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Evaluation and Assessment!

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Evaluation and assessment is a major component of teaching. This allows teachers to see and understand where their students are to the Curriculum standings. When planning your assessment and evaluations, Shirley Dalrymple (Lecture 21) stated how important it is to understand your students and outlining the big ideas you want your students to pull from the unit. This is important because each student performs well on different styles of evaluations. Moreover, getting to know your students will allow you to adapt things for their success. For example, I perform well on tests. Therefore, I prefer tests over written reports, but some students understand the material, but once they have to write a test, all their knowledge disappears.  That is why it is important to have a variety of evaluations to make it fair and equal for all students to succeed. This also allows them to develop different skills for different evaluations. In my opinion, I believe the final evaluations (exams/fina...
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Getting Ready for Post-Secondary!

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Remember when we were high school students and had no idea what courses we should take or what each course offered. Let’s provide our students with a different experience and be there for their future. The majority of individuals say grade 9 Mathematics doesn’t matter that much, but in reality, it does. Grade 9 math paves the way on what mathematics courses you will be taking in the future. In grade 9, I had no idea what I wanted to do or what courses I should take, I just enrolled in the classes my friends were in. We talked about this in class, if grade 9 should be an open course. Meaning no applied or academic courses. I believe this would be an amazing change for numerous reasons!  1. It challenges the teachers! In my first blog, it talks about the importance of being knowledgeable when being a teacher. Having a classroom filled with different abilities, learning styles and interests, will provide a challenge for teachers to become better teachers by learning new ways to ...
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Teaching Online!

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For all the teachers out there that have to teach students online, I give you applause! I had to design and teach a grade 9 Linear Relation learning activity to a group of 8 students for 20 minutes. Designing the learning activity was fun, as it was challenging, and able to apply your practice from what you have been learning throughout university. It was challenging because you want the activity to be intriguing to the students as it will increase their love for math. As well, will allow them to understand the material well. I tried connecting my learning activity to an event that was coming up, the Super Bowl. This was perfect because it allows the students to see how math is involved in sports.  Also, provided me with a chance to cross-curriculum physical education with mathematics. When teaching, it is important to try to connect it to real-life situations. By connecting it to real-life situations, allows the students to be more engaged, allows the students to relate to what ...
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Welcome Back!

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 Welcome back! I hope you all are staying healthy and safe. This week I will be talking about perspectives in math.           With the ability to understand the things around us, we can see different perspectives and be open to new views. When we think about mathematics, we associate it with numbers and ways on how we solve solutions; addition, subtraction, etc. Some teachers only educate their students on how to solve problems one way and learning one way to look at that problems. Therefore, how do you expect students to develop different perspectives when analyzing patterns, numbers and formulas? Teachers need to develop multiple ways of teaching their material and teach students how to solve and look at problems at all angles. In my opinion, I believe the curriculum should incorporate different ways of solving solutions, instead of being focused on how to access students. Teachers always say it is not about grades, but why is the curriculum so based...
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Becoming your own Questioner

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Have you ever asked yourself “It’s no use asking questions when I can’t answer them"?  This is the negative attitude we need to change! Students need to be confident in their abilities to be able to answer any questions they are faced with. It doesn’t have to be the right answer, as long as you are trying, and as long it helps develop your thinking process. By being stuck, you are increasing your thinking process, as you are putting yourself in a challenging environment and experience new learning strategies. As educators, we should promote students to be the best they can be. To not put themselves down by labelling who they think they might be so quickly. One of the biggest obstacles to become a great questioner is attitude. We create our monster in our head, by feeding us information that is scaring us from even entering the Entry Phrase. For example, in Chapter 8, On Becoming your own Questioner, the majority of individuals have a temptation in saying, “I am not a questioning...
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The Importance of Reflection

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There are three important stages we have learned that promote thinking mathematically; Entry Phrase, Attack Phrase, and Review Phrase. They are very important and each phrase is vital to solve the solution successfully. The one stage that I felt that doesn’t get the most attention or isn’t focused on is the Review Phrase. The Review Phrase is a period where the students can check and reflect on their work. This allows students to improve and extend their thinking skills.             In today’s society, we are always in a rush; a rush to get to places, a rush to get things down and a rush to solve a question. This is reflected in the classroom, by students rushing through their work and tests. Once they finish a question, the majority of students do not go back to check it, and by this, they are losing an opportunity of learning. Checking and reflecting on your work allows you to understand where you can improve and discover new ways at looking at sol...
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Creating an Emotional Safe Classroom

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       When you think of making your classroom safe, what comes to mind? The majority of teacher thinks about the physical environment and ensuring that their students cannot get physically harm. Classroom safety is a systemic issue that must be examined from every angle, but so is emotional safety. It is important to monitor your students’ emotional state, especially in a subject that the majority of the students find difficult.           For most mathematical teachers, our goals are to grow the mindset and promote mathematical thinking. We have to step away from the old ways and incorporate new ways of learning that students today will understand and enjoy. I remember when I was younger, we were taught one way how to do everything; multiplication and division. As years went on, teachers have noticed that teaching one way doesn’t benefit everyone. With our knowledge and passion for math, we need to discover numerous ways to teach lesson...
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