CatchUp

I’ve just been through a week of hell in my personal life, and trying hard to play catch up this week since finals are next week. Sometimes I just don’t feel up to the task of pursuing a new career while trying to juggle everything else in life. To all those aspiring teachers who are going to college fresh from High School- don’t give up, it’s so much harder to go back later on in life! So many people told me that when I was young, and yet I refused to listen. Boy, do I regret it now!
So this past semester hasn’t offered me very much to contemplate as far as education goes, in fact at times I feel like it’s offered me nothing more than an opportunity to complain about a horrible math course! Soon that will be all over and I can move on to better subjects.
Starting in January I have a child psychology course that I am looking forward to. Hopefully it will lead to some writing inspiration.
Just one last reflection on math though- because I have been reading in other blogs that math topics in many districts start as early as kindergarten! When I first read that, I thought it was crazy. I couldn’t grasp the concept of teaching kids who, developmentally, are still trying to master activities of daily living, to “reason mathematically.” After taking this course though, I can’t help but wonder- if they were doing this back when I was in kindergarten or first grade, would I better be able to grasp mathematical thinking? My problem with the course has not been understanding how the problems are solved, when given a solution, but rather the fact that I would never have conceived of that solution on my own. Somewhere, my brain lacks a neural pathway between taking a problem, and using mathematical reasoning to solve it. Maybe exposing children at a very young age to math is not such a crazy idea after all- I have a much more open mind about this now, and have been challenged to come up with ways to explain difficult concepts to young children, as I have to develop those to make sense of it in my own mind. So something good did come out of the experience, but I am still ecstatic that it is nearly over now! The course was 2 semester’s long and I am ready for it to be done….for good.
On a light note, my cousin’s son lost several of his baby teeth in a school playground accident. He was so devastated because the teeth were lost in the grass and he wasn’t going to be able to put them under his pillow for the tooth fairy. His first grade teacher (bless her soul) sent him home with an excuse note to put under his pillow, so he could still get credit for all the teeth! So cute :)

What I Learned in the Crappiest Math Class Ever

How did I ever survive academia without the internet? Its hard to imagine there was a time when this priceless resource was not available.
I have come to appreciate the internet immensely thanks in part to the most expensive, crappiest math class in the entire universe. I have just earned some confidence points because I realize that I single handedly (well, using the internet) taught myself college algebra and geometry over the internet. I wouldn't say that I have made myself into an A student because that is, well, a lie, but I did manage to pass placement exams with flying colors and get by the crappiest math class in the universe with a B.
The unfortunate thing about the crappiest math class in the universe is that it was supposed to teach me how to take very complicated algebraic and critical thinking skills and simplify them so that an elementary student could take from it the basic curricular knowledge required at what ever grade level it may be. I did not get that from this class. If I could write a letter to the author of the textbook (which I might just do that) I would tell him, in a nice way, that he failed miserably at providing the tools necessary to translate difficult mathematical material into fun and understandable material appropriate for a classroom full of young children.
It wasn't all for waste though, I did manage to find some of the most wonderful math resources available in the internet, written by people who know how to turn a difficult concept into something relatable and easy to comprehend- a skill that lies at the core of teaching.
I plan on going through my archives during my winter break and posting some of the websites I have used that have great images and explanations of elementary math topics. I think some of these would be great classroom resources, especially of you have a smart board or monitor projector available for class use. Links to follow soon...

