Using Curiosity To Your Advantage

Hello everyone!

This week was the last week of class, and what an eventful year it has been. I can truly say that I have learned a lot in this math course, as it has put me in various situations I know I will be in as a future educator. More importantly, this course has introduced me to new techniques and insights in the educational world, such as courses with no marks and the spiral method to deliver courses, which I am confident will pick up momentum with educators across the world in the next few years. I am truly honoured to be in such a wonderful classroom environment and look forward to using many of the shared resources we as future educators have shared with each other throughout the year and in our lessons to the class. 

This week our colleagues had the pleasure pf delivering a lesson for the grade 9 and 10 locally developed class and the grade 11 and 12 workplace courses. Today I would like to go into detail about one of the lessons, in particular the grade 9 locally developed class on proportional reasoning. This was a great lesson because the teacher conducted an inquiry on a Guinness world record based on clapping. Students were shown the following video:

After seeing this video, students were asked probing questions such as whether or not they believed the person would break the world record of 721 claps, and so on. This was a great way to get the students to think about their answer, and estimate how many claps the person did in four seconds. In our classroom, there were a vast variety of techniques people used to count the claps. I personally kept time with my feet and used a music-orientated 16 beat rhythm to count the claps in the four seconds. Regardless, after everyone in the class tries to map out how many claps the person does in the video, the teacher shows the following video which gives the actual number in the class. 

Once the students have the right number, they can use proportional reasoning to figure out the actual number of claps he completed in a minute, and if it broke the world record. Students would have to figure out how many times 4.5 seconds fits in a minute, and then use proportional reasoning to come to the final answer. Once everyone has their number for the claps in a minute, the teacher uses the last video to conclude the activity and consolidate with the class. 

Mathematics in Everyday Life

Hello everyone, and welcome back to my blog!

I recently travelled to the United States where I visited Chicago for the first time. What a breathtaking city, with its beautiful architecture and the Chicago River manoeuvring through the inner city, it is definitely a place I would recommend people to visit. During my trip to the windy city, I found myself doing a lot of everyday math. Looking at speed limits in the imperial system as opposed to the metric system, filling up my tank of gas in gallons as opposed to litres, and even just budgeting my expenses taking into account the conversion rate of the American dollar, I noticed that people need to have a basic understanding of mathematics in order to accomplish everyday tasks. This week in our math class, fellow classmates of mine capitalised on this epiphany of mine by talking about different high school courses I was not aware of.  The first course I would like to talk about was presented by a friend of mine, Kyle, who introduced the grade 11 Foundations for College Presentation.

 In his presentation, Kyle introduced to the class different information about different banking institutions. In particular, he discussed the uses of debit cards and credit cards, something every student will be using one day. He first broke the class into different table groups, and each table group was given one type of card and information such as the interest rates, the monthly transactions fees, and benefits (if any) of the type of card. With this information, the table groups had to figure out the total cost of buying a TV, along with a scenario of daily activities one would spend on in a month. After the table groups came together as a class to share information about their card and which card or bank had the most efficient solution.

This lesson was extremely efficient in introducing to the student's mathematical problems that they may be facing at this time in their life. It will also teach students to take into consideration the different problems they have, and ways to save a lot of money that provide the same services depending on their expenses. 

Grade 12 Can Be Fun Too!

Hello everyone! Welcome back to an exciting week of math!

This week my colleagues in class were presenting grade 12 math lessons in advanced functions and data management. Both of them were influential in bringing gamification elements into the classroom environment, which created a very engaging lesson. I have discussed the benefits of gamification elements in the math classroom earlier on in this blog, so please scroll down if you would like a breakdown as to how gamification is beneficial to the classroom dynamic!

The first activity we did as a class was dominos with logarithms. This activity is best used as a consolidation to refine and work on student skills since students need to have prior knowledge of logarithm laws. Students are given a  dominoes like the one displayed on the right. Each domino has two values on either side. The students as a table group get seven dominos each and have to play a game of dominos with the cards they get. The mathematical aspect here is the fact that students need to figure out what the numerical value of each tile on the domino is. This is due to the fact that the traditional rules of dominoes state that you can only put down a domino if the tiles have the same value as the one it is connected to. Students need to build off the dominoes in play in order to finish their hand and win the game. The first person to place down all their dominos wins!

