Semester 2 - Blog 5

Hey everyone, welcome back to the blog! A few days ago, we had our nineteenth 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 that sometimes you cannot solve problems the way you predicted. When I looked at our problem of the week, I immediately thought you could solve it with ratios; I saw the words “for every” and immediately thought I could do it using ratios. However, I realized that this was not feasible. My group and I used linear equations to find the answer and realized that it was impossible or more difficult than I anticipated it would be. I found it interesting that I was misled like that and that my original way of thinking was not the right way. I think this lets me see that the way you read and interpret the question is important and I will highlight that to my students.

What were the dominant emotions evoked (affect)?

One dominant emotion evoked in this lesson was motivation. I felt that in this lesson, I could find examples of when I had participated in a math congress in my elementary and high school classrooms. For example, I remember in grade 12 Advanced Functions having to do problems in small groups and discuss/share with my peers. I think that this has started a drive in me to implement this in my own classroom. I can see the importance of collaboration and listening to your peers through this problem solving method. This highlights the greater importance and more practical life skills that come from math such as collaboration, problem solving and reasoning/proving. I think that this is a strategy that is very useful in a classroom and is a more engaging way to solve problems. 

I have found some resources that have strategies and tips for implementing this in my classroom:

https://opalschool.org/math-congress-space-for-everyone-to-get-on-and-off-the-subway/

http://etfo.net/T4DU/sgmccw.pdf

https://www.scribd.com/presentation/354578409/math-congress

What for you were the main points (cognition)?

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

1. Problem solving is a key part of math class and can serve two main purposes (Explore mathematical concepts and develop skills such as inquiry or problem-solving processes)

2. A math congress allows for a community to build in a classroom where students can talk, learn from each other and see how their classmates solve problems.

3. The math congress can be implemented into the three-part lesson plan. I think that it would be a good Minds On or Consolidation activity depending on the lesson and questions you select. 

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

    One thing that I might pursue further is looking in the textbook and selecting different problems to implement in my classroom. After Camille and Rachel presented, I was interested to see and learn about how they saw the problem and what they thought the classroom implications were. The problem they selected was a little more abstract and I wonder if there is one that has a larger curriculum connection. During and after my assignment, I will go through Chapter 11 and see what relevance I can find. I like this chart that shows me the questions from earlier chapters and their relevance to base-10 properties. I think that this textbook is a good resource for my future. 

That’s all from me today! I hope you enjoyed reading my post and I hope you will be here for the next one!