Math Thinking

In math class today, I learned that I am much better seeing patterns in numbers than I am seeing patterns in pictures.  It felt natural for me to write the numbers in a chart and figure out the general equation for the nth number.  However, it took a while for me to figure out how to manipulate the tiles to show the associated geometry picture for the garden equation.  It took me even longer to figure out how to show the picture for the snake equation.

I am trying to figure out how to be more flexible in my own math thinking so that I can understand and help all my students.  Heather had a great (and very fast way) to do the garden problem and it took me several times before I was on the same page and understanding her thinking.  I need to figure out several ways how to solve problems so that I become more flexible and get out of long held patterns.  Next time, I should start with the picture and not the numbers!

 Last quarter, Prof. Allison Hintz gave us some tools –including worksheets to help us plan how we might want to use students’ math thinking to show different problem solving strategies to our class.  Sometimes a particular sequence can help guide our students to move to a more efficient strategy.   As a new teacher, I would benefit from using the planning sheets or trying to solve problems in a number of ways to help me preview what I might expect to hear/see in class. It is powerful to share students’ math thinking, but I think it needs to be facilitated well by a flexible thinker. 

Digital Immigrant

I love the phrase that I am a "digital immigrant" in contrast to my children who are "digital natives".   It is so apt for describing how I feel regarding many of the technologies teachers need to be comfortable using.  I want to (and therefore I will) get more comfortable with technology and so I am very happy to be taking a tech class that is highly integrated with my didactic classes this quarter.  Although I put my initial comments on a Word document (so yesterday), I am now trying to migrate my thoughts and ideas to a digital medium.

The "Why Blog" reading was a simple, yet effective message about the power of blogging.  It is a free and easy way to become a reflective, connected and better teacher.  OK, so instead of just blogging to fulfill an assignment (did I do that last spring?), I will use blogging to capture my thoughts and ideas on a regular basis.  I will also be kind to myself as I try to break the habit of jotting things down in a notebook (where's that notebook?) since the great ideas and must reads always seem to get buried with all the other minutiae in my life.

The video about Web 2.0 is a lot more daunting for me to watch.  I am still trying to get comfortable with Web 0.5, so I feel like I might never be able to catch up. From this quarter's classes, I realize that the Web is all about collaboration and sharing information in an effortless fashion.  I am going to try to keep a couple of things in mind.  The first one is that there are many tools that will allow me to become faster and more efficient and so they are worth the time investment to learn.  The second one is that using all sorts of technology is critical in education today.  I know that having the requisite skills is essential to securing a job in the field.  Just one of the challenges (I mean opportunities) that I face this quarter.

Emergent Literacy

It took me a while to find the box in the garage with old books that my children have long since abandoned. Years before I decided to change careers to teaching, I gave away many of our childrens books, but kept a dozen or so that held special meaning. I was happy to find the three Robert McCloskey books Make Way for Ducklings, Blueberries for Sal and One Morning in Maine with pictures and text that transport me back to my New England roots. I was a bit surprised when my daughter saw the books asked with concern if I was giving the books away. They have a special place in her heart as well!

As a parent of two teenagers, I read the article on Emergent Literacy with interest. Although much of the information was familiar to me from parent practice, not teacher practice, the literacy strategies are much the same. The article’s recommendations to surround children with books, read aloud to children early and often, model reading to kids, are all recommendations that we followed in our home to promote early literacy. The reality that we have one child who is well above his grade level for reading and one child who is reading below her grade level, tells me that following these early literacy strategies and activities are not the only factors in reading success.

The Albright article on reading picture books to adolescents provides an interesting idea for supporting middle schoolers in content area instruction. This high interest reading strategy was successful in engaging middle school students with alternate materials to the standard text. The students’ ability to create their own connections and meaning during the read-alouds was exciting. The model emphasizes the need to follow the three steps of planning, preparing and producing when considering a picture book read-aloud for this age group. Now that my own struggling middle school student is required to read to learn, this might be an effective strategy to help her in social studies and science.