Mathmatical Difficulties

My break is over and school is back on. One of my classes is the second half of a math for elementary school teachers course. This section is also twice as long as the summer section was, so I have been excited that I will have the time to really think about what I am learning and ask myself, “How will I apply this in the classroom?” instead of just flying through in order to test on time.
After one week, my excitement has already begun to wane. I feel massive frustration right now. The content itself is nothing difficult. What causes me problems is the method. I just can’t believe how much math has changed since I originally learned. I keep reverting to old ways, and I can’t seem to internalize the new techniques, even though they are probably much more efficient and easier.
Furthering my frustration is the fact that all the classroom sections of this course are during the day, when I am at my full time job, so I had to take it independent study. I did meet with an instructor to discuss the issues I am having and she basically told me not to worry about if I get the problems right or wrong. It's only about the method, focus on learning the methods to have as a tool for teaching different learners. But how am I supposed to teach it to someone else if I don't understand it myself first?
I’m freaked out right now about teaching math someday. I'm not clear at this point why so much emphasis in this course is placed on using the specific methods outlined in the text. Does the curriculum dictate the specific method that you have to teach, or do teachers have the leeway to teach any method as long as the objectives are accomplished?
I need to find a way to just let go of my preconceived ideas of how to do this and try to put myself in the place of a student learning this for the first time. How would I want the teacher to explain this to me? I even went to the extent of buying a white board so that I could work through it as if I was explaining it to a class; sometimes teaching something helps me understand it better myself.
Letting go of the way I think things should be taught (based on the way it was taught to me) is something I need to work on, its one of my weaknesses and its not going to help me in the classroom at all- especially because the world has changed significantly since I learned, just take technology for example, I didn't learn on computers in elementary school. I need to be prepared to deal with all different kinds of learners and situations.
Maybe a good way to approach methods class is to go through the Multiple Intelligences and determine how I might teach single concept to the different types of learners. Or maybe I should create three or four imaginary students, with different learning challenges, that I can use as a practice model throughout my course. What ever I do, I think I need to place some focus on learning about differentiated instruction to help me to break out of my own patterns of thinking.
What kinds of challenges have you encountered with differentiated instruction in your classrooms?

Math Shouldn't Make People Want To Quit Trying

In the wake of my days working at the school I feel very sad. I really enjoyed being with the kids and I enjoyed the teachers I worked with. I’m glad that the crunch on my time has eased a bit and I no longer have 14 hour days to contend with, but sad, none the less.
The class that this requirement was for is ending tomorrow and I admit I have checked out, mentally, already. This is only because it took all my energy to complete the requirements that my Math class has suffered miserably and its time I place my focus on that now. I’ve already ruined my Perfect GPA (pardon me while I take a moment to mourn 2 years of hard work:(…….
I couldn’t help it, there were just too many requirements in too short of a time and working full time sometimes makes perfection impossible, especially because I need my job to not only pay bills but also my tuition! As you can tell, this is bothering me immensely and I feel very defensive about it.
This math class in itself is a challenge. They shortened the course to 8 weeks, which I don’t understand. The term is 12 weeks long, so they could have had it go the full 12 weeks and it would have been at least a little more manageable.
It’s a Elementary Math teaching course which focuses on various problem solving techniques and several “algebraic” approaches to elementary arithmetic. Translation- it makes what was once very simple math a complex conundrum to even most adults. All this came from the revelation made by mathematicians that children need to start algebraic thinking earlier in the curriculum and that “rote memorization” of simply how to do math is simply not good enough. It also goes on the premise that teachers need to know how to approach math from various angles in order to help different types of learners understand. The later, I completely agree with. The former, not so much. I guess I don’t see any problem with the way I learned math. It always made practical sense to me. Some of these “algebraic thinking” concepts just seem far too abstract for elementary age children. Maybe I’m slightly old school when it comes to education, but I think that we should be careful about the expectations placed on kids. Education should be challenging, yes, but its counterproductive when it’s challenging beyond the cognitive capabilities of a child. We are at risk of causing them to tune out. I imagine that to children, some of these algebraic concepts may be the equivalent of the average adult attempting to read and understand, say… a study on Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia. Most adults would not be anxious or motivated to keep reading, so why would we expect the same of a child who doesn’t get the material?
I am taking what I can from this class, but inevitably, some of it will be lost on me. I do have to say that I love the Lattice method of addition and multiplication, I like some of the base ten techniques, and I am always a big fan of using pictures and diagrams to sort information. So the class is not a complete loss, there are some helpful new techniques out there I see good use for in my target grades.

