LD level courses since I assumed it would be low level Math, and that the students in it would not be interested or engaged. However, as we discussed why we thought it would be our least favourite I began to see a new perspective on the course. My initial reaction that I would not like the material began to change, as we began to discuss how the material in the course is meant to be very applicable to real life. Whether that's learning abo...