Weekly Report & Reflection #11:

This week we learned about bringing technology within the classroom. The first presenter was Amberley, presenting Number Sense and Numeration, more specifically proper and improper fractions. She did a great demonstration on the board, explaining mix numbers and explaining the different processes it takes to simplify the mixed number. I already had a strong previous knowledge regarding this topic. The group activity was ordering fractions from lowest to highest, with a list of proper, improper, and mixed numbers. What I noticed, was that I did a very different process than the majority of the class, making all the numbers mixed numbers, instead of changing the numbers too improper fractions.

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The second presenter was Julian, presenting Geometry 2-D shapes, explaining what a polygon is:a plan figure bounded by straight line segments to form a closed chain. He handed out a bunch of pencil crayons, and were instructed to draw various shapes on graph paper. His presentation started with having students come up to the board and guess the various shapes he drew on the board. It has been a while for myself to go over my geometrical shapes, and I got a lot of them wrong. Julian then moved onto different styles of lines, parallel lines, intersecting lines and perpendicular lines.

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The next presenter was Madison, on Proportional reasoning, Ratios + equivalent ratios, and integrating technology within the classroom. We were then asked to complete a game called ratio stadium , a game where you had to eat all of the equivalent ratios in order to move forward with the game. This was a fun game to get the class engaged, while learning the topic of equivalent fractions.

Kelsey Potts presented next, on the topic patterning. She did a great job on explaining the different types of patterning using shapes and letter sequences.

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The last presenter was Victoria, who presented geometry using technology. She used the Kahoot, or an application that makes learning certain topics a game. She divided the class up into table groups, and the groups competed for royalty over the class. This was a great way to promote fair play, and was the most engaging way to promote classroom participation.

Thanks for listening

Weekly Report & Reflection #10:

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This week, our class discussed Data Management and Probability. Data management can be described as collecting and describing data, in ways that it can be displayed and analyzed in order to make sense out of the data.

The first presenter this week was myself, presenting the real-life applications of data management. My opening exercise, was having the students think-pair-share with their group members about where data management is used within the "real-world". I received answers from my peers ranging from average rainfall to average yearly income. I had the definitions displayed up on the board, with
mean, median, mode already defined on the white board. This way, I could adequately explain what an average was, verbally explaining it for the auditory learners, and visually representing it on the white board. My group explanation was to make the tables a shoe factory, and have them find out what the most important average was for this problem. Most of the groups came up with mode, or the most frequently occurring shoe size, as optimizing the production of shoes. This activity was designed for students connecting to the problem and reasoning to real-world problems.

       The next presenter was Asma, who explained data management while using bar graphs. She had the class represent their favourite numbers up on the board. She represented this by having two people draw their results on the white boards. She facilitated this first by asking the class to get into pairs, and record the amount of times they rolled certain numbers with 10 rolls. After she had us find out what the most frequent number we rolled was. She mentioned the importance of labelling the x and y axis, as a prerequisite for comparing two unlike things.

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     Before this week, Jake presented on geometrical sense on the measurement of prisms. He introduced to the class the idea that volume is a cubed value, with three dimensions. I was really happy that he thoroughly explained this concept to us because a lot of the class did not understand this concept. He had us complete the unfinished prisms, labelling the volume on the board as quickly as we could. This was a very effective way of teaching this concept.

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       Making Math Meaningful, also identified the many ways to represent concrete graphs using models. Pg. 520, reveals an activity to arrange themselves to compare a certain number. This visual representation of lining the students up in  a row makes it easier for the students to tell which group is bigger. This activity reveals teachers having the opportunity to talk about why it helps students to visually represent objects, ensuring a quick visual comparison for the visual learners.

Thanks for listening.

Weekly Report & Reflection # 9:

Week 9: November 13th

          This week in class, we went over measurement, estimation, geometry and spatial sense, and perimeter/ area. I understood all of the concepts with perimeter and area however, I was stumped
when I had to think on the spot, about what the area/ perimeter was for that shape. Today's class had 4 different presenters, presenting their knowledge on geometry and spatial sense. all of the presenters did a great job of using manipulatives, and visuals in order to teach the lesson more effectively. In today's lesson we used mirrors, isometric paper, shapes, toothpicks, marshmallows and measuring tape in order to supplement the learning process. I feel that all of these learning materials are effective for all grade levels, from grades 4 to 7. The first presenter we had was Marissa, explaining 

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reflections, and spatial sense. She did a really effective job on showing the class how to do a reflection, using manipulatives, and the white board.  This example was a great way of catering to the visual learners. 

