21st Century Learning

I think it is important as new teachers we do our best to keep up with 21^st century learning to improve student learning, critical thinking skills and allowing for deeper understanding of course material.

Here is a great website explaining 21^st century learning and ways we can incorporate and facilitate these strategies to our students. http://www.edugains.ca/newsite/21stCenturyLearning/about_learning_in_ontario.html

This is just a brief summary,

·      Engaging students as partners in their own learning

·      Harnessing the capacity of technology to engage learners and to optimize and amplify student learning and achievement

·      Emphasizing and teaching important higher-order skills such as critical thinking, communication, collaboration, creativity and entrepreneurship

·      Supporting educators in preparing our students for a rapidly changing, technology-driven, globalized world.

In this TED talk, Sir Ken Robinson states “creativity is as important in education as literacy and we should treat this with the same status.” Do you agree with this statement and are teachers committed to 21^st century learning and maximizing students creativity?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY

DAN MEYER TED TALKS: MATH CLASS NEEDS A MAKEOVER

In this talk, Dan Meyer explains what's wrong with math education and why it should focus less on teaching kids to solve problems and more on how to formulate them of their own to better prepare students for problem-solving and for life.

He explains the five symptoms that you are doing math reasoning wrong. They are: 1. lack of initiative, 2. lack of perseverance, 3. lack of retention, 4. aversion to word problems, 5. eagerness for formula.

Then he suggests five techniques to engage the students. They are:  1. use multimedia in the classroom, 2. encourages student intuition, 3. ask the shortest question you can, 4. let students build the problem, and 5. be less helpful. 

His instructional technique gets students involved in conversations about mathematics and promotes patient problem solving.

In my opinion I believe that all teachers should encourage patient problem solving in math classroom and guide students to solve problems in ways that makes sense to them.

DAN MEYER TED TALKS: MATH CLASS NEEDS A MAKEOVER

Math homework

I would like to discuss the use of homework in classes.  I teach business and geography at the secondary level.  Both are elective courses and students usually want to take the course, other than Grade 9 geography which is a compulsory course.  I don't assign homework, and I provide enough time for assignments and projects to be completed during class time.  However, if they decide to not use their time  wisely, it becomes homework.
During lessons, on numerous occasion I have "caught" students working on math homework because they have so much of it and were not able to finish it the night before due to many extra-curricular activities they are involved in.  I am not talking about your lazy and non-academic student.  These are students are involved in everything - school, sports, jobs, volunteer, social committees and more.  But the students are always doing math homework.  So what is the acceptable amount of homework to provide students at the Gr. 9-10 level.  A few years ago, the standard was 10 minutes per grade, therefore a Gr. 9 students would have 90 minutes of homework a night (including all subjects), on top of any other activities they were involved in.  I realize its important to continue practicing a skill or concept, but how many questions must be completed from a math textbook to determine if the student understands the big idea? And why is math and science always the courses that seem to hold the most importance to the secondary level student.  I know that they have never been 'caught' doing their business or geography homework in another course.  Math is definitely at the top of the academic tower of student achievement.  Is it because they are required to complete 4 course to graduate.  How do we get students that concerned about other subjects?  This is when the idea of the flipped classroom seems to fit well with a math course because students don't spend hours completing questions at night (or in other courses) which they may be doing completely wrong, but they watch a video and then are able to use 75 minutes of class time to practice the concept correctly. 

Practice EQAO Test

Some of our friends in the north have done some excellent work creating practice EQAO tests within the provincial Learning Management System (LMS).  These quizzes are all based on previous years EQAO tests and are loaded with links to multimedia learning objects on the Ontario Educational Resource Bank (OERB).  Best of all, the quizzes are self-marking (I can hear all the oohhs and aahhs), they provide immediate feedback to students and yes, they are available for free!  Get in contact with your board eLearning Contact (eLC) to use these excellent resources.  They are available for Grade 3, 6 and 9!

A big shout out to those teachers, and eLCs from Near North District School Board who put these together!

Here is a screen capture of one of the quizzes.

Canada's ranking has slipped...

I have been somewhat fascinated by the level of coverage the national media outlets have provided on the topic of "how to teach math".  In the past year there have been numerous articles on whether the current Ontario method of 'exploratory' math is failing our students.  A number of provinces as of late have returned to the more traditional approach.

So, we is the media so concerned about how teachers are teaching math?  Well, it comes down to scores.  We are talking about our (Ontario and other provinces) slipping scores in international rankings on math scores among our students.  See, back in 2000 Canada was ranked 6th among participating nations on math scores.  Much emphasis is placed on math, as it is a subject that is need to sustain innovation.  In some nations, a mathematically gifted child is guarded and prized, as he or she will have a successful and prosperous life (maybe as an Engineer or Physician).  Lets go back to 2000.  This is also the year that most Canadian provinces changed their math curriculum to the 'exploratory' approach.  So where are we going with this?  Well since 2000, our scores on international rankings have been slipping... all the way down to 13th for 2013.  You ask, is this a coincidence or is something happening here?  Many scholars would say something is indeed happening.  Many scholars would say, we need to return to a more fundamental approach to teaching math.

Well, I am not sure it is that easy.  I don't think returning to a more fundamental approach will bring us back up to 6th place by 2023.  I believe we need a balance between the fundamentals and the exploratory approach.  The scholars need to consider 13 years did pass between 2000 and 2013, and there may have been many other factors at play.

To further your reading, here's a pretty good article: Math Wars - Globe and Mail. January 10, 2014

Coursera

For those of you who may not be familiar with MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses), let me introduce you to Coursera. From their own website:

"Coursera is an education platform that partners with top universities and organization worldwide, to offer courses online for anyone to take, for free. We envision a future where everyone has access to a world-class education. We aim to empower people with education that will improve their lives, the lives of their families, and the communities they live in."

I've completed a number of courses through the website and they were all fairly well done. Signing up and selecting courses to take is quick and painless. Many of the courses offered are beyond the level or scope of intermediate math but it's great for any of us who may want to brush up in an area or learn something new - get back on the student end of things. You can enter a search term (ie. "math") in the search bar and all the courses offered that are tagged as such will come up.

It's a great cost-free way to freshen up your mind. 

makemyworksheet.com

This is a nice little website that generates worksheets with the questions you input. It works well and the worksheets are nicely organized. 

However, the is one caveat!

Questions that are more 'involved' than what one can type with a regular keyboard must be inputted in LaTeX format. LaTeX is a document preparation system / document markup language. It's often used in academia in maths, physics, and computer science as well as for displaying math and formulas on webpages such as Wikipedia. LaTeX does have a bit of a learning curve, so unless you're already familiar with it (or have a bit of free time on your hands to learn it), it may not be worthwhile for you. 

For those of you that have experience with LaTeX or just want to use it for simpler questions, it's great.