What was your greatest 'learning' this semester with regard to teaching children mathematics? How has your thinking shifted?

This semester, I have experienced a lot of great 'learning' with regard to teaching children mathematics. Math is not just about drilling students by doing facts and worksheets. Math is so much more than completing problem after problem and it took me a while to understand this because that's the way I learned math and that's all I knew math to be. I always knew that I wanted to make learning math fun and interesting, but I had no idea how to do that. Math has always been a subject that I've never enjoyed, even when I did understand concepts, I hated doing the work. 

I learned this semester that math can and should be enjoyable for students because they use math all the time through things like telling time, mental mapping and problem solving, problem solving being a HUGE one because we problem solve every day! Students need to understand the purpose of learning what they're learning, in order to help them completely understand; using everyday examples that create meaning for them, as well as using manipulatives to help demonstrate and to help solve a problem (being something more concrete for them to see) help in amazing ways. I can vividly remember asking my teachers over and over, when am I actually going to use what I'm learning, in my everyday life, and the answer was always the same: "You will. So you'll need to know how to solve it," never ever an exact answer. I would probably be much better at math if we were given the opportunity to use manipulatives and if my teachers found a way to relate what they were teaching, to my life in some way.

Another thing that I learned this semester is that there is never only one way to solve a problem. When I went through school, we learned the proper steps to solve a problem the correct way, even if I could solve it a different way, i had to show how to solve it the teachers way so "that I knew what I was doing." I'm so glad to hear that a lot of people don't see problem solving in that way anymore, we even seen in the curriculum guides and text books that they show teachers and students different ways to solve things such as addition and multiplication problems. This is a great improvement because not everyone thinks the same way, and if someone can solve the same problem differently, but still get the same answer, why would that be so wrong? As well, "problem solving" itself, doesn't just include word/story problems, something very important that I learned. Problem solving is pretty much what makes up mathematics; most everything you do in math is solving a problem in some way. 

I came into this course thinking that I would have to be writing lesson plans for mathematics, and stretching my brain to develop different worksheets and exercises to add to my portfolio for future reference, like I have with so many other courses I've completed. But to my surprise, I found myself learning how to teach math in a very new and different way, a way in which I was definitely not use to. But after completing this course, I now understand that there are better ways to teach math and it can be fun and creative and at the same time allow students to critically think and foster deep learning.  

Math Curriculum Guides

After looking at each curriculum guide and getting a glimpse of the resources available for teachers to use I was surprised. I was surprised by the fact that there are tons of resources provided for teachers such as books that can be used for read-alouds (especially for primary), and even pre-written quizzes/tests (more for elementary), things I had been completely unaware of.

My group started with the Kindergarten curriculum, which I really enjoyed. There were a lot of books dealing and connecting with the SCOs which I found really cool. I absolutely love to read, and read to children, so tying in books to help teach them concepts of math, I feel is great and it's also a great opportunity to tie in SCOs of language arts. 

As my group progressed through the tables and the curriculum guides for each grade, we found that the jump from Kindergarten to grade one, was big (when looking at the books given for resources). When we then looked at grade two, there was even a greater jump from grade one! The reading level of the material given as resources, was very high! I work at the Newfoundland and Labrador Learning Disability Association as a tutor, tutoring children with learning disabilities, therefore I know the reading levels fairly well. To give a child in grade two, one of the resource books, I feel would be extremely overwhelming for a student because the reading level seemed fairly high (for a student in grade two). Not only that, but not every student is at the same reading level, which would put some students at a disadvantage and would be incredibly unfair because the student may do well with math, but struggles with reading, therefore wouldn't understand the math.

As we continued on, i noticed that the curriculum and resources got less colourful and more bland and more problem-practice oriented, which made me sad; why can't grade sixes for example, have colourful and interesting books to read that relates to their math curriculum as well? It reminded me of when I went through elementary school, all we ever seemed to do was exercises in our exercise book. I would have loved to have been given the opportunity to read fun and interesting books dealing with math concepts and learn that way as well! For our Children's Literature course, we write blog posts as well, and this week's posting was to find a book that related to math or science concepts that could be used with our Newfoundland and Labrador curriculum. I found a great book series called The Tales of Sir Cumference that deals with math concepts taught in grades K-6. The book I chose to write my blog on was all about angles and followed a character named "Radius" on a fun adventurous journey. This book would be perfect for students in grade six because it deals with concepts of angles they are learning, and even though it's a picture book, it is one that is enjoyable for all ages. I feel that books like this series would also be useful in elementary grades and should be used by more teachers!

