When I hear
measurement, I think baking. No, I’m definitely not your average suzy homemaker
(in fact, the exactness of baking actually makes me a little stressed!) But I
will still always associate measurements with sugar and flour and measuring
cups. I’m not incorrect, the measurement involved in baking still uses metric
units and requires mathematical involvement but this week the focus of our lesson and our readings was
on the aspect of measurement I often forget about… area and perimeter.
Ah Ha! This week’s moments of excitement
We started today
with an open question about making sense of area and perimeter. The question
asked us to make two fenced in sections with the same amount of fencing but one
section had to have an area that was 6m2 larger than the other. We
were trying to create as many examples as we could. There were a few moments
about this aspect of the lesson that I was especially excited about.
Reality Check
The first moment
of excitement happens in most classes but still makes me more engaged in the
lesson every time. Pat’s use of personal anecdotes to create open problems and
explain concepts always prevents the question ‘but how is this applicable to
real-life?’ which in my opinion is one of the biggest preventers of math
appreciation for students. For some reason students have the idea that what
they are learning in math is not applicable outside of the classroom and
therefore requires less attention. Pat’s use of anecdotes has been a big ‘ah
ha’ moment for me as a future math teacher; hopefully by finding my own
personal anecdotes to use, I can leap over one of the most common hurtles in
math class!
A chance to do my happy dance!
My second moment
of excitement happened during our independent work time. After successfully
completing the question wrong not once but twice (side note: teach your
students to ALWAYS read the question properly… maybe even twice so they really
have a grasp of what they are trying to do) I finally began to strategize for
the actual solution. Somehow, I was able to find a solution. *Insert Happy
Dance* I have to admit, this was a
pretty proud moment for me; as my previous blogs have explained, I was
definitely a student who suffered from mathphobia.
A Note to
my Future (Teacher) Self
Now, this is where the problem arose. When
given the opportunity to demonstrate my proud moment by explaining my solution, I didn’t know where to start. Whether I blanked because of nerves or I
truly couldn’t explain my thoughts it doesn’t matter. This moment provided
me with an opportunity for self-reflection. When I begin teaching math I will
need to place serious emphasis on learning how to clearly explain myself and
therefore I first need to practice breaking down my thoughts and working
through my processes step by step.
My mathphobia is depleting more and more
throughout this course. I’m realizing that by building some confidence and
doing some proper research I will not only be able to get passed my own
nervousness associated with math but help my future students by being able to empathize
with their feelings and subsequently (hopefully) be able to avoid and debunk
the things that make them most uncomfortable. I’ve started doing some research on
important tips for math teachers and stumbled upon a list of books that are
believed to be ‘must reads’ for math teachers. They definitely won’t teach me
everything and they may not teach me a lot but at least I’ll have begun my
process to becoming a truly confident math teacher. All research has to start
somewhere, right?
Great post Kate. I to forgot about area and perimeter when looking at the measurement topic. I think most people think of measuring in the baking sense as you do or just measuring length of an object. Those books look like great reads especially for beginning teachers like ourselves. Thanks for sharing the resource!
ReplyDeleteThank you Kate for including the resource to those books! I have loved including literature in our Math classroom, and I hope to do the same when I have to teach Math someday. I think that was an excellent observation about Pat always telling personal anecdotes, I actually hadn't put much stock into that or really noticed its benefit until you pointed it out. I was one of those students that asked "but when will I use this?!" By providing students with a context for how Math can be used in every day (other than just baking!) we can hopefully motivate them to pursue it or at least make the learning fun and relevant!
ReplyDeleteGreat post this week Kate! I found it really relatable. When I hear the word measurement I too think of baking and measuring cups and liters etc. However, there is much more to measurement than just using it for baking. Measurement is all around us and therefore we have to teach our students the benefits of math in everyday life so they don't ask the question, "why do I need to know this? I'll never use it in real life." I was once this student in math class and now I see how surrounded we are by math & it's true importance. I also like how you provide yourself with constructive criticism for how to figure out your problems and move on. I am the same way! Lastly, I really liked how you wrote a little paragraph, "A note to my future teacher self". I found this both very endearing and very insightful. You write very eloquently and passionately Kate, keep it up, it is an excellent skill that will keep your students hooked.
ReplyDeleteGreat post!
Cheers, Courtney