           The textbook has a specific section on using Euclidean transformations (pg. 393), for explaining how to transform an object using spatial sense. This example can be represented as showing a flip of reflection, using a Mira, or a transparent mirror to reflect the shape. In the textbook they use the transparent mirror to represent flipping a shape across a side, across a line of symmetry, changing orientation, distance from the flip line, and an angle at the flip line. To the left, is a picture that I took in class, which represents how to flip a shape across a side. I found this task rather difficult without the 

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mirror, and was actually forced to use one in this example. Transparent mirrors or (Mira) can be very helpful for explaining flips and tranformations to a student who has difficulty visually representing a flipped shape. Students can actually see the flipped picture when they look through the plastic, so it is easier for the students to trace the image onto the paper. 

         The next presenter was Nicole, who explained 2-D and 3-D shapes to the class rather effectively. She originally had the class explain how a piece of paper is represented by a 2-D shape and a text book is represented as a 3-D shape. The activity represented below, reveals the manipulatives she used to explain vertexes, vertices, and edges on a shape. In the example below, the vertexes were represented by marshmallows, having 

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 Nicole explain that the plural term for vertexes were vertices. I feel that this terminology will be difficult for the students to understand, and needs to be explained before the lesson takes place. On page 348 of the Small textbook, it explains the many components of 3-D shapes. It does a great job of visually representing what bases (face), vertexes/ vertices, and edges are.

        The next presentation was Anthony's presentation on measurement, explaining the differences between defining perimeter and area. He explained perimeter, as being the measurement of the outside edges, and area as the amount of space within the object. His example on the board was excellent for explaining how to calculate area (LXW) and perimeter (L+L+L). The competition he had the class do was complete a series of questions on area and perimeter, and whomever completed it

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the quickest got to display their work on the board. This example was a very effective way of getting the class competitive, and testing their knowledge at the same time.

     In the text book (pg.448), it does a good job of visually representing area as being cubes within the shape, and hence why area is a cubed number. This example also is a good way of representing that shapes can have the same are, yet have different perimeters. What I learned from this example was how to measure perimeter the quickest and most efficient way, by recognizing similar lengths and just doubling them.

     Our last presenter was Tim, on measurement, using standardized numbers. A few students within the class were asked to mark their own  height on the white board, having the class estimate their height, before we actually measured it. In the text book (Small, 418), there is a great example of comparing lengths, exactly what Tim had us do in his example. He had us estimate our own height as a comparison for measuring the smallest to tallest volunteer. What I liked the most about this presentation was the real life connections, he used in order to effectively explain his topic of measurement.

      All of these presentations were very well done, and gave me the resources to use in  my upcoming placement. Each presenter was very knowledgeable about their topic, which would give the students a more effective understanding of the topic. Thanks for the treats Joyce!! 

Weekly Report & Reflection #7:

Weekly Report:

Unfortunately during this week I was absent, due to a stomach flu.

Reflection:

         The chapter reading was on Patterning and Algebra. This chapter was mainly about patterns representing different regularities, always revealing an element of repetition. The main idea I got was patterns representing the same item over and over again, being represented in many different ways. Some ways of representing data in different ways can be represented by algebra, explaining the relationships by analyzing the change. I also learned that variables are an efficient way of representing relationships between quantities.

         What I found interesting was the many different ways a pattern can be represented; through shapes, numbers, sizes, letters, colours, literally anything can be represented by a pattern. The part that I did not understand was the section on diagonal patterns. This section within in the textbook,

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(Small, Marion, pg 612), in particular I did not understand. After reading the context of the problem, I then understand the pattern, and could continue it. The big idea with this section was using appropriate manipulative's in order to represent a pattern. Being able to represent a pattern with both the manipulative's and numbers is the gold standard when trying to explain patterns to students. Some interesting manipulative's I learned about within this chapter include; counters, attribute blocks, pattern blocks, geometric shapes, linking cubes, and toothpicks. The most effective manipulative I found was the toothpicks, because I can foresee myself using this example within my upcoming placement, as a tool to explain growth patterns and counting the sides on shapes.

       This example in particular is extremely effective because I can show the pattern of number of sides, having the students physically being able to deconstruct the shapes and recognize how many sides there are. The students can group these manipulative's specifically and show the growth pattern as well. I feel like relationships and functions will be one of the hardest parts to explain to the students, being able to extract my previous knowledge and present it in a way the students can understand and construct their own ideas and strategies from.

     An effective website I found while researching how to teach algebra was; this video. It goes over the many different steps needed to understand algebra efficiently. I especially liked this video because it went over a lot of different learning strategies, simplifying each step.