Weekly Blog Post - Week 9

Hey everyone, welcome back to the blog! A few days ago, we had our ninth class for EDBE 8F83. In this post, I will reflect upon this lesson by using different prompts and supplementing them with images and resources. 

What struck you during this session? 

Something that struck me during this session was how beneficial OAME is for mathematics educators. When I did my lesson activity about a month ago, my partner and I quickly browsed OAME and did not feel that it had much use for us. However, upon further investigation, I have seen that it is full of beneficial resources and tools for educators. For example, it provides both lesson planning resources as well as professional learning and development. I think I was caught off guard by how much was included in this website and in the future, I am going to take the time to look through it and familiarize myself with its content. 

What were the dominant emotions evoked (affect)?

One dominant emotion that was evoked in me during this session was a sense of peace when my class went around and gave one word that described how they felt about Ontario. I found it very empowering to listen to everyone's words and see how they were all different but somehow seemed to fit together nicely. Although this was not a traditional Land Acknowledgement, I feel that it showed the importance of why we should do it; it provides a sense of community and allows us to truly show respect and empathy for those who came before us. I chose the word “Home” and I encourage you all to watch the video and select a word you find relevant! I have linked the video here:

https://youtu.be/imtYJBo_pLM 

What for you were the main points (metacognition)?

The following three points summarize what was discussed in our lesson:

1. Unit planning is an important tool for teachers to assist them in long-term planning in not only mathematics but in all courses. 

2. Unit plans consist of many aspects that work together to create a well-thought-out and complete plan. Some of these aspects include readings, topic and curriculum expectations, an analysis of these expectations, concept maps and a lesson sequence.

3. UBD is a backwards design process where you first identify desired results, then determine acceptable evidence and finally plan learning experiences and instructions. 

What actions might you want to pursue further (awareness)? 

Something I might want to pursue further is gaining a deeper knowledge of the resources that were provided to us in this class. I think that OAME and UBD are two tools/resources that will be beneficial for me in my future as a teacher. When considering OAME, I would like to look more at the resources provided for the younger grades. We talk a lot about how it is important to know where your students are coming from and where they are going and I feel that this would be a very practical place to get this kind of information. When considering UBD, I would like to see how I could apply this method to other subjects. My second teachable is Chemistry and I would like to research how I could use this in a Chemistry classroom (and by doing so maybe I would get more ideas for math!).

That’s all from me today! This is my final blog post for the semester but I will be back in January, see you then!