Alannapollock's Weblog

My Views on Mathematics!

alannapollock — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 20:33:04 +0000

What is mathematics? This is a great question, that has a different answer depending on who you are asking, and thus there isn’t one complete definition. If you look up the definition of mathematics, you will find that it gives you a definition similar to the one that follows. Mathematics is the study of the measurement, properties, and relationships of quantities and sets, using numbers and symbols. Although this can be viewed as an accepted definition, I am going to briefly discuss what math is to me. I think math is a part of life, and as mentioned in the article by Goos, I agree with the statement that refers to math as a tool that is important in our everyday and working lives. I think most students feel as though math isn’t important for their lives, and they are never going to use it after they are done school, and so I think it is important that we address this issue in order to show the students that they will rarely go a day without using it. For instance, when the students are calculating how much time they have to get to school, or when they are trying to determining whether they have enough money to buy something, they are doing math without even realizing it. When most people think about math they think of it as sitting in desks, and working with numbers, and even though this is an important part of math, I feel that there is so much more that math has to offer, and as educators we need to find a way to teach math successfully.

Now, when it comes to teaching these particular concepts, I feel as though my beliefs are going to strongly affect the way in which I teach. Also, when I think about what has affected these particular beliefs, I can say with certainty that most of my mathematic beliefs have been shaped by my past school experiences. I have had many experiences with math, as I am sure everyone has, and through these experiences, I have been shown behaviors, assignments, and techniques that I do like, and also that I don’t. As a result of this, I know that these experiences will affect the way in which I will teach in the future. I think that math should be fun as much as possible, and I feel that it doesn’t need to be as boring as some teachers make it out to be. Through learning mathematics, students are required to keep their mind working, and they are constantly learning new things. This is why I think inquiry is becoming more and more important, and although I never grew up with this method of instruction, I believe that this is a way to get students more engaged in what they are learning, and it will allow them to get a deeper understanding of what is being taught. I guess I would say that I am part of the “content and understanding” cluster of teachers that were mentioned in Beswicks article. I feel that getting through all of the content is important within a class, however; if it is taught in a way in which the students simply just memorize things, we are doing more harm than good. This is why I think it is important that we teach the required content, but more importantly we need to make sure we are teaching the students the concepts in a way in which they understand. When I was in school, I know that I got through a lot of tests or assignments by simply memorizing things, and not understanding the key concepts, however; throughout university I have come to realize that memorization doesn’t always work. As a result, I have changed the way in which I feel I should teach mathematics. I don’t want to be a teacher that simply gives the students formulas or processes, and requires that they remember them, rather I want to be a teacher that can explain to the students why these things are the way they are, in the hope that they will actually learn something from the class.

Also, I know that since my beliefs are going to affect the way I teach, I feel it is important that my students have an understanding of what my particular beliefs are. If I plan on teaching things in a particular way, I feel that it is important that the students are aware of it right from the beginning. On a similar note, I feel as though students need to have their own opinions, and their beliefs need to be heard as well. As a teacher I want what is best for my students, and if they have input, I will gladly hear it, however; I will make sure they understand that I make the final decisions. To sum this up, I would like to finish up with a quote from Goos article, which states that “teachers matter because we have the power to engage or alienate students in ways they will remember for the rest of their lives.” I want to be a teacher that is remembered for the good things I did with my math classes, and I don’t want people to remember me as a teacher that didn’t care, or wasn’t willing to make accommodations for my students.

All in all, I loved math growing up, and I hope that I will be able to show my love of math through my teaching. If I am able to make one student love math as much as I do, I will be extremely proud of my accomplishment.

The video!!

alannapollock — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 02:44:32 +0000

Final Project

alannapollock — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 01:39:56 +0000

So I know that making a video has been a backup for a few people when their other plans failed, but for me it was my first choice. The main reason I wanted to make a video was because my project may actually be able to help somebody. I know that when I was first learning math their were a few concepts that I struggled with at first and I know that the videos on the site would have been able to help me a lot. I also tutored at summer school this past summer and I know that some of the videos on the site would have been able to really help them and I wish I would have known about them. One of the concepts that I struggled with a bit was the difference between zero and undefined. They looked so similar and at first I struggled with identifying which was which until I was told about a method to figure it out, and this method is what I made my video on.

I’m currently waiting for my video to get up on youtube, so as soon as it is on there I will put it up on my blog.

