BC Math 8 and 9 Curriculum Documents

Nadereh and I looked at the BC Math 8 and 9 Curriculum documents - her blog post will focus on the grade 8 material and I will focus on the grade 9 material in this blog post.

I was impressed with the introduction to the curriculum documents, especially its inclusion of the Aboriginal perspective section. The introduction really set a tone that, though the material and curriculum are important, it is vital for teachers to recognize learners' backgrounds, attitudes, skills, and learning styles. I liked as well the 'Goals for Mathematics 8 and 9,' because it showed the big picture of what the curriculum is trying to do.

I liked how they included the key concepts for the grade 7 math curriculum to show how that leads into math 8 and 9 (because students might not have got that foundation in elementary school). I think they could've included the general grade 10 topics as well, just to give further perspective of the curriculum continuum, but I understand that once grade 10 hits, the curriculum diversifies, so that makes it complicated.

As for the actual curriculum itself, Math 9 seems pretty similar to what I did when I was in high school, except for the addition of probability. I appreciate that they have started to include probability earlier than grade 12, because I think it is an important, relevant part of mathematics.

I also think that the emphasis of different kinds of mathematical processes was interesting - I think it will help me focus on what kinds of activities I should do in class to encourage these ways of thinking. They even included various suggestions for assessment, which I think is a great way to encourage teachers to break free from the standard unit test.

Battleground Schools Reflection

I agree with the article that there is a prevalence of math phobic attitudes in our current North American society. It seems normal for people to assume that they lack the 'math gene' and are completely comfortable publicly sharing that opinion. When I would tell people that I was a Math major, people were very shocked, and I would reply with some joke about how "we aren't all hermits living in math caves."

The article points out that sometimes it is the case where those who succeed in the traditional, conservative math classroom, will pursue mathematics, and from that group, some will become teachers. As teachers, they will educate the same way they were taught, perpetuating the environment that only allows a few to succeed. As someone who did well in their math classes throughout high school and university, in which classes were for the most part very traditional, I worry that I will translate this style of teaching forward. One of my biggest goals as a math teacher is to break the stigma that math is dry, dull, and only for a select few. But I know that sometimes, in periods of great stress, teachers will revert back to how they were taught as a student. I want to avoid this! I want to use inquiry, despite its inherent messiness, to create an environment of experimentation, creativity, and student discovery, similar to Dewey. 

I found it very interesting to read about the crazy history of math education in North America. I think that we are still very much in a period of conflict between traditional and progressive approaches, and as a teacher, I will experience this conflict first hand. Parents, students, or colleagues may not appreciate my style of teaching and I may experience some backlash.  

Reflection on Microteaching

For my microteaching lesson, I taught the basic 6 count step for swing dancing. From the feedback I've received and my own reflection on it, I think it went well! My classmates picked up the "rock step, triple step, triple step" fairly quickly, and so we had time to partner it and dance to music. When we switched to the music, we initially tried it full speed, but when no one was following, I changed it to half speed, which really helped students. I think it was a good decision to be flexible with what I had planned and change it to the level of the students.
I really enjoyed teaching the mini lesson and I'm looking forward to getting to teach another!

Microteaching Lesson Plan

LESSON PLAN

Subject: Swing Dancing Grade: N/A

Lesson Number in Unit: 1 Time: 10 minutes

Objectives: Students will be able to perform either the lead or follow part of a 6-count Swing Basic, including rock step and triple step. Students will partner with each other and practice leading/following, and learn couple dancing techniques.