Overall, I thought this activity was a great activity to get exposed to the grades K-6 math curriculum, to see how the math evolves and the curriculum changes, and to see the resources that are available to teachers.  

YouCubed!!

After Looking at the YouCubed website I was impressed. Not only does it reach out to teachers with resources and materials to help them teach math in an easier way for students to learn and understand, but it also has plenty of material for parents/guardians to help as well! 

This site is devoted to teachers and parents/guardians to help them understand that children need to be taught math in a way that illuminates stress and anxiety and having a mindset where they think they aren't smart enough to complete a problem. I learned through watching the videos and reading the articles posted, that all children can achieve at high levels; everyones brain grows and expands when it learns new information. Previous ideas about students' ability levels can effect a students math performance; if a child thinks they aren't good at math because they don't understand or cannot complete a certain number of problems as quickly as others, they will preform at the level they think they are. In this scenario, the performance would be poor. Students need to understand that mistakes and struggling are important because that means you're learning and your brain is growing. If students know how to complete every single problem, that means they aren't learning and aren't being challenged. A big idea for teachers, parents/guardians, and students to understand is that math should not be associated with speed and time constraints. This can cause a lot of unnecessary stress and anxiety on students because they learn to believe that if they can't complete the problems in a certain amount of time, they're not good enough, when this isn't true at all. Another thing this website discussed is what teachers say to students, greatly impacts their performance levels. Giving positive feedback and letting the student know that you believe in them, gives students motivation to do their best.

I really loved the article for parents, that talked about ways to encourage students to complete math, as well as ways to motivate them. As a parent, you want to help your child with what they are struggling with, this article explains that in order to help that child, don't complete the hard parts of the problem for them. Instead, you help guide them through the problem. If they figure a problem out, you shouldn't reply with, "wow, you're so smart," because in the future, if the child struggles with figuring something out, they will think, "hmm, maybe i'm not so smart." So instead of using the word "smart" you could just praise the student by saying, "wow, great job! I knew you could do it!" As a future teacher, these kinds of things would be helpful to let parents/guardians know, as they help their children with homework.

YouCubed also offers games for students from kindergarten to grade five, to play. I thought this was a very useful resource, because I myself have never heard of any of these games and I think they would be fun to play with friends, not just in school but in the home environment as well!

I believe that the resources this site has to offer to help teachers and parents/guardians alike are unexpendable to help teach math to the current and future generations.

    

What is Mathematics Anyway?

According to Wikipedia, "Math is the abstract study of topics such as quantity (numbers), structure, space and change." I always felt that math was just a subject I needed to pass in order to graduate and get into university; I honestly thought that math was where you're given problems to solve all day, every day and there is only one answer to the problem, with no leniency. I felt that to do mathematics, was to be given math problems by a teacher then having to solve them. To think mathematically, I felt was to think in an analytical way and always be looking for the one correct answer, unable to see that there could be many possible answers, with the right support, feeling that math wasn't very subjective. 

I asked my dad what he thought math was, what it means to do mathematics, and what it means to think mathematically, because my dad is a very mathematical person, he uses math in his everyday life and uses math and physics very heavily in his career. He told me that he thinks math "can be very basic and complex, people compute after they've been given input, to arrive at a solution to their simple or complex problem. Math can very much be used as a tool." My dad told me that he feels "math makes life easier, in everyday life and in peoples careers/jobs, and it is something that spans over many disciplines." He explained this by comparing math to art, "art effects many people in many ways, and can be created using many techniques. Math too effects many people in many ways and can be created in many ways for many purposes. Math spans over many different disciplines, covering a large spectrum all considered math." To think mathematically my dad said means to think more analytical (so many inputs leaving you to look for results), and less philosophical. 

After talking to my dad and doing a bit of research and participating in the discussion in math class today, I feel that math isn't as easy to define like I had perviously thought. I was very unaware of the things I didn't know about math and how it's not just seen as a subject in school, because we use it everyday, not even realizing (like telling the time). I've learned that math is so much more than just coming up with the correct answer to a problem and that math does allow for creativity. Math is about figuring out how to solve the problem and learning from your mistakes. Like my dad said, math is on a spectrum; it's not just algorithms but math is music, math is art and language and science and humanities, and it's a subject that I think should be taught differently in school, allowing children to have a better understanding of what math is.

