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Hello fellow math friends!

Welcome back to Teddy's math journey blog!

Quite the Math Journey So Far!

Math (2018). Image. Retrieved from http://www.loving2learn.com/topics/math.aspx

I would like to welcome you to the second part of my math blog. If you have been following my journey with math education since last year, you would already know that I am a current teacher candidate studying how to become the best math educator I could possibly be! I would love to teach in the junior/intermediate strand, and to be quite honest, I would not even mind teaching a high school math course one day! With that being said, the Grades 1-8 and Grades 9-10 Ontario Math Curriculum, however, actually differ from each other. In the elementary grades, students learn 5 strands of math. These strands are Number Sense and Numeration, Measurement, Geometry and Spatial Sense, Patterning and Algebra & Data Management and Probability. Each elementary grade builds on prior knowledge while introducing new concepts to each math strand. In Grades 9-10, math gets divided into the academic and applied pathways. Students in academic math begin visiting topics that might be expected for university prep and Calculus, for example, topics like analytic geometry. Applied students learn math skills that will be transferred to either colleges or the work place. In addition to these strands, there are also several mathematical processes that students are expected to follow in their math learning and these are valid across all grades, from 1-12. The Ontario Curriculum explains that these processes are important and they are as follows:

"The mathematical processes that support effective learning in mathematics are [...]:
• problem solving
• reasoning and proving
• reflecting
• selecting tools and computational strategies
• connecting
• representing
• communicating
The mathematical processes can be seen as the processes through which students acquire and apply mathematical knowledge and skills (p.11)".

I believe that these skills can help students succeed in other areas of their lives as well as in math. Mastering these skills helps them to learn how to work both logically and creatively!

So friends, now that I am in my second and final year of teacher's college, I have so much to tell you about the wonderful discoveries that I have made about math education so far. Some of these great discoveries have positively changed the way that I think about math and I truly can't wait to help my future students ALSO think about maths in this positive light! First, we will discuss how some math stereotypes have helped shaped our perceptions of the subject.

Rewriting the Math Stereotypes


via GIPHY

Well then, let's get straight to it! I have had my first set of math classes last week and I already have a lot to share and reflect on. Last week, we worked on understanding some serious misconceptions about math. What stood out the most to me was a video that showed how negatively math is portrayed in popular culture. This can be very detrimental to our current students because they rely heavily on media and the internet. Math is predominantly portrayed as a "nerd subject" and most people are quick to comment that "they suck at it" and "hate it". The video titled "Hollywood Hates Math" highlights moments in some memorable movies and television shows. Do you recognize any of these scenes?

I also had to recall that moment where Lindsay Lohan had to risk social rejection when she joined a competitive math club because she was great at math in the movie Mean Girls! And that movie is from more than a decade ago! Ultimately, these scenes help to perpetuate a societal narrative in which math is a hard, boring, uncool, lame and meaningless subject.

THIS IS NOT THE CASE!

Math can be learned by anybody and can be really meaningful. We need to start looking at math in a positive light instead, to help our students develop a better mindset towards math. A mindset where they know they can succeed and will work hard and never give up to do so! Next week, I will get into that topic and we will discuss the power of the growth mindset. I believe this mindset needs to be discovered by every single person on this planet and THIS exact mindset is what I hope to embed into my students' brains one day. Toon into my next post to find out how I plan to do this! 😀


S33 y0u n3xt w33k!


Teddy