Strategies: ·         Learning by doing – full class participation ·         Formative assessment by playing music and walking around and observing students while they practice

Materials/equipment needed: Open space Music (preferably in 6 counts) and music player

Adaptations/Modifications: Include visual diagrams, or written instructions for those who have trouble remembering verbal instructions If students are very uncomfortable with dancing, lesson can be simplified to focus on non-partnered dancing (just learn the rock step and triple step) Students in wheelchairs, or those that are unable to participate by standing, can pretend their hands are feet and dance the steps on a table while seated If students are uncomfortable with being close to each other at the beginning, play a game where they run around and find someone to pair up with, assume the dance position, and randomly blurt out the name of a fruit or vegetable. This silly activity gets students feeling goofy and more comfortable! Extensions: ·         Students can learn basic turns, such as a tuck turn ·         Students can learn a double arm slide

LESSON COMPONENTS

Triple step (3 min)

Have follows stand on one side of the room and leads on the other, facing each other. Have the students gallop sideways from one side of the room to the other, then switch direction. Eventually, bring it down to only one gallop in each direction. Explain that this is all a triple step is!

Rock step (2 min)

Have leads step or “rock” back on their left foot, follows rock back on their right foot, then rock forward on to the other foot. Have students practice the pattern “rock step, triple step, triple step”. Make sure students aren’t looking at their feet the whole time!

Partnering (5 min)

Have follows and leads pair, and introduce the correct hand placement. Have students practice the steps together, leads practice guiding the follow and the follows practice going with the mistakes of the lead (ex. if the lead does and extra triple step, just go with it!). Try it with music! Switch partners and try with new people.

Soup Can Problem

The width of the bike on my computer screen is 2 of my fingers. The whole water tank is about 5 fingers long, so the water tank is 2.5 bike widths. Googling "bike dimensions," I found that a standard bike is about 1.8m or 180cm wide, so the water tank is 2.5*180cm = 450cm long. If we assume that the water tank has the same proportions to a regular soup can, we can find the ratio of heights to find the diameter of the tank. From google, I found that the normal dimensions of a Campbell's soup can is 10.16cm x 3.33cm. So the ratio of heights 450/10.16 = 44.29. So to find the diameter of the water tank we multiply this ratio by the diameter of a regular can: 44.29*3.33 = 147.5. So the radius is 147.5/2 = 73.75. The volume of a cylinder is the area of the base times the height, so we get:

pi*r^2*h = pi * (73.75)^2 * (450) = 7,689,293 cm^3 (approximately) 

1cm^3 = 0.001 L

So 7,689,293 cm^3 = 7689.293 L 

So the water tank holds about 7,700 L of water. 

Letters after 10 Years

LETTER ONE:

 

Dear Ms Sturrock

                I just wanted to let you know that I really struggled in your class in grade 9.

                You obviously really like math, but sometimes I just want the simple version of how to do something. Your explanations were too long and complicated when I usually just wanted a concise answer. I didn't usually follow your explanations, and I wish you'd have explained slower and more precisely. You made math seem way too complicated. I stopped asking questions after a while.

                I also found your classroom too loud to actually focus. I feel like you didn't have any control over the class volume when we were working through activities. I wish we could have had more quiet work time so I could process what we were learning. 

                Hope this feedback helps you -- Student X

Reflection: I sometimes feel I get carried away in my explanations of concepts, and make them overly complicated. I think this is because I'm trying to explain my thought process and scaffold relational understanding, but I worry that it might result in students being overwhelmed by the amount of information. I also am worried about my classroom management skills. I want to include many hands on activities and have a lot of student participation, but I worry that I won't be able to control the class volume and environment as well, and this will negatively affect certain students' focus.

LETTER TWO:

 

Dear Ms. Sturrock,

                I wanted to send you a letter to let you know how much I appreciated you as my grade 8 teacher. First of all, I felt like you really cared about us and our learning, and I always felt welcome to talk to you or ask questions. I also really liked how much activity you put into your lessons. We were never sitting for too long and I enjoyed getting to use lots of different materials. I liked how much we got to participate each class, instead of you just talking at us from the board the whole time. I also appreciated how we got to do projects that used math to understand real world issues - like my ecological footprint!

                Thank you so much -- Student Y

               

Reflection: My number one goal as a teacher is that students feel safe and valued in my class. After that, I hope that I can engage students in math by using fun, diverse, multimodal activities. I want students to be active, and give them ample opportunities to be collaborative. I hope to incorporate real world relevance as well.