I May Be In Over My Head

I started another class this week. It’s a part 1 of the math for elementary schools teachers’ series. I have my schedule very tightly mapped out so that I can get in the 2010 registration for the NLU School of Education, however if I could go back in time I think I would have planned this differently. I only have two courses right now, but they both are in accelerated format because the summer term is only 8 weeks long, rather than the 16 weeks of the fall and winter term. Plus, they don’t offer the math courses at any time when I am able to attend a traditional classroom class, so I had to sign up for Independent Study. I think it would be fine except, whoops! Didn’t know that the only times the teacher is available for guidance during hours that I am not at work happen to be the two nights that I am at my other class. And, there are only two evenings that I can take tests on because of my other class. Unfortunately they don’t give you this information until orientation so it was a bit of a shocker to me. I’m feeling very nervous now.
I am very capable of doing well in math, however it doesn’t come naturally and I have to work very hard at it. It’s too late now to change my schedule so I just have to push through.
When I was doing my placement tests, I was able to refresh my memory on algebra and geometry through the use of several fantastic websites that are available (yet another reason why I love, love, love! the internet.) But I can’t seem to find anything quite appropriate for teaching me how to think like a mathematician. Most of what I am learning is logic and problem solving technique. Once I see how the problem was worked out, it makes perfect sense, but I know that I wouldn’t have come up with that method on my own. I would have re-read and pondered the question until my brain hurt, then started guessing for a half hour until I got an answer that worked. Obviously, I am going to have to learn some better methods to teach my students or they will be a very confused, so I think that this class will be good for me, but I really wish I had planned it better so that I had more time for this first course. Oh well. Now I have to come up ways to help me think like a mathematician. I’m trying to ask myself how I might help students with understanding and approaching word problems. Here are some thoughts I’ve had on this:

A. Use a worksheet format: create a work sheet where each step is broken down and there are questions to guide the student, and spaces to help organize the information in a functional and visual manner.

B. Use manipulatives to help the student visually organize information.

C. Breakdown the word problem word by word, to help identify what the important information is, then deal with each piece of information separately, such as identifying what is unique and can be said about that individual segment. Then determine which techniques can utilize those uniqueness’.

D. Make more complicated word problems easier by substituting the subject with something more relatable to the students to help them grasp the idea (the same way people often use the pizza analogy when dealing with fractions.)

E. Draw pictures that are memorable & meaningful to represent variables (rather than letters).

So my plan, as I am trying to work through the problems for my course, is to use some of these techniques for myself and see if they help. Hopefully I can make it through this term, right now I am feeling the weight of everything. My own fault, though, for not taking care of this when I was young and didn’t have to work or pay bills!

An "Ahhaa!" Moment

I just started reading Donna Walker Tileston’s book on classroom management. The foundation of her method is that behavioral problems can be avoided if children are adequately engaged with the learning process, nothing new that I haven’t heard before. When she started elaborating on the neurological process of learning, I knew this book was right up my alley!
For the first time, I feel like I am reading something that is speaking my language, something I can actually put into practice effectively. While I understand that “in theory” and “in practice” are two totally different things, I feel immensely inspired by her method. While reading, my thoughts went beyond just concerns over classroom management, I actually could visualize myself implementing the methods in a lesson plan and it felt natural and comfortable to me.
Some points that thus far I am taking from the text that I want to remember for the future:

1. Engage students immediately by beginning the lesson with an activity that appeals to one of their senses. For instance, I could start a history lesson with a visualization exercise, helping to place them in a period of history using guided visualization and period music. This can help personalize the learning experience (“intrinsic motivation”.) Another sensory exercise that can be used to learn examples of geometrical shapes in the real world is to put common place objects that, for example, are cones into a pillow case or bag . Students could work in groups to feel the objects through the bag to identify what the objects are. Or, using that same tecnique, put several different geometrical shaped objects in the bag and have students use their knowledge of shape properties to identify what the shape is.

2. Have students teach each other. For example, to help build vocabulary, each week, students can be assigned to pick a word from the dictionary that they don’t know and present it to the class. The presentation would consist of teaching the class the definition, spelling, type and how to use it in a sentence. Students would be allowed to present the concepts in any creative way they choose. Each student will keep a vocab list of the words their peers teach and an writing assignment involving the use of the words would be due each weak. The writing assignments could built upon one another so that by the end of the year, all the words learned would have to appear in the story, helping memorization of new words and building of vocabulary. Guidelines can also be put in place like 5 letter words, words that start with “s” or adjectives only or use the words to write a story about a particular topic; to challenge and provide variety.

3. Connecting the material to something children can relate to. Giving lessons a proper introduction that tells students, before you get into the subject matter, how they can apply it to their lives, immediately, develops a purpose for the student to become involved in the lesson and listen/ participate (“self-system”.)