TED Talk

After watching Sir Ken Robinson's 2006 TED Talk I agree with a lot of his ideas about the public education system. Going through the public school system myself, I completely agree that subjects like mathematics and language arts are given much more importance than that of the arts. Something that Robinson said that really stuck with me was when he said many highly talented and creative people in the world, feel that they're not. This is because the subject area they may have excelled in, was looked at as not being important and possibly stigmatized. To me, this is troubling because the creativity and intelligence of children are being stifled if what they are interested in and passionate about, is seen by society, as something that is unimportant compared to the "better" learning areas such as math, science and language arts, which will allow you to "get somewhere in your life." 

I truly loved the story he told about Jillian the famous dance choreographer and how in order to learn she needed to move. In today's society, many children are diagnosed with ADHD, which is probably what Jillian would have been diagnosed with if that exceptionality was common. Today children with exceptionalities such as ADD and ADHD and often given medication to calm them down and not always given the opportunities Jillian was given to understand that they learn differently. I feel that showing this video to our math class served a purpose to help us understand, as future teachers, that all children learn differently and there is not just one specific way to teach. Math and science and language arts are not the only important subjects that children should learn about, they should be exposed more to the arts and humanities, and these subjects shouldn't be looked down upon, but encouraged to allow students to achieve their full learning potentials. 

Math Autobiography

Throughout my time in primary and elementary school, math was never a subject I enjoyed. During Kindergarten through grade 6, math was never fun or an enjoyable experience, all I remember doing is work, and that is all I have ever related math with; having no fun and just sitting down and doing exercises upon exercises. The only time I remember having fun in math, was when we got to colour or play games when our work was finished early. I started strongly disliking math when I was in grade one. We were learning how to count by 2's, 3's and 5's, and I was struggling with it. My teacher use to write the number patterns on the board, leaving blanks, then she would randomly call out the names of students to answer which number should go in the following blank. I absolutely hated talking when everyone was listening, and when she would call on me for the answer, I would have twice the amount of trouble trying to figure it out because I was so nervous to talk in front of the class which made me forget, even if I knew the answer. I have had many experiences like that through grades 1 to 6, and those experiences have stayed with me giving me negative views on math, as an adult. 

There were things that I was really good at in math, and caught on right away when it was taught to me. There are also things that I still cannot do because it simply doesn't click and I just don't understand. When someone asks me if I was good at math, I always reply with "50/50" meaning there is a 50% chance I will understand it really well, or there is a 50% chance I won't understand it at all. I did better in math in some grades, and did worse in others.

For the most part, the role of the teacher was always the same; they would get up and write down the notes on the board, which we would take down in our exercise books. To me, it felt like none of my teachers really liked math, but they always said how important it was for us to learn it, which made me dislike it even more because I could never see the purpose of it. Assessment was always the same in elementary, we would be tested after we finished a chapter and we were given lots of little assignments to complete during and after class, while we were completing the chapters. Grade three is when we started doing written tests at the end of each chapter. As for primary grades, I'm not quite sure what kind of assessment was used. 

Math in grade 7 was the worst experience of my life, particularly because of the teacher. I was fully aware that she disliked me and she only liked students who understood what she was teaching, she hated when I asked her questions and she gave me my first failing grades ever. The rest of my math experiences in high school were much better. I found that I was understanding more and I started to enjoy what I understood. My math teachers in high school, were much more helpful than any of my primary and elementary teachers, which helped me a lot. 

In university, I was unsure about what career path I wanted to take so did a first year of general studies. During that year I completed math 1090 and math 1000. The professor I had for both of those courses was the best math teacher I had ever had in my life; the way he taught met all my learning needs and all the extra help he gave astounded me and helped me so much. It was easy to see that he loved math and was willing to do whatever it took to help you reach your full potential and achieve. He has been my favourite professor I have had in my entire university experience. Other than those two math courses, I have not taken a course since.

Personally, I have never used any quadratic equations or unit circles in my life, the only math I use is when I have to, for example when I'm grocery shopping or clothes shopping, even then I have trouble with percents and I'm thankful I have a calculator on my phone. I try to stay away from things involving math, such as card games because what may seem like simple addition for most people, I have to take my time with, and it can be embarrassing when I can't quickly add a score up. Right now in my life, math is something that I dread, but that is something that I'm going to have to learn to deal with, because I am going to have to teach it, and I do not want to be like the teachers I experienced in my primary and elementary grades. I want to be able to teach math in a way that it will be something thats students don't dread, like I did. I want it to be as fun and exciting like the rest of the subjects being taught to them and not something that is intimidating.

Hi! My name is Meighan and this is my blog for Education 3940: Mathematics in Primary and Elementary Grades!