I decided that I didn’t want to do my presentation on a chalkboard, so I decided to do it in powerpoint, little did I know that it was going to cause a lot of problems. The first issue I had was that when I sent it to Rushton I was told that I needed to convert it, because he couldn’t upload powerpoint videos onto his site. I figured converting it wouldn’t be all that hard, but I soon realized it was extremely challenging. The reason it was so challenging was because I decided a plain powerpoint wouldn’t be as effective as one that had narration in it, so I decided to narrate the video. The only problem was that when I tried to convert it my narration wasn’t going at the same time as the video was going. I first tried to use a program called E.M powerpoint converter, and it wouldn’t work so I then tried to transfer it into windows movie maker, but when I put it into here all my stuff didn’t come in when I had it set to, it was just one single image, so I had to find another one. I then decided to do a search on google and I found a program called Moyea that actually converted my video the way I wanted it to. I know that it didn’t seem like a had a lot of issues with my project, and that I maybe could have come up with something a little more challenging, but I am a person that doesn’t spend a lot of time in the computer, so I spent a lot of time in powerpoint trying to figure out stuff and typing what I needed done into the search bar. It actually turned out to be not to hard of a thing to do, but I have to say that I am still proud of the video I made and I wouldn’t change my project.

My Future Classroom

alannapollock — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 19:09:08 +0000

When I first decided I wanted to be a teacher way back when I was little I will admit that I figured I would be teaching the exact same why my teachers were teaching me. I figured I would be teaching on a chalkboard with a bunch of handouts and desks all in a row. After starting university however, I am able to see that our world is changing rather fast and by the time I am actually teaching in my own classroom things will be completely different than they are right now. I know that my future classroom will hopefully consist of multiple computers that will be available to the students. I know that I want to have apage for the students to blog on in my classroom, but the thing is that I don’t want to make blogging an extensively large part of my classroom, because I feel for the students that don’t actually have a computer at home, and can’t spend massive amounts of time working on their blog page or commenting on other peoples stuff. I know that in my classroom the desks will not be in straight rows, but in small groups or angle rows so that everyone can look at each other and engage in a conversation whenever it is necessary. My classroom will also consist of many pictures and posters for the visual learners, movement activities for the students that prefer to be hands on etc. I know that I will be reaching out to all the different types of students no matter what.

After watching a video on gaming in Education I now also am able to see how important games can be in a child’s education. Games and videos are able to teach children in different ways instead of the normal stand at the front of the room and teach a lesson. I know that games and videos on the Internet will not be able to help every student, but I know that they can help certain ones, and the students that prefer not to use these methods there will be alternative methods brought into the class.

After doing my EPS 100 fieldwork and spending some time watching the teacher teach math, the subject I want to teach, I am now able to know types of things I want to incorporate into my classroom. The teacher used things like number lines, integer chips, and fraction circles. i think these types of additions allow the students to see things a lot more clearly and they will be able to possibly achieve more.

Another thing I want to have in my classroom is a smart-board, or I at least want access to one. I haven’t spent that much time on one, but the little time I have learned about them I have been able to see just how useful they are. There are games, and they enable students to get involved in a way they aren’t really used to. I know that not every teacher is able to have a smart-board, but I hope that I will be one of the lucky ones, and I look forward to learning how to use it alongside my future students.

This is a start to what I want my future classroom to have, but as you can see there isn’t much there. This is because right now I’m not to sure what I want it to include. I always have known that I wanted to become a teacher someday, but I never put much thought into what i want my classroom to look like. I know that by the time I will teach I will have a lot of ideas in my head, but I know it will take a lot of time and work in order to implement them all into the classroom. It’s just one of the joy’s of being a teacher I guess. I’m going to cherish every minute I spend developing my classroom.

Podcast

alannapollock — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 22:28:53 +0000

Gabcast! ECMP 355 #1

Mentorship classes

alannapollock — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 23:37:33 +0000

So a long time ago we were supposed to make a post about the classes we were going to mentor and forgot to do it and I know it’s late into the semester now but I figure it would be good to still do it.

The class I spend most of my time blogging on is Eldon Germann’s ELA 10B class. This class has been spending their time focusing on the abnormal things in life and they have been doing researching projects as well as writing narrative stories on the topic that they chose. The students stories are very interesting and they have wrote about things like ghosts, vampires, and even haunted houses. It is really neat to read their stories and talk with them about them.

