My Weekly Report and Reflection #3:

      This week, within the modules I found myself answering questions regarding the speed of students answering questions, and if that is related to their performance. We also reviewed videos on mistakes, and how that making mistakes actually expands students brain capacity. This concept had to be refined because just making mistakes on your own is not going to expand any students brain capacity. The student needs to struggle with the problem in order for any growth to occur, firing off synapses expanding their brain capacity.

Retrieved from: https://bhi61nm2cr3mkdgk1dtaov18-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/synapse.jpg , on September 27, 2016

     Some things that I learned this week were how to effectively use mental math in order to answer quick questions. This skill really reinforced my previous knowledge and made me struggle with certain problems. I was reminded of the previous modules about how the process of struggling with math problems actually helps your brain make connections. During this exercise, I often found myself struggling and frustrated with the problem however, I stuck with the problems and I eventually figured them out after a lot of struggling  

Heartwell, 2016

       As a future educator, I found the booklets given below, were very effective at consolidating the previous questions. This booklet below (done in pairs) is an extremely effective way  at getting students to explore patterns within a fun multiplication way. This booklet also would be a great way to pair up students that were struggling with the concepts with students who were efficient at answering these problems.  

Heartwell, 2016

     Overall, I enjoyed the different task that Dr. Khan assigned us within class, because it got our minds thinking, and encouraged group work. Within a math class, one of the most difficult tasks to do is engage the whole class with a task that intrigues the students, making math meaningful. This task can be augmented in order for groups of students to work on these problems as a race to finish all of the tasks within the booklet. These students can learn the same information, however with peer help and from a different view point, the teacher can differentiate this task very easily for different types of learners. This can be done by having stations, based off of the difficulty of the booklets, and the level of the students learning. Summing up this week, I had a lot of Ah-ha moments, and a lot of challenging moments as well, being tested intellectually. I will have to take some of these exercises and use them within my upcoming teaching placements. 

Resources:

Mathematics: The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 1-8. Toronto, ON: Ministry of Education and Training,        

       1997. Print.