UNIT PLAN

 

Final reflection

  I have learned so much about the combined use of maths and art this term (an area I have never been able to incorporate into my practical teaching before) my favorite was the maths art  topic and learning to draw a maze post, in the maths art topic we chose as a group I incorporated one of my favorite maths lessons from university, knot theory, into our display and I also really enjoy doing crafts and I showed how to weave an intricate and beautiful Chinese knot. My most rewarding lesson was my micro-teaching class, I never thought I would be teaching a whole class and it was a great exercise for me. I love musical theatre, the combination of singing and dancing with drama is the most beautiful form of art in my opinion, and in this class I learned how to group and distribute students. I also enjoyed the puzzles in 342, even though I found some of the puzzles logically challenging for me (who has a math major), these puzzles are great examples of what I can teach my students to explore in the future. It also gives me a great example of a maths assignment for students that could be for them to write about what they think the topic is thinking and what stuck with them.

I don't think the assignment for designing a unit plan should be at the end of the list, for me I feel that unit plans are an area of my teaching that I am not very good at because I have never taught an entire chapter of a lesson at the appropriate grade level. I feel it is a little too late to receive comments and make changes after the semester. I need more time to talk to my students and prof about how to edit it.

Final version: Unit plan (updated version)

UNIT PLAN

Unit plan

 Math 9 Chp 4 polynomial

Homework reading for textbook

 From a teacher's perspective, the examples provided emphasize the role of examining how textbooks connect students to mathematics, their peers, teachers, and the world. At the same time, textbooks have a certain structure, and the form of language and images in textbooks influence students' mathematical understanding. Also, considering the students in the class, if there are ELL students in the class, then the textbook is a good resource for them to learn some specialized mathematical language. Teachers may use other words to explain specific definitions in order to make it easier for students to understand, so it is easier for students to associate those easy-to-understand words with specialized mathematical vocabulary.

From my own point of view as a student, I would not use the textbook too much, but it is a good resource for me to prepare and review. I would use the examples in the textbook to preview what we were going to learn and to review if I forgot them afterward. Through reading this article I have found that indeed when I see specific language in a textbook I will recall a specific situation that it introduces.

Perceptions of textbook use and role change:

Regardless of how updated textbooks are, textbooks are a resource that can be referred to for maths learning. Textbooks are constantly evolving, the applications to the real world may change, the variety of examples may change, and there will be plenty of additional information and hands-on activities afterwards. What I have learned through my short practicum is that my SA will choose examples from different versions of textbooks to present through knowledge of the students' classes. I also think that textbooks are a resource for us and we can use them flexibly.

“Flow”

 I have experienced such a state of "flow", and I believe that for me, it is the combined action of environment, inner drive, interest, and focus that drives me to reach this state. I have reached such a state in my mathematics studies. The last time was when I was completing my university math game theory assignment. I really enjoy this class and I really like my professor. I also know that as long as I spend time researching the problem, I can definitely solve it. During the process of researching the topic, I greatly enjoyed the process of trial and error and solving the answer.

I think it is possible to achieve such a state in high school mathematics classes. As teachers, we need to help students build mathematical confidence, so that they are not afraid of difficulties, enjoy the feeling of solving problems, and cultivate a comfortable learning environment, so that students feel at ease and can ask questions at any time without being disturbed. This requires a lot of classroom management skills. As future teachers, the most important thing is to create an environment for each other, which is not only between students but also between students and teachers.

Dave Hewitt & mathematical awareness

 

The first "stop" comes from the joke Hewwit shows at the beginning and the question he raises. For many students, they only know very similar problems that they've been taught, even if they don't know them under a different name. This means that, in the teaching of mathematics, many students do not understand the logic of learning but rather memorize. How to get students out of the mode of teaching maths as rote learning and develop more ways of thinking is something that we new teachers need to reflect on.

My second "stop" is that Hewwit gave more examples of 2+3. How do you think Hewitt developed the 2+3? I was very inspired by this, and in my short-practicum my SA also talked about the need for teachers to be flexible and use a variety of examples in their lectures to help students understand the content. This is a skill I should develop.

I also realized that in the videos we watched in class, the point that inspired me was that we shouldn't just leave the maths classroom to books and paper and pencil, we can use the environment to engage the students and get them involved.

When developing the fraction problems, I think Hewwit developed them step-by-step according to the difficulty of the problem, starting with answering the question for specific numbers, moving on to more general answers, and finally getting to the mathematical laws. It is important to develop mathematical problems step by step, with simple thinking to further think of deeper and more mathematical problems that will exercise the students' mathematical thinking.

Based on these two videos I feel that in my teaching I should be more interactive with my students, where they can start to think actively, exercise their sense of mathematical thinking, and understand how mathematical knowledge works in concrete terms.