Bird Brain? No way!

Estimate how many birds are in this picture!

What a great group of students we have in our class! I have never met a more awesome collection of personalities in my life. I can't imagine asking any other group of adults to flap around a room like a bunch of birds...and have them respond with such a large amount of enthusiasm. 

Our team teaching project was focused on developing number sense though estimation. I feel as though we accomplished what we set out to do. The class was very responsive and they came up with great estimations. The hardest part was keeping track of time. We felt like our activity lasted much longer than it was in reality. I guess getting a sense of time while teaching comes with practice.

Also, thinking back, it would have been helpful to have a more concrete example instead of just the picture of the birds (see above). Maybe a jar of jelly beans or package of straws. We could have had both and discussed which one was easier to estimate. Regardless I think it turned out okay and I loved doing the activity while interacting with the class. 

I also want to say a word about the course in general. I felt as though the atmosphere of the class was amazing and unbelievably comfortable. The course was actually nothing like I expected. I was under the impression that we would learn the content that we need to teach in the future but what I actually came away with is a view of the bigger picture. I know HOW to teach not WHAT exactly to teach. The content is all in the curriculum guides but the things we have learned this semester are not. 

Excellent class + Excellent Professor = Happy Sarah :) 

MATH FAIR!

Frog Catchers!

Imagine you and your friend are frog catchers. You work as a team but also compete against each other to get the ULTIMATE FROG. They are a rare breed and are bright red in colour. They are known to contain a special chemical on their skin which can cure many common diseases. There is only one of these special frogs out of every seven frogs in our pond. The yellow frogs are your common frogs but they protect the special frog by making a barrier around it. You and your partner must capture all the yellow frogs before you can get the red one. The partner who catches the red one gets the reward offered by the MUN medicine department so you want to be the one to catch it. The only thing is you have to take turns with your partner when catching the frogs because you can only hold one or two at a time (they are very slippery). Can you figure out a way to get the red frog?

This problem contains a few mathematical concepts. The most obvious one being number operations. The students must use subtraction skills to think about how many frogs will be left. For example if there were 4 frogs left they need to figure out how many would be left if they took 1 vs how many would be left if they took 2. Another math concept would be identifying pattens. In order to be successful in catching the red frog the student could find the common patterns. We noticed that the person who went first got the red frog more often and if you have a chance to leave your partner with 2 yellow and the red frog you will always capture the red one. 

I think the class enjoyed our presentation. They seemed to have fun and often wanted to play multiple times. The only downside was that each person needed a partner to play and everyone in the class seemed to venture around the math fair solo. I often had to be the other frog catcher and I had lots of practice so it was a little unfair. Many of our classmates complimented us on our presentation set-up as well, which comes to show you don't have to spend a bunch of money to make an appealing, fun math fair problem. 

In terms of changing anything I would have had more frogs to challenge the students even further. We had extensions but they were not harder then the initial problem, just a different way to do it. You would not necessarily have to do this in an elementary classroom but I am thinking in terms of our own class. I also would have worded the problem differently in an elementary classroom. I would use the story above instead of just telling them the "rules". I noticed as well when I was the facilitator that it was really hard not to tell my classmates the strategy involved. I would ask them and they usually had an answer but I would often chime in with my own thoughts as well instead of asking "Can you think of anymore?".

As I was circulating the room I noticed myself choosing projects that I assumed I could be successful in completing. I would often wonder if I "got it right" but some of them like "Gopher Holes" had multiple answers which made me remember is not all about being right or wrong. 

I would love to do a math fair some day with my own students. I think it's a great way to learn and practice mathematical concepts in a fun, engaging way. I'm a big fan!

Just thought this was funny

But, but Miss...Is this right??

Reading though chapter two of our math text was the most time consuming thing I have completed this semester. The fact that there were no answers for the posed questions made me even more frustrated. Now, call me old fashioned but I've always been told that math problems have an answer. Cracking open this lovely text and finding an answer-less glossary was not what I expected. Even during my first year at University we had definite answers. You go to any of John O'Riley math tutoring classes, you PAY $20 to get the answers! So why have things changed? Have they even really changed?

I was in an grade one class last week and the students were completing sheet after sheet of math problems.
It looked a little like this:
1) 3 + 4 =
2) 5 + 7 =
3) 6 + 3 =
and so on....

As they were completing their worksheets the teacher asked me to give then a check (with a red pen) for the ones they had right and but a little dot next to the ones they had wrong.

There is no doubt that students need to possess these basic math skills but is there a better way to go about it? Needless to say I have a lot to learn about teaching math. I totally agree with the idea of having the child explore many options and use hands on materials but from what I observed there never seemed to be enough time in the day to give the children a chance to really bunker down and concentrate on the task at hand.

So, is math a humanity? To some extent I think it is. All subjects are, in the sense that they give way to social interactions. Students actually learn a lot more though social interaction (group work) then lecture or reading. The root word of humanity is human (obviously), and we are all guilty of being that! Math in a social context just seems much more appealing to me and I'm excited to learn how to teach that way.

Ken Robinson says school kills creativity!

Click here to see what Ken has to say

Throughout primary and elementary school its no secret that art and music were my favourite subjects. They were often used a "treats" for good behaviour, given to us on a Friday afternoon.

