My Weekly Report and Reflection #2:

     In this week's math class I found myself revisiting old concepts, going over teaching strategies, and struggling with the repetitive nature of mathematics. I often found myself within class frustrated with repeating old concepts and the tedious tasks that were assigned such as the "what finger does 1000 land on, if you start from your thumb" and the "whats greater, 5/10 or 6/10". These tasks are very taxing on not only the students, but also us as pre-service teachers. For a quick glimpse into "the life of a student", I found these tasks very taxing and repetitive. The 5/10 or 6/10 task should have been demonstrated as starting out small and gradually making the task more complex, instead of starting out complex and confusing everyone. Just like the students in the classes we teach, pre-service teachers also need a gradual introduction to these concepts, instead of a "this is how it is done" approach. Within my placement, I was in charge of this unit for my grade 5/6 class and I got to experience this progression first hand. Switching from the different concepts often confuses the students, and loses the interest of the students very quickly. This is one thing that I reflected back on this session, reflecting on what instructional models and teaching methods I will use within my upcoming placement.

     I now know that a gradual introduction is needed for this unit, for my students to be fully engaged within the tasks I assign them. One of the lessons that I got to be a part of within my first year of teachers college was a number line made out of cards, done by one of my colleagues. She used the face value of a deck of cards to visually show how a number line works, and how it can be adapted to show fractions. If there were 9 people in a line, the person with a 9 number would go to one end, where the person with a 1 number would go to the beginning of the line. This demonstration could be adapted to show 9/9 is 100% or 1.0 and 1/9 is 0.11 and how those numbers relate to the number line. This demonstration will be useful for the visual learners within my class, and get my students fully engaged within the lesson. 

     The most challenging part of the week for me was trying to understand and wrap my head around the problem below and the rotational problem. This problem had me stumped for the longest time, until I finally figured out how to do it all by my self. With the rotational problem, I did not know how to wrap my head around the "missing owl" problem. This problem was very effective because it got students visualizing rotations and got the students thinking. We were then given connecting blocks and asked to visually create the problem, which was very effective for myself, not only as an instructional tool, but it catered to the visual and kinaesthetic learners. This activity coincided with the grade 5/6 curriculum, using three-dimensional models, and learning the different rotational properties such as (flip, slide, rotate, translate, and reflect), Geometry and Spatial Sense strand (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2005).

Heartwell, 2016

     During our class last week, I had a difficult time enjoying it however, as I reflect throughout this blog, it was very useful for me. I got to reflect on the learning experiences I have had in the past and see which ones would be the most useful for the type of teacher that I want to be. I definitely felt more confident in my abilities as a math teacher after this week.

Resources:

Ontario Ministry of Education. (2005). The Ontario curriculum grades 1‐8: Mathematics .          Retrieved September 16, 2016, from  http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/elementary/math18curr.pdf.