Education in Math

In class we were introduced to an interesting site  101 Questions . On the site there are pictures which can be used in the math class to generate questions. The questions can relate to anything you see in the picture. Below we have an example of what one of those pictures may look like. From: http://www.101qs.com/3833-2nd-grade-number-talk From this picture we could ask some simple questions like, How many scissors are there? How many pens are there? How many blue objects are there? We could also relate this to our Data Management course by asking, what's the probability of randomly choosing a pencil? Or, what's the probability of choosing a yellow object and then choosing a red object? There are many more questions that could come from this picture but those are a few. I think such a task is very interesting to do as you are trying to look at the picture in as many different possible ways as possible. I think for students it also provides some variation in their usual...

Technology is continually growing, encompassing larger parts of our lives, and that includes the classrooms that we teach in. This can be a great benefit in many ways as it helps to simplify our lives and increase efficiency and that includes teaching as well. For example, teachers can instead of spending time trying to create overheads for an overhead projector, can now just simply display what they wanted to directly with a Smart Board. It not only helps the efficiency of the teacher but of the students as well. Students have calculators in class which help them to quickly do calculations and to not waste time doing such work by hand. This helps them to focus on the content they are supposed to learn, allowing for them to more effectively learn the material. It is easy to see how technology can aid in the teaching and learning process, allowing for all involved to have the best experience. Having talked about how useful technology can be, I think it must also be mentioned the p...

During our most previous class we went through "Positive Norms to Encourage in Math Class" by Jo Boaler. There were 7 norms she went through and for the most part I would agree with them and try to ensure that they are implemented within the classroom. For example one of the main ones that I agree with is that "Mistakes are Valuable". Too often I find that students are so focused on getting everything correct, that they are afraid to make any mistakes. As a result, if there is any doubt in their mind about something they will participate less in class, whether that's just asking the teacher a question, or volunteering to solve a problem. Not only that, they may not even be willing to try certain questions because they are afraid of getting it wrong. However, I would hope to ensure that students would not be afraid to make mistakes in class, because I agree that mistakes are helpful in learning. Mistakes allow students to show where they are not fully understan...