Keeping up with the theme of gamification and making the math class fun, the next activity we did with the class was surrounding the famous game show "Deal or No Deal" hosted by Howie Mandel. This was in relation to Data Management, and was extremely engaging because it showcases how math can be used anywhere and everywhere, and sometimes it can even allow you to make more money! This activity follows the same rules as the game show, where contestants have to pick a case for themselves and are not allowed to look at it. Inside each case is a different amount of money ranging from one cent to a million dollars. The idea behind the show is to walk away with the most money while the banker, a third party person, will offer you money after each round of opening cases. This can be used in the math classroom by making the students figure out the probability of picking a case higher than the bank offer. For instance, if the banker offers you $100 000, and there are 15 cases left to open, the student has to figure out the probability of opening cases lower than 100000 so that the bank offer goes up, or if they themselves have the case that is higher than the offer.  This activity is a great way to incorporate probabilities in the math classroom and consolidate thier learning while keeping the students engaged.

Exponential Functions

Hello everyone!

This week in our math class we are continuing to present lesson-learning activities. This week a colleague of mine delivered a fascinating lesson on exponential functions. Throughout teachers college and during my undergraduate years, my education professors always stressed the importance of making a lesson relevant to students. A lesson needs to be engaging and relevant to the students so that they can use what they learned in the lesson in the real world. This week my colleague did a great job incorporating real world events and trends to the students that would be in the class.

During the lesson, the class was divided into small groups and there were stations set up around the class with different activities at each station. For instance, at station one, the students were given a scenario of a zombie apocalypse and had to identify how many people were infected after a certain period of time. Students were given counters to help visualise the infected every twenty-four hours. For me personally, this was a thrilling activity and way to learn about exponential functions. I always play zombie apocalyptic video games and have talked to students about this on several occasions. I think using zombies for exponential functions is a great idea!


In the next station, even if you did not know much about zombies and zombie apocalypses, you can still relate to the scenario because it was an internet phenomenon that went viral worldwide. The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge was a challenge that went viral on all social media platforms in order to raise money for ALS. Most people in the classroom would relate to this since most people took part in it. Not only is this topic relatable for all the students, but being in the groups and trying to figure out the problem together fostered student communication which is vital in any classroom. Voicing our opinions and getting to the answer together made the groups talk about their thinking processes out loud in order to consolidate on a final answer.

As a future educator, I learnt the importance of keeping things relevant to the students. Taking part in these activities, I was extremely engaged because I was genuinely curious as to how many zombies there were by the end of the day and how many people did take part in the challenge since the numbers seemed accurate from personal experience.

Making Math Interactive

Hello everyone!

This week we had the pleasure of taking part in a unique lesson that I never experienced in the math class growing up. In this lesson regarding grade 9 applied math, students had the opportunity to get out from their seats and recreate graphs using a motion detector. In particular, the students would use CBR (Calculator Based Rangers), which is essentially a motion detector, that tracks movement from and away the detector. In this specific lesson, students were to create a certain set of graphs given to them.




Above are the graphs the students had to recreate in class. It was extremely fun and engaging because the students had to physically get up and place the motion detector on a nearby surface, and recreate the graph. This meant that students had to change their pace, walk away and/or towards the motion detector, and stay still for a couple seconds and then move in order to recreate the graph. It was a very engaging activity and works well in a class, especially for visual and kinesthetic learners.


I really enjoyed this activity because it got students to be more active in their own learning. Not only does it move from the traditional method of the teacher at the front of the class and students sitting down at the desk, but it allows for student participation and movement which creates an engaging environment.