 

 

 

Math Dance Project Reflection

I believe dancing is something we all are born to love, because dance is all about figuring out what we can do with our bodies, and expressing how we feel by moving. But once puberty hits, it seems people become uncomfortable with the idea of dancing, whether out of fear of judgement or because they feel awkward or silly. This is a shame, because dancing is so expressive, creative, and natural. If you didn’t judge yourself, there is no wrong way to dance.

I always have loved to dance. I also, of course, love math! So I was so excited by the opportunity to combine these two passions, though I wasn’t quite sure how they would connect. In my first quick google search, however, I discovered Dr. Schaffer and Mr. Stern’s TED talk, and immediately was on board with their ideas.

The first chapter of their book seemed like a great place to start with math and dance – shaking hands. Getting students, especially high schoolers, willing to participate when the word ‘dance’ is mentioned seems a bit daunting. But creating handshakes is a comfortable, low-risk of embarrassment way to start. The physicality of handshaking then lends itself nicely to a discussion of combinatorics, providing a memorable way to explore counting problems. I also enjoyed reading their other lesson plans, from clapping rhythms for LCM, to human tangrams for geometry.

After working on this project, I’ve looked over some of my favourite dance videos on youtube, and I am now more aware of the symmetry and geometrical patterns that are made. Choreographers are always looking for new combinations of movements and shapes to create, and I think that is fascinating to look at from a math perspective. I think dance is a great way to physically engage students and allows for their creativity to shine in math, which traditionally can be very “right or wrong.” I definitely want to incorporate movement into my class, and will continue looking for ways dance and math connect.

Dishes Puzzle

To solve this puzzle, I first drew a picture to visually see how the different dishes would be shared over a group of people. From the drawing, I could see that, with four people, they could split rice and meat evenly but not broth. In order to find the minimum number of people that could split rice, broth, and meat with whole numbers of dishes, I looked at the lowest common multiple of 2, 3, and 4, which is 12. (Since 2 divides 4, the LCM is just dependent on 3 and 4 - which have no common factors so the solution is 3*4=12).

To find out how many dishes of each I would need for 12 people, I used ratios (see above).
6+4+3=13, so for every 12 people we would have 13 dishes in total (13 dishes/12 people). To find out how many people use up 65 dishes, I divided 65 by 13 to find that I would need 5 groups. Therefore, I got the equivalent ratios 13 dishes/12 ppl = 65 dishes/60 ppl (12*5=60). So there were 60 guests that used 65 dishes!

I don't think the cultural context has much effect of the problem for me. I can still understand it and solve it without understanding the culture behind the puzzle. I think it is interesting that I know similar problems to this one from my high school days, so people from around the world have been solving this problem for such a long time!

Response to David Stocker Reading

When we did the TPI, I scored lower on the social reform perspective compared to the others. I am passionate about social reform, and really believe that social justice issues need to be involved in schools, but I always imagined it as a priority for other subjects, not in math class. After seeing my results, I started to question that assumption, and have been looking into different ways teachers have been incorporating the two together. This is why I really appreciate the reading we got this week. Stocker's approach to teaching mathematics seems like something I could really get behind. I agree with his assertion that numbers are everywhere, and in order to not be manipulated by them, students need to understand their meaning. As a teacher, I want to change students' perspectives towards math, teach something that will have a lasting impact on my students, and nurture a curious, supportive, and active class environment. I think a social justice perspective could provide an engaging lens for achieving these goals.
I did have some hesitations towards using social justice in math, but Stocker addressed them in his introduction, which put me slightly more at ease. I know it won't be easy, but I definitely agree it is something worth trying. Something I would like to practice in our class would be taking some higher level curriculum (grade 11 or 12), and brainstorming ideas for lesson plans that have a focus on social issues.

My plans for the Oct. 23 Pro-D conferences

I am part of the IBDP cohort, so I will be attending a conference Oct 23-24 for professional development in that area.