Math Blog Part 2- Post #3: Webinar Winnings!

It was Webinar day today! All three webinar groups successfully communicated their topics with ease and skill, which made me very hopeful for mine next week! Technology always makes things a little risky I find, its so temperamental! But I was able to gather some great resources and strategies from these webinars which are aiding me in my Put-it-into-Practice Bob Ross quest!

Webinar #1 -  Cathy Fostnot Theories 

Many of us used "Math Strings" in our placements but it had been a while since I had seen it in action and I needed some reminding so I watched the webinar even though it wasn't technically mandatory - and I was glad I did! We went through a series of mental math problems and shared our strategies after each and felt so good to share the weird way I had worked through the problem in my head and have it validated by the leaders. I often use the method of turning uneven of difficult numbers, for me that might mean a number I can't easily add or subtract in my head, and change it to a "friendly" number, aka numbers I am more comfortable with (even numbers, multiples of five) and then adding in the difference at the end. I always had this feeling like that wasn't quite the way I should be doing things but today my method was not only accepted, it was praised for its originality!

  Webinar #2 - Creating a Safe Classroom Environment/Using Digital Tools 

In my past blogs I've spent quite a lot of time stressing the importance of a safe and accepting classroom environment so I decided to focus on the use of digital tools in this webinar because I picked up quite a few new resources! I will list them here with brief descriptions below!

Resource Round-up

Which One Doesn't Belong

A simple website which features tiles such as the one pictured below where students can be asked to find which one doesn't belong. As you can see there is no correct answer, there are many different ways the students could interpret it, which allows for creative thought and fun inquiry!

Which one do you think doesn't belong?

http://www.estimation180.com/

This website gives real world examples for students to use to work on their estimation skills. They could even argue their point of view with their fellow classmates, something WODB also allows the students to do!

Math Playground

Similar to Fun Brain from the days of yore, Math Playground offers a multitude of games focused on different strands and topics (fractions, measurement, geometry etc.). I suggest trying Red Brick, it is extremely addictive and my little sister is an absolute pro at it!

Well that's all for this week friends! 

Tune in next week to hear about the fate of my Webinar! 

Until then,

"Forth and fear no darkness"

Bernadette 

Math Blog Part 2 - Post #2: A Happy Little Accident

Another week and another class have gone by. 

Well, thoughts thoughts thoughts- I have many! 

I'm certain I won't be the only member of my class to discuss the opening card trick because, well, it was rough waters to say the least. I know that was not the most eloquent way I could have framed that feeling (I can almost hear my beloved high school English teacher shaking her head at me) but it was a bit of a culture shock moment for our class as future teachers and I found myself feeling quite frazzled thinking about it and it seems my awkward syntax reflected my mixed feelings about the whole experience.

I am going to quote myself in my response to a fellow teacher candidate who felt the same anxiety and uncertainty that I did during the aftermath (hehhee, Pun Queen strikes again) of the card game because I believe I literally could not say it better myself (okay that was the last one, probably) :

"Yes I think we all felt a lot of frustration at the beginning of class because, and I'm just making an assumption here, for most of us that kind of moment, the "you should know this" moment really hit home, especially since we haven't been in the student position in a long time. But I do think that we should take some comfort in the fact that we made our way through it as a class, we asked questions and supported each other and when our professor realized we were getting a bit too focused on that particular question she reminded us that at the end of the day her goal was to make sure that we would come out of this class with more confidence in math than we came in with. And I think we are making our way, or at least we are in the right mind frame and that's a HUGE step! We always say that we should celebrate little successes with our students but I think we need to also remember to do the same with ourselves!"

Bob Ross. Image. Retrieved from https://quotefancy.com. 

We are making our way! I believe it! Or at least I am very open to believing it! We have been talking about positive mindsets all week and gosh, I want to try to be true to what I say! This coming week is going to be a difficult one for a number of reasons, many assignments are looming and I'm already feeling the weight of this new routine. So I am pulling in the big guns of positivity, Mr. Bob Ross himself. It's my little sister's birthday today and she loves Bob Ross, so I was looking up Bob Ross quotes for her birthday and it turns out that he had a lot of things to say that add to my point! Yes, this quote is maybe a bit over the top but I feel something in it, maybe because I've heard him say the quote and beautiful things often change shape when the words are left to speak for themselves.

But believing, as important as it is, is only half the battle.

The other half is putting it into practice. And I will share a personal story and another Bob Ross quote to demonstrate to you, dear reader, how I am putting my positive attitude into practice.

I was helping my mom sign up for Remind so my little sister could receive the extra credit math assignments her teacher was posting to the site and my mom showed me the math problem the teacher had given:

My Mother and I both initially had a negative reaction to this vague problem. Is there a formula they are meant to follow? What a silly question, what is the point of this etc. But then I made the effort to look at it as an educator asking: why would a teacher assign a question like this? Would I use this? And I actually ending up deciding that I would, but in a very different setting. I see the question as an opportunity for students to work on their "making sense" and problem solving skills. Before I would hand it out I would preface it saying that we are using this question to warm up our brains by thinking through a problem that will take some patience and effort. I would probably allow the students to work alone or with partners and encourage discussion. Then we would gather again as a class however many minutes later and discuss how we worked our way through it.

Just like that I had rejected my instinct to shut down and I reflected on the merit of a math question as an educator. I call that a start, and a promising one at that!

Bob Ross. Image. Retrieved from https://quotefancy.com

Resource Round-up
Guide to Effective Instruction in Math - A great resource for teaching math from Grade 1 to 6.

Until next time!

Forth and fear no darkness

Bernadette

Math Blog Part 2 - Post #1: A New Year Dawns

I have returned for Part Two of "Bernadette vs Math: The Love/Hate Battle of the Century" (its a working title, I may decide on something even more dramatic) and this year my goal is to work on the list of needed improvements I created for myself in my last blog post last year. To save you from scrolling to find it, some of the biggest problems I encountered were:

1) Giving myself the time I need to fully understand a concept so I can explain it well

When everyone else is nodding at the professor and speeding through their work its easy to feel like you have to go with the flow and figure it out on your own later. I did that a couple times last year until I felt comfortable enough to know when a concept was giving me a hard time and to focus more energy on it.

2) Asking for help even when I feel that I might be judged for it 

Throughout all my years of schooling I had several math teachers who claimed that no matter what the question was or how silly it may feel, that we could always ask them for help and they would kindly explain it again, or spend some time helping us. And though some teachers followed through on this promise and created a classroom environment where I could have felt safe enough to come forward when I had a problem, (if my tremendous fear of being ridiculed for my lack of basic math skills that possessed my entire being hadn't stopped me from taking that chance) there were enough teachers that didn't keep that promise that I still find it difficult to trust when a professor makes that same statement. But I am getting better at trusting myself and asking what I need to ask regardless of what the reaction might be.

Week 1 Reflection

I appreciate the continued existence of the forum posts, even though they felt a little tedious at times last year, it forced me to look through all the posts and there was always something new and interesting to learn about my fellow teacher candidates.

I also think it is very important to note that we began class by smashing stereotypes and negative attitudes, we need to be aware of the way we present math as educators because half of the battle of fighting math myths is being aware of the damaging connotations of seemingly harmless phrases like "this is a simple concept" or "this is an easy unit". Students hear that and assume something is wrong if they aren't finding the concept to be simple, which starts (or perhaps feeds) a chain of negative feelings towards math of any kind.

I am excited and, I'm not ashamed to admit, quite nervous about the challenges teaching math will bring and I am ready to work hard on my goals!

Until next week,

"Forth and fear no darkness"


Bernadette