Why? Because in the world of Education old habits die hard. Math and Science are still viewed as the most important subjects. I can see where this point of view comes from but isn't it slightly stone age-ish? Does the world really need that many engineers? Nah! Don't get me wrong Math and Science are VERY important but why isn't Art, Music and Drama. What a boring world we would have without music, colourful art and movies!

So what is Ken saying about all this? He thinks creativity should be fostered in the school system and every student has something special to offer. You really can't argue with that. I enjoyed the part of his speech about the little boy who was playing the wise man (the one who brought frankincense) in the Christmas school play. When presenting the gift he confidently said "Frank sent this". Like Ken, I admire the fact that children are not afraid to be wrong. It reminds me of a story a former primary teacher told me. One chilly day the teacher asked a little girl in her class to close the classroom door because she did not want to let the draft in. Over the next few days this little girl was absent. The worried teacher called the little girls mother and asked why she had been missing school. The child's mother says her daughter had been saying she was sick when really she knew there was some deeper rooted issue. The teacher then asked to speak to the child directly to try to understand what the problem was. When she asked the little girl what was wrong she told her she was scared of the Giraffe in the hallway. Both the mother and teacher were more confused then ever. After a few moments the teacher suddenly understood. She had told the girl to close the classroom door so the "draft" does not get in, due to her Newfoundland accent it sounded like "Giraffe"! Anyway my point is why would anyone want to take away this wonderful trait children have? They are brave little beings, not yet corrupted by others opinions. Not to mention they are very entertaining.

Now, I must talk about math! I'm going off on a tangent here (pun intended). The question is what does Ken Robinson's speech mean to you with regards to teaching math? First and foremost math needs to be taught in an interesting way. I'm not exactly sure how I would go about doing that but that's why I took this course...right? I think it should be taught in a way where the student discovers and learns with minimum direction. It needs to be hands on, interactive and social. Math should be taught to foster creativity and what better way to do so then to let students explore it using their natural curiosity.

My Mathematics Autobiography

Like in many of my Education classes, we need to reflect on our personal experiences within a certain subject. I personally have the long term memory of a goldfish so I took it upon myself to dig though my mothers extensive collection of my childhood memorabilia to jog my mushy brain. Thanks to Mom's small hoarding issue I found every piece of school work I have completed since kindergarten, along with all my report cards. My report cards were a mothers dream (I guess thats why my bother has none in his storage container of childhood achievement). Math was a subject that never received a B on the report card. It was always an A...until high school anyway.

So thats how this post all started. Now onto the "Autobiography"

 One cold October night in 1987 my parents decided the wanted to try for a baby girl.....

To far? Just kidding!

When I started kindergarten I was VERY excited. My grandmother babysat me until I was 5 so interaction with people under the age of 60 was uncommon. Seeing all these 5 year-olds to play with made me never want to leave. The classroom was bright and colourful. It had a full pretend kitchen AND a big playhouse. My memories are mostly of sitting on the carpet listening to stories and playing with the kitchen and dolls...which is odd, seeing that I am no where near domesticated. Grade one was similar, without the fun toys. They were replaced with puzzles and games. As I progressed though each grade the "play" time seems less and less common and the classrooms became more and more formal.

Math was one of my favourite subjects until one scary day in grade 3 when we were introduced to the evil multiplication table. I hated it. I still hate the idea of it. Memorizing the thing was near impossible but we had to do it anyway and we were not giving any methods to help us. We did a copious amount of worksheets, evidently, seeing that I have a huge storage container full of them. The kind of container you put your winter boots in when summer comes. I guess that was the main way of assessment.

Now onto math in high school. I HATED it. My teacher was the worst. Very unorganized and uninterested in how his students progressed. I took the very minimum amount of math that I could because of this fellow. So naturally when I applied to MUN I did terrible on the MPT and had to do math 1090. I started to course terrified....knowing that I worked all summer to pay for it. My view quickly changed though when I walked into class and was greeted by this friendly old man (ancient but in a cute old man way) and he said "Everyone who comes to my class, passes my class". He was right, I went every class and did really well.

One thing I have learned about math education is that the success of the students depends entirely on the dedication of the teacher. There can't be a disconnect between the student and the teacher.

How do I feel about mathematics now? Hummm I can honestly say I don't have any strong opinions on it. I know that when I start to teach math in a classroom the most important thing to do is connect with the students to insure they succeed. The material is not difficult, it's the way it's taught that is paramount.

Welcome to my blog!

So, I have no idea what a blog is. Am I the only person in my age demographic without one of these? I guess I just prefer to write my thoughts in a well hidden diary, much like a 13 year old girl. You know, more hidden from the entire world wide web.

BUT this blog is for a math course so I must go on. Maybe I will enjoy it..?

Now the fun part....a little about me! Yay.

I'm going to do this the old fashioned way, straight to the point...like on those medical reports.

Name: Sarah Harnum
Age: 22
Hometown: St. John's, Newfoundland (and Labrador)
School: Memorial University
Study: Primary/Elementary Education
Hobbies: Playing guitar and skiing (but not at the same time, that would be difficult)

Okay enough of that, its starting to sound like I'm on a dating website.