Week 2 Report & Reflection
What kind of tree does a math teacher climb? Geometry.
This week one of our emphases was on making geometry approachable in the classroom and one of the lessons I learned is to always use hands on activities with geometry. Students need to be able to visualize and understand why something is the way that it is by physically creating it. By doing math, you can understand math.
I was very engaged in one activity associated with geometry and that was making a 3D structure out of linking cubes based on the front, side, and/or back views in a 2D picture. We needed to figure out how many owls were in the structure in total. I really connected to the activity because I like everything related to owls, so my attention was caught right away. Here were the 2D pictures, and the final 3D shape that my partner and I made:
McEachren, Patricia. (2018, September 10).
Week 1 slide #3. [PowerPoint Slides]
Milhomens, Britney. (2018, September 10). 3D
structure of linking cubes. [Personal Photo].
We decided to use green linking cubes to represent the owls, and yellow linking cubes to represent the blocks in the second row. If students know how to do the math, they are more likely to be able to explain the math, which results in understanding the math. Telling is not teaching.I need to consider this when I plan a unit plan—students need to be able to experience and do math before I am confident in their abilities to perform an algorithm.
Once students are comfortable doing the math, they are able to move into algorithms. A way to review algorithms and concepts used may be to use technology. One technological method we experienced in class was playing jeopardy and I found this to be extremely engaging for the whole class. It can be played in small groups, with a partner, or with the class and it is easy for me to create! This is definitely something that I will remember and use in my classroom in the future.
Another lesson I learned this week is to engage students with stories. I was engaged this week when Pat introduced a problem about kitten food and started talking about what kittens should/shouldn’t eat. It caught my attention and made me stay focused and I know that it will do the same for my students.
Milhomens, Britney. (2018, September 13).
Kitten Problem. [Personal Photo].
In that same problem, we were told to solve the problem in any way we wanted (except for using algorithms), and every group came up with something a little different related to proportional thinking. I liked that we got to consider alternative interpretations and solutions of the problem to be able to talk about it in a math congress group. A math congress is a group where you share and explain your strategy for solving a problem. This made me realize that there were many right ways to solve the problem rather than just one! This is definitely a good method that I will take into the classroom.
This method of teaching the kitten problem had many of elements of teaching math found in Principle 1 of the document “Paying Attention to Mathematics Education: Seven Foundational Principles for Improvement in Math, K-12.” In the first principle, teachers need to engage students including using multiple representations of math concepts and use relevant math, encourage multiple approaches for learning/doing math and foster questioning (p. 4). All of this was done in one problem about kittens! Take a look at the article for further reading. One of my goals was to engage my students and I can definitely see how it can be done.
I learned this week that it's important to encourage hard work rather than telling students that they're 'smart.' It's important to tell students that you believe in them and that they are working hard in math! This will encourage them to want to challenge themselves and grow.
Until next week, mathematicians!
This week one of our emphases was on making geometry approachable in the classroom and one of the lessons I learned is to always use hands on activities with geometry. Students need to be able to visualize and understand why something is the way that it is by physically creating it. By doing math, you can understand math.
I was very engaged in one activity associated with geometry and that was making a 3D structure out of linking cubes based on the front, side, and/or back views in a 2D picture. We needed to figure out how many owls were in the structure in total. I really connected to the activity because I like everything related to owls, so my attention was caught right away. Here were the 2D pictures, and the final 3D shape that my partner and I made:
Week 1 slide #3. [PowerPoint Slides]
Milhomens, Britney. (2018, September 10). 3D
structure of linking cubes. [Personal Photo].
structure of linking cubes. [Personal Photo].
We decided to use green linking cubes to represent the owls, and yellow linking cubes to represent the blocks in the second row. If students know how to do the math, they are more likely to be able to explain the math, which results in understanding the math. Telling is not teaching.I need to consider this when I plan a unit plan—students need to be able to experience and do math before I am confident in their abilities to perform an algorithm.
Once students are comfortable doing the math, they are able to move into algorithms. A way to review algorithms and concepts used may be to use technology. One technological method we experienced in class was playing jeopardy and I found this to be extremely engaging for the whole class. It can be played in small groups, with a partner, or with the class and it is easy for me to create! This is definitely something that I will remember and use in my classroom in the future.
Another lesson I learned this week is to engage students with stories. I was engaged this week when Pat introduced a problem about kitten food and started talking about what kittens should/shouldn’t eat. It caught my attention and made me stay focused and I know that it will do the same for my students.
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| Milhomens, Britney. (2018, September 13). Kitten Problem. [Personal Photo]. |
This method of teaching the kitten problem had many of elements of teaching math found in Principle 1 of the document “Paying Attention to Mathematics Education: Seven Foundational Principles for Improvement in Math, K-12.” In the first principle, teachers need to engage students including using multiple representations of math concepts and use relevant math, encourage multiple approaches for learning/doing math and foster questioning (p. 4). All of this was done in one problem about kittens! Take a look at the article for further reading. One of my goals was to engage my students and I can definitely see how it can be done.
Until next week, mathematicians!
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