Grade 9 & Grade 10 Academic

Hello everyone! Welcome back to another exciting week in the world of math. This week I had the pleasure of watching my colleagues run activities in Grade 9 and 10 academic math, and what an eventful evening it was! During our time in class, we had the pleasure of being introduced to a speed dating activity that will make sure your class stays engaged and meets the success criteria in your linear relations unit.

The activity was called "Speed Dating and Equation Making", and is suitable for all grade levels with a little bit of tweaking. In order to run the activity, the desks first need to be moved in order to create a "U" shape around the classroom. The "U" shape is made with two circles, an inner circle and an outer circle. This way the desks are facing each other, similar to a speed dating session.

Materials Needed:

-Flash Cards

-Graphing Paper

-Pencils/Different colour pencil crayons

-Ruler

Once you have the desks set up and the materials you need, you are ready to start this fun and exciting activity! There are two different type of flash cards, one flash card contains the y-intercept, while another flash card contains a word problem that identifies your slope. Now every student in the inner circle gets the same type of flash card (for instance all slope cards), while everyone on the outer circle gets the other type of flash card (the y-intercept). Students then take their seat and put the two flashcards together to create a line. They then have to graph their line on the graph paper provided. On the graph paper, there are several points that are indicated with a heart. If the line you and your partner create go through the heart, you are a match! After about one minute, all the people on the inner circle get up and move on to their next "date", where the process repeats itself and you see if you both are compatible and are a match! 

I thoroughly enjoyed this activity because it was fun creating the lines and seeing if I got a potential date. In the math classroom, students often are given worksheets with repetitive drills to consolidate their learning. While this practice is key to learning any concept, it can be quite boring. This activity allows students to consolidate their graphing and linear skills while at the same time keeping them engaged. The students do not even realize they are doing math work because they are so caught up in the game trying to get the most dates! 

In my future classroom I will definitely be using this activity. Not only can it be used for creating linear equations, but even across other grade levels this game can be tweaked in order to incorporate quadratics, trigonometry and other parts of the math curriculum.

Grade 7 and 8 Curriculum

Hello everyone! Welcome back to my blog. This week in class we took a look at the grade 7 and 8 math curriculums. Our colleagues led teaching activities that encompassed the action or consolidation part of a specific lesson plan. Although there were great ideas shared in class surrounding a vast array of different topics, a simple and effective activity that I found engaging was called the game of life.

In this activity, the class was split into numerous groups. Each group represented a family, earning a different income. Associated with each family was a job title, such as a bank teller, a landlord, a grocery store cashier, etc. Right from the beginning of the activity, student engagement was vital for this activity to work effectively. One student from the banking family had to go to the front of the class, and with paper money, give each family the appropriate salary they earn ( acting as the banker).

Now with their monthly salary in their hands, the family had to budget their expenses. The teacher would explain how 30% of your monthly salary needed to go to the landlord for rent. A further 15% needed to be given to the grocery store cashier for food and drinks for your family for the month, and so on. The point of the activity is to introduce the students to percentages and decimals.

I think this activity does a great job keeping the students engaged in the classroom. The activity takes into consideration curriculum expectations, while at the same time having a practical aspect to it since students will eventually be taking care of the bills at one point in their life. For instance paying the phone bill was one aspect of the game that I enjoyed because most students have a cell phone these days, although a good percentage of them probably do not pay for it themselves. The one look for during this game, however, is classroom management. This game was extremely engaging and fun to play which meant that a lot of people were talking and the class could get rowdy quickly. The best way to keep everything organised is to break the activity into different stages. For instance, have a powerpoint with step by step instructions for each month such as calculate the expenses for the first month and give each person the amount. Then move on to the next part of the game where you choose to put a certain percent in the savings account, or something happens to the banker, etc etc.

There is so much room for creativity in this game where you can get the students to incorporate other aspects of their learning too. For instance, the teacher can make up a scenario on the powerpoint where the families are doing a math problem for some extra money, or the first family to solve the problem accurately gets to receive a payment from all the other families. This is why I loved this activity, not only are the students actively involved in their own learning, but there is so much room to alter the game to bring in other lessons they previously learnt and still keep the class engaged.