Stage 6 Math Reflection

   

     Stage 6 Math Reflection: Math and Technology
      For my final math blog, I would like to share what really stood for me from Stage 6's  in class activities, online tasks, and lecture.  The obvious "Ah ha" moment is that math expresses itself everywhere.  This means that it should not be hard for us to connect math problems to daily applications and student life experiences to make it more meaningful.  It is hidden all around us (nature, pinecones, sea shells, counting, construction, baking, navigation, managing time, Darth Vader's mask, pineapples, sports, Mona Lisa, grocery stores,  calculating bank's interest rates, shapes, curves, patterns,etc). As a future educator, I can capitalize on this belief to increase students' motivation, interest, attention and emotion in math.  Something that I have learned from my math courses, is that mathematics is the universal language that we use everyday without realizing it.  I plan to use this strategy to help students discover and learn that math can be fun.

InvestingInOurYouth. (June 8, 2010). Investing in our youth - math is everywhere. Retrieved from https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Hh1M409ed1I/hqdefault.jpg

     Before this week's lecture, I had not heard of the SAMR model.  It is an acronym for Substitution, Augmentation, Modification and Redefinition and designed by Dr.Ruben Puentedura.  What a great reference to use because all technology is NOT created equal.  Computer technology is becoming more important in the classroom and it is our responsibility to consider how it might impact teaching and learning.  Overall, the model supports and allows educators to design, develop and inject digital learning that uses technology.  It is not only about using technology in the classroom, it is all about finding more meaningful uses of technology in teaching.  I am going to have to take more time to better understand this approach.  Obviously, I want to experiment with it and see how my lessons and assessments can be transformed considering the different stages of the model. The theory is that substitution and augmentation enhance student learning.  Modification and redefinition transform student learning.  At these two levels, technology allows for student analyzing, evaluating and creating.  In my opinion,  that is what we want to push our students thinking to include.
 

                  
Taken in class by Matt DiMartino, Thursday October 19, 2017.

     Another factor that resonated to me is that efforts to integrate technology into mathematical classrooms with games and apps can fail to make positive differences in student learning.  Students think games are fun and entertaining, but not all math games or apps lead to deeper understanding and greater competency.  Have a look at Dr. Boaler's video.  She highlights what a game should not do (emphasize speed) and presents three valuable math apps (Wuzzit Trouble, Motion Math, DragonBox) and a game (Mathbreakers)  that promote engagement with the math curriculum.  Other key features of superior apps and games are that they help students understand key ideas, see the math through animation and visuals and let the participants play and explore while learning mathematics.  Dr. Boaler's recommendations give your brain a workout by further developing brain muscles.  Now, I will have to consider this advice when choosing educational math games and apps for my students. 

     Creating digitally enhanced learning requires more than integration of new digital technologies. Dr. Boaler has presented criteria that will be useful when choosing the right technology.  It is important to consider and ensure that our chosen technology and practices actually enhance learning rather than limit it.
    Finally,  through blogging, I have documented some beneficial strategies, resources, and tips to help make math, a subject that students will love. There will be challenges presented by technology, but I will try and use them as a learning experience.   I look forward to implementing everything that I have learned in this course  in my fast approaching placement.


Thanks for any feedback and the support.

Stage 5 Math Reflection

     The modules continue to inspire me with informative strategies to make math meaningful to students in elementary school.  More importantly, I am learning how to develop knowledge and understanding of mathematics to practice and pass onto my students.  Key math principles were highlighted this week and include the importance of using intuition, drawing and representing, making sense of math, and understanding big ideas rather than memorizing.  My blog will mostly concentrate on these concepts because they left an impression on me, but I would like to comment on a webinar that I participated in.

Taken Wednesday October 11, 2017


     Since webinars are valuable educational tools, I look forward to incorporating them when needed. Bernadette and Jacob did a fabulous job of presenting their webinar about Universal Design and sharing ways to set up an encouraging mathematics classroom atmosphere by making changes to the environment's instruction, content, and product.  Overall, the webinar was very well -organized and included many interactive activities for this process; Answer Garden, input about how we could change ways to delivering instruction/questions, lesson content, and approaches to assess student learning.  The webinar was successful by providing us with ideas when considering the wide-ranging abilities of our students so that all are served and engaged.

Forsythe, G. (March 4, 2013). Universal design for learning.  Retrieved
     from https://www.flickr.com/photos/gforsythe/8527950743


     Dr. Boaler and other professionals continue to invite us to approach learning and teaching math with simple, important teaching practices; help students make sense of math by thinking of questions, and using intuition, encourage drawing and representation, and looking for the main ideas in math instead of memorizing all the little details such as formulas.   Have a look at how Sebastian Thrun, CEO of Udacity values intuition and math learning.

     This entrepreneur's message highlights understanding, thinking like a mathematician, and problem solving. These skills not only help with math but can be applied to citizenship and relationships. Thrun believes that intuition has the ability to empower and remove the fear associated with learning math.  I agree that the ability to use intuition can help students learn and embrace mathematics successfully. 

     Drawing and representing are other processes that can and should be developed to help students understand and solve math problems. Visualization allows students to remember and manipulate concepts. Focusing mathematical instruction on these approaches allows for greater flexibility when students display math ideas.

     The last important point that I learned this week is that practicing memorization can be problematic in math. While it is important to know certain math facts and hold them in memory, Dr. Boaler said that the best way for students to learn math is by deeply understanding the big ideas and not the little details.  She is not an advocate of practicing math facts over and over again or being tested on them.  I support the approach of organizing content around main ideas because I think that focusing learning around a few big ideas makes it easier for students to relate new knowledge to previously learned ideas.  After watching this video, I no longer believe that having a great memory is the key to excelling at math.  This was another one of my misconceptions of math.

                                    

Washington State University (2010). Big ideas. Retrieved from http://wsm.wsu.edu/s/index.php?id=789

     Of course, I want my students to feel good about math.  That means adopting strategies early on within my instruction that improves  student learning.  This week's module supplied me with many.


Talk to you next week.