Tiffany's Blog

I think our 342A course really helps me a lot. I have gone through all the blog posts I did for this course. I found my blog seems like a colorful picture, painting my track to maturity. My first blog post was about my mathematical past. I wrote down my answers for our four questions and I also expressed what kind of teacher I want to be and what kind of teacher I do not want to be. I still believe as teachers we should not only use tests to assess our students. But how to become a good teacher and how to share my passion of learning math with my future students were still two big questions in my mind. Then Skemp’s article gave me chances to go back and base on my own learning experience to think more about instrumental mathematics and relational mathematics. I learned from this article that instrumental mathematics teaching may help students get confidence for math learning in short term within a limited context. But if we consider a long-term learning and understanding, instrumental...

What Worked Well This Math Fair activity really impressed me. Almost all the students I met were engaged in and were willing to explain the reasons why their activities were fair or unfair. I think this Math Fair event seemed to be a big success. First of all, I believe this event helped students develop the interests of math learning. Students were divided into different groups and they designed their own games. In this way, students could choose the topics they liked and made their own signboards and other required materials. The process of learning math became a joyful journey. Students could develop their understanding of probability through the interaction with their participants. At the same time, they also had chances to take part in other groups’ activities and learn from that. Secondly, I think because students needed to explain the probability theories behind their activities, they got the chances to be “teachers’. I found majority of students were willing to explain the r...

Schedule: Week1-2:  Grade 8                  Chapter 5 Linear Equations                  Section 5.1-5.4 Week 3-4:  Grade 9                    Chapter 8 Probability and Statistics                    Section 8.1-8.7

Self- Reflection  What you would change First of all, many of my classmates thought we should speak a little bit louder. But because two groups gave the presentations at the same time, it is little difficult for me to keep my voice in an appropriate level. In the future, I will try to use my teacher voice during my teaching time. Secondly, I think we also need to improve our time management. We actually do not have enough time to give a brief conclusion. I will try my best to manage lesson time better as well. I think it is important for teachers to know their students first. When teachers know more about their students, it will be easier to estimate how much time they need for activities. What you would keep the same  This time we gave each student a package of algebra tiles. So they all had chances to try by themselves. When we asked them to apply zero principle and show their own design of one polynomial, all designs were different. I like it! I think this re...

EDCP 342A Curricular Micro Teaching Brianna, Jing, & Tiffany Grade: 9 Subject: Mathematics Date: November 1, 2017 Duration: 15 Minutes Topic Algebra Tiles Lesson Objectives How to represent polynomials using algebra tiles Materials Needed Algebra tiles for each student/group Lesson Overview Intro Introduce algebra tiles ·        Explain what each tile represents ·        Get students to find the tiles as you explain them 2 minutes Presentation Introduce the zero principle ·        Show students how the zero principle allows us to add or remove tiles without changing the equation ·        Only works for tiles which are the same size and shape (like terms) ...

• Is mathematics 'neutral', or is it connected with social/ environmental justice? I think it is connected with social / environmental justice.  We all live in our community, in our society. No one can ever be truly independent. Some people may say they live alone. But every time they buy something and every time they use any product, they already connect with other people. So I think connections are everywhere in our world. And numbers or math will be so powerful when it connects with social / environmental justice. People will be impressed by a series of numbers and realize how serious social and environmental problems are. I think math could give people a more straightforward impression and that is why scholars usually list numbers as supports to prove their points.   • What are your ideas about the author's intentions in writing this textbook? I think it is very impressive to connect math world with social / environmental justice. This article really makes ...

The following pictures are the reflections from my group: Self-Reflection:  I think in this lesson, I have found some problems of my teaching. The first problem is the time management.  I think making a bracelet is simple, but actually my classmates all felt 10 mins are not enough at all. Moreover, I think next time I should show them how to do step by step more specifically. Maybe weaving with them at the same time, so they can follow my steps. Instead of teaching one student one time, I think working together will be more effective.