The second class i spent some time on was Mrs. McLeod and Mrs. Ross’s 2nd grade students. This class hasn’t really posted a lot of new content on that often, but it was really neat to read the stories of the students past experiences. It was really neat to read them because it allowed me to think back on when I was little and all of the things that made me happy.

All in all, i have been having a pretty good time mentoring my classes, and I enjoy getting feed back from them and I enjoy giving them my input on the questions they have.

The joys of being from a Ukrainian Background

alannapollock — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 22:55:15 +0000

We all know that Ukraine is famous for many food dishes, and one of the bigger ones being perogies or in Ukrainian pyroghy. I come from a family that I would say is fairly Ukrainian. I mean being in Canada now they don’t follow all of the customs, but we do follow a few traditions. Now to get on with my story. My grandma makes tons of perogies and cabbage rolls for our family Christmas supper so this past weekend me and my mom went out to my grandparents farm to help make the perogies. When I first walked into my grandma’s house and saw the big bowl of potatoes and the massive ball of dough I thought we were going to be there forever. We did though finish in about 6 hours, which was still pretty long. This was the first year I actually helped out with the perogies and I have to say it turned out to be a ton of fun. I wasn’t very good at it at the start, but I eventually was doing pretty well. I don’t know for sure if learning how to make perogies was a good idea because that means I’m going to have to help out every year lol, but I guess one day a year making perogies won’t be that bad and it is one of the joys of being from a Ukrainian family.

Podcast Reviews!!

alannapollock — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 02:24:37 +0000

I know that it has taken me a hile to get thing task done, but at least i got to it. The first podcast I chose to watch was one called Cell Phone Use Endangers Boneheads. This podcast was only 60 seconds as it was under a category called 60 second science. The description of this podcast from the website is that driving while on the phone is risky, but emergency room cases reveal lesser-known dangers of moving while talking. This particular podcast was done by Steve Mirsky and throughout it he talks about how most people think that driving and talking on the phone is risky, but talking on your phone when your on an escalator or when your riding a bike or simply even just walking and talking injuries still occur. It was neat to see how come of the injuries occur, I never would have thought they were even possible.

The next podcast I watched was one on the TV show One Tree Hill. One Tree Hill is one of my favorite shows and I thought it would be interesting to see what other peoples thoughts were on the episode that was on Monday. It was neat to see that other people had the same opinions on the show as I did. It was an episode set back in time that kind of portrayed the story of all the characters lives. The crazy thing was that in this episode a lot of people died and it was all really unexpected and weird, but it was still an amazing episode.

If only….

alannapollock — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 02:28:43 +0000

If only I could have stayed. In March of 2008 I went on a tour of Italy with my school. It took a lot of time and many fundraisers, including cleaning up the garbage at the Craven Jamboree, in order to go on this trip but it was well worth it. Italy was a place full of many interesting places and people. Venice was amazing. It was my favorite place we went to and I have to say going on a gondola ride was probably one of the biggest highlights. Throughout our week adventure we visited Venice, Florence, Siena, Rome and also many other places along the way. In Rome we got to see many things like the Colosseum, the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon and many of the other huge attractions. To this day I still cannot believe that I was able to witness all of these sites and I don’t know how many people have seen the movie Jumper, but it came out after I went to Italy and during it the guy goes to Rome and goes to many of the places I went. It was crazy to be able to say I’ve been there. I hope that someday I will be able to return to Italy and do some touring of my own.

Bullying Etc

alannapollock — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 02:09:56 +0000

The topic of bullying was brought up today and I can’t believe everything people have gone through. I personally was never really bullied as a kid, I mean I was teased a little as a kid, but once i hit the older grades and high school I was never really bullied. I did however witness a lot of bullying, and I wished I could have stopped it in some way or another, but it seems like it is to big of an issue to help solve. Another thing i want to make mention of is the fact that there are other things that make people hurt even if you aren’t bullied. I mean everyone knows those few girls in their class that were the more pretty ones, and I know that everyone will say you are all pretty in the same way. Although I now believe this is true, back when I was little I always wanted to be one of those girls that were popular and I never really was, my two best friends were and I kind of tagged along, but you can only do that for so long. I think the key is developing who you are as an individual and not looking at all of the people around you. I know that with bullying that is not easily done, if it can be done at all. I personally feel really bad for everyone that has been bullied and I know apologizing won’t make things better, but I really am sorry that everyone that has been bullied has had to go through that and I hope it one day gets better.