First Observation Day

On october the 15th, I had my first observation day at St. Andrew's. I was in grade 6 and observed the intensive core french program. Alot of the children did really well with the french but I noticed some did not speak French or spoke only necessarily. The students were really smart and energetic but from learning about classroom management last year, I felt there was little routine to help the children settle down after lunch and recess. In the morning they had their quiet time while the teacher sets up for the next lesson.
After class on tuesday, I rethunk what I said about my experience. I felt I came on too harshly about my teacher. But really he was a great teacher just use a loud/shouting voice to gain control over the classroom. He was enthusastic about all the lessons and really enjoyed the students but like I said just classroom management was a bit shaky. He did not have lessons plans mapped out but just a quick Science observation at such such time or Math-whole number this time. But that worked for him. He did not do everything at a strict pace. He was constantly aware of the students need to stay with something for extra time.
But I was very lucky to observe a Math lesson on my observation day. They were learning about whole numbers and decimal places. He took an impicit teaching approach. He would ask them to read the numbers on the pages about the area of a country. They had to tell which one was bigger and why. I thought this was amazing how he probed the students for the answers. After being in a class with Linda Laite and learning about questioning, it was so amazing to see it being used. He kept asking questions in order to get students to arrive at the answer.
I'm learning so much in my observation days. It just helps put everything that we learned thus far into context.

Oct. 2, 2007 class

I was very unsure how to proceed with the problem of counting the grains of sand. It was not my usual Math lesson where we copy from the board and do the problems in the text book that was associated with said problem. I'm just so used to having the teachers give me the problems and say "Here, use this formula and the answer is in the back of the book."
So I was completely lost on how to figure out the problem the Professor asked of us. What exactly was she looking for? What was the answer? What was the formula? This is the mind set that I have been taught about Math. There is always a right answer, wrong answer and a formula that will solve the problem. But doing this problem and writing down ideas about how to figure out the answer was completely liberating. Being stuck in one frame of mind just made me realize what we can do as teachers to help students break free of this mind jail.
It was nice to finally see that Math can be taught differently just as Language arts or Art can be.

Mathematics for the Moment

As I was reading the article Mathematics for the Moment, I was able to connect with what the textbook students were saying. I went to a school where our math consisted of tests, formulas and problem solvng statements. We did not use manipulatives, ony in the first or second grades. We had to sit in our seats and take notes about math. So I completely agree with what one of the students said. That the Math they learned has nothing to do with the math in real life. I thought the same way. This is why I am so enthusiastic about trying new methods with children. Getting them to use manipulatives and thinking about numbers in a different way.
One day in class I remember Professor Cameron saying how many different ways there are for looking at the number one: ONE thousand, ONE hundred, ONE cube, ONE side etc etc. How am I able to teach children that one can mean so much. In a way it is overwhelming but I believe that students can and will learn better if a) Math is applied to real life situations or just real life in general and b) children can attach their own meanings and own experiences with Math while satisfying the outcomes as well.