Observation Days Completed

Yesterday was our last observation for this semester. I am sure that everyone had positive and knowledgeable experiences. For the five days that I completed I had a wide variety of activities, which were all lots of fun. I got to do many things such as read aloud to the class, be on recess duty, go on a field trip to the fluvarium, participate in reader aerobics, as well as observe great teachers at work. For the most part the math that I did get to observe was pretty much based out of the text book, but it did include activities where the students got hands-on practice with math. One thing that I did see, which was not a part of my math class when I was in elementary school, and that was math journals. The teacher explained to me that it was a result of wanting the students to be able to talk more about math and relate it to real life experiences…I thought that was pretty cool. I’m sure everyone can’t wait to get back to the classroom after Christmas and gain even more valuable information.

November 22, 2007

Today was the start of our team teaching presentations. I think this assignment is a great way for us to get hands-on practice with teaching math. I think that by having the opportunity to teach a math lesson to a group of peers is helpful because we do not necessarily have the same pressure we would have if teaching children in the classroom. By doing this assignment we are all getting great lesson plans that we could use when we get out into the classroom and we are actually getting to see the lesson in practice. The presentations that have taken place already were great and even though they were intended for primary or elementary I think we all had fun doing the activities. Great Work Everyone!

Fraction Kits

Today in class we were given a handout that helped us create fraction kits. By cutting different coloured paper into different sizes we created concrete manipulatives to learn about fractions. I have to admit it took me quite some time to figure out what we were actually doing and what size I needed to hold up when Ms. Cameron called out a fraction. I don’t exactly know why I kept doing it wrong, maybe because when I was in school the only way we seen fractions was in a written problem from the text. Anyhow I will definitely practice using the fraction kit to learn more about fractions and I intend to use this resource when I enter the classroom.

October 16th Class

In today’s class we all got a chance to talk about our experiences on our first observation day. Most of us really enjoyed our observation day and acquired a great deal of knowledge from just one day. We had a lot of stories to tell both good and bad. I thought this class was very interesting because we all got to hear everyone’s perspective and their thoughts on many things, such as classroom management, routines, diversity of students and how certain classes were taught, just to name a few. I’m sure that everyone can’t wait to get back because hands-on experience is where you gain the greatest knowledge.

October 4th Class

During class today we looked at the math journals. We all picked a journal and had time to skim through it and see if we found anything that caught our attention. I thought these journals were great, they are jammed packed with information and wonderful teaching ideas. One activity that stood out to me was a November activity were students had to calculate the size of a turkey they would need for Thanksgiving dinner. They used the general rule of how much turkey an individual would eat (I can’t remember what it is now) then figure out the size of turkey needed, also taking into account if your family wanted leftovers or if certain members would eat more or less than the general amount. The math journal provided a worksheet students could use as a guide along with a great information for the teacher to use to help you guide students. I thought this activity was pretty cool because most parents don’t know what size a turkey they need to feed all of their family and it would be a great feeling for students to be able to teach their parents how to correctly calculate the right size turkey. (They would be talking about how they came up with the answer all through dinner!)

October 2nd Class

During this class we were placed in groups, given a big piece of white paper and A LOT of sand. I couldn’t believe it when Mary said we had to try and count the grains of sand. I thought to myself..she must be mad…we will be here forever. Anyway, as crazy as I thought the activity was I found myself trying to find ways to count the sand. First we all decided to spread the sand out evenly, then place it into equal sections but we soon found out it was way to difficult to try and count itsy bitsy grains of sand in what seemed to be a small area. So then we decided we would dip our finger into the sand, count the sand grains that stuck on our finger and then see how many ‘finger’ amounts were in the pile. To my amazement we actually came up with an estimate number for the number of sand grains we had. After the whole class all had a discussion about our ways of counting the sand…we all had lots of different ideas and had tons of fun trying to count the sand grains. I think this would be a great activity for students because it a fun, usual, and hands-on way of teaching and learning math.

September 27th Class

In today’s class we looked at the math curriculum guides, teachers guides and other resources to help us in teaching mathematics. I am really glad we actually got a chance to look at these resources. For a lot of people, including myself, math can be sometimes overwhelming especially when you have to teach it to a class. By looking through the books I found that there are many ideas and information to guide you through teaching math, and there are lists of resources which can also be used. I hope everyone is a little more relaxed about teaching math and remember we all know now that there is no excuse for teaching math by giving them worksheets after worksheets. Take advantage of the resources out there and help make math a lifelong journey!