Week 1 Report & Reflection

Week 1 Report & Reflection

            It’s my second year at Brock so I wanted to take this opportunity to welcome you all to my Mathematics blog- part 2! After my first class this week, I have to say that I’m already excited about what’s to come so stay tuned over the next 6 weeks! If you’re new to my blog or If you’ve followed my blog so far, you know that I’ve never been that comfortable with math and I was often told that I just couldn’t “do math.” This was one of the very topics that was addressed in this week’s math module. This week’s math module addressed many issues relating to attitudes toward math, math myths, brain growth, and smashing stereotypes. 

From past experiences and from watching various videos, people often dislike math, foremost, because it may make people feel "dumb" which is often the result of not being able to solve a problem. Additionally, people may dislike math because they don't see a point in it- the "why" behind what they're doing. People often dislike math also because it isn't particularly exciting for them. Math is almost always made out to be something that people "aren't good at" or it's “complicated” and “challenging.” This doesn't motivate people to want to do math, let alone pursue it later on in life. It’s up to us, as educators, to engage students in math and create a growth mindset amongst our students to encourage the idea that THEY CAN DO IT! Stereotypes are meant to be broken; it doesn’t matter whether you’re a woman, a man, black or white, able or [dis]abled, EVERYONE has the innate ability to do math. Teachers can squash these stereotypes in the classroom. 

This is one brilliant scene from the movie, “Hidden Figures,” where an African-American woman in a segregated community during the space race solves equations for the trajectory of a space capsule for one of NASA’s Astronauts. All of the white, male engineers are stumped until this particular woman comes up with a solution. This scene shows that anyone can do math, even if it seems like the solution is coming from an “unlikely source.” This fantastic scene can be watched below:  

Amasuga, Mark. (2017, April 11). Euler's Method scene in Hidden Figures [Online Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-pbGAts_Fg

We started our math class this week continuing this discussion about ability to do math. We viewed a video with spokesperson Annie Fetter who expresses the importance of letting students express themselves and asking questions to students to allow them to think for themselves. This is something important to consider when teaching a math class. It’s important to ask kids what they WONDER or NOTICE rather than ask kids what they don’t understand. This lets kids know that their ideas are valuable and useful which might make them more inclined to enjoy doing math. 

Milhomens, Britney. (2018, September 8). Screenshot of

A Game About Squares. [Personal Photo].

Another way that students can enjoy doing math is by using technology and games in the classroom. Not only can this teach students about particular concepts learned in class, but it can also teach them about cooperation and collaboration. My class saw this first hand when we played a game called “A Game About Squares." At first the class was extremely focused and quiet, but eventually you can hear a buzz of excitement and collaboration amongst ourselves. Some people would ask, “how did you do that” or “how did you pass this level?” We all worked together and discovered different strategies and pointers that we otherwise may not have gotten individually. Math doesn’t need to be an individual subject- sometimes more heads are better than one. (SCREEN SHOT) This is definitely something I will remember and be sure to use in the classroom. 

One of my personal goals for my teaching career is to make math more engaging and approachable and one way I think I can do this is by incorporating collaborative activities and games into the classroom such as the one we played in class. It’s important that students are introduced to different ways to learn things and encourage the idea that there are many processes that students can use to solve a problem. Manipulatives and visuals are things that I like to incorporate a lot in the classroom, but I hope to incorporate more technology into the classroom. These are things that I need to consider when planning a unit plan and I hope to learn more about how to incorporate different learning styles and teaching tools to make a unit more engaging for students. 

One article that I find particularly helpful is by Edutopia entitled "6 Ways to Help Students Understand Math." It incorporates an explanation as well as video examples for each way that can show teachers how to teach math to a variety of students. The article expands on some of the ways teachers can teach math to students that I've briefly described here such as introducing topics using multiple representations and solving problems in many ways (and encourage students to share their ways of solving a problem and incorporate these ways because maybe you haven't thought of that way yourself!) 
Until next week, readers!