September 28 Exit Slip - The Formatting Power of Math

     Today in class, we spoke about two different topics. The first was in helping raise new generations of young people how do we: 

- help them do well for themselves and do good in the world

- how to support students and ourselves with the anxieties of our times?

- how to avoid chasing the "hot issue of the day"?

I had brought up that the issues in our world today are so global, and there are so many that it can really stress students out. They are constantly receiving information through their technology and social medias that it can be very overwhelming as a new teenager learning to become their own person. The amount of opinions online can sway them very easily. I suggested bringing students to a more local place to help ground them. Lisa mentioned that in the reading, there was the class of students that as part of their homework was to use a local issue that had happened, do research on it, and give ideas to help. This can help students feel as though they are important and that they can make a difference as long as they are doing small things to help their community. 

    The second topic that we spoke on was the "formatting power" of math, physics, stories, and implicit stories and assumptions. Some ideas that Lisa, Christine, and I brought up included recreational math, creating more choices in problems, the assumption of having to memorize things in math, exactness, and that math is universal. Adding recreational math can help students find the fun in math instead of it feeling like a chore. This can include sudoku, and other problems of the sort. Making math problems that are a choose your own story format can make students feel like they have a choice in math instead of there being only one correct way of solving problems, and can lead them to learning how to apply new ideas. 

September 28 Entrance Slip - Climate Crisis

     I believe that as educators, we must set our students up for success in the real world. I think that preparing students for academia will not set them up correctly. We must show them examples that will be more applicable to their lives so that in the future they can look back at our lessons and use them if needed. 

    I think that we as people are able to change the way our subjects were traditionally were taught to us. Teaching math in the usual way of lecturing students and assessing them with tests is not very beneficial for most students. Finding more integrated ways of teaching students is important to reach everyone's learning styles in the classroom. This might include different assessment methods like formative assessments, exit slips, and different project types, or teaching a flipped classroom. If we don't change the way we teach subjects then students will continue to struggle unless they learn by reading textbooks or listening to lectures.

    I find that climate change is a very pressing issue in today's society. It feels like people do not speak about it enough and that we are not doing enough to help prevent it from worsening.

September 21 Exit Slip - Craft Reflection

Bringing your students outside is important to help build their connections with one another. This helps students to ask one another when they need clarification outside of class and do not want to email their teacher. Having a closer knit classroom helps to build joint excitement for learning about new subjects and potentially applying what they are learning in the classroom even further. An example of this happened in class last Thursday. The physics students in class made a kite with the material we were learning with in class and applied it to the subject!

I found that doing the braids and knots in class showed such interesting patterns. I feel as though students in the lower high school grades would find this exciting to visualize the patterns they are learning about. This will help visual and physical learners in the classroom to extend math to their learning styles. Math normally does not extend that often to those learning styles so it is important to make them feel included as well.

September 21 Entrance Slip - Sharon Kallis

Stops in Kallis' book:

I found it interesting to think about how newer cities are made for consumption of humans. Having cities  that are also made more for production would help to slow people down. Having people tied to transportation to get around leads to students more worried about time. Having the opportunity to bring students outside and notice things in their surroundings that may be correlated to math is beneficial for their learning process. I also thought the portion on "must find ways to see change from the perspective of what we are gaining (strengthened community resources), not what is being lost (ease of globalized consumerism)."  was so interesting because I didn't think about correlating the two together. 

Reflection on videos:

I found that the videos made me think about all the different materials you can use to make geometrical shapes in the classroom. I think it would be useful to implement with younger grades in the class. Having students moving around in the classroom helps them stay focused since normally they must sit down all day long. Allowing them to visually see what is happening infront of them by making it themselves can also help different learning styles to understand the topics.

September 14th - Exit Slip

 

The first thing in this article that made me stop was the CLN network will include an initial data base of hundreds of lesson ideas for teaching and learning across curricular areas with a garden as co-teacher, and will provide a space for communication among garden-based educators. This intrigued me and encouraged me to take a look at the network so I can use lesson ideas from it in the future for outdoor learning. Another thing that made me stop was that disciplines and faculties, including UBC’s Faculties of Education, Land & Food Systems, Forestry, Landscape Architecture, Engineering, Medicine, Arts and Sciences were all included in the CLN. This made me think of how I can connect math to these other faculties to make students more interested if they do not normally enjoy math. This can also show students that they will use certain math concepts in everyday life by using these connections.

 

I really enjoyed finding where the sun will rise and set depending what time of year it is. I think it would be very fun to incorporate this into a lower grade class.I also plan on measuring shadows and angles in a garden outside. I think that this would be good to apply to Math 9 and 10 when students begin to learn about angles and triangles. Taking this application outside would help them see that math is not useless, and that they are able to use it in real life.

 

I believe it would be difficult to maintain the attention of some students. I feel as though a lot of students get distracted outdoors so I need to make sure that I'm giving them a task they'll find interesting and that they are separated in their own spaces. I feel like doing this outside will make math more interesting for many students. It will make them realize there are many real life applications of math.

Entrance Slip September 14th - On being a Reflective Teacher

This article speaks to me as a new teacher candidate in Vancouver in 2023 because of ensuring that I am going into this process with an open mind. I want to ensure that I am committing fully to this process and am open to all of the new experiences that will come. I also want to ensure that I am open to adapting things that may be my current norm. This article also made me think about the type of school and classroom structure I want to work in so that my teaching is supported. I believe that it seems dated that teachers are forced into standardized patterns of behaviour. I believe that teachers now are able to act at a wider range of their own opinions and are allowed to run their classes in what way they please, as long as they are still talking about all of the curriculum.

This article helped me develop my ideas about teacher inquiry as I believe that it is important to reflect and act on those reflections made. I disagree that teachers are not able to act on the results of their own inquiries. I believe that teachers should be able to act accordingly on what they think is the best after reflecting on their actions. This is important for the bettering of students and ensuring that you as the teacher are able to help your students flourish to the best of your abilities.

Exit Slip September 7th Frank McCourt

This video and discussion about Frank McCourt led me to questioning how to introduce yourself in a balanced manner of being professional but also having a connection with the students. It also led me wondering after you take that first step, how do you keep this balance up? In the video, Frank touched on building a bridge with students to make a good first encounter. Finding something for your students to relate with you on will help them tell you what they like and do not like, so you're able to help them with the areas they don't enjoy so you're able to help them grow and thrive. 

Hello world!

 Hello everyone, this is my first blog post on my EDUC 450 blog!

 

File: Capilano River Regional Park and Cleveland Dam (5802463775).jpg