Casey at the Math Forum

This week I think I finally figured out what task I’m the best at: Packets. I completed about 8 or 9 Primary PoW Teacher Packets over the past 5 days and I now have a system of how I create them. First, I use the template to add in the title, the problem, and the answer to the question. Then I use my iPad to draw a picture that goes along with the problem and take a screenshot of the picture, which goes directly onto my computer through Photo Stream. It’s super convenient and easy! Then I add the graphics and any other text I need to explain the problem. I think the best part about making these packets is that I have to put myself in the place of a 1st or 2nd grader in order to see how they would approach the problem. This is helping me as a future teacher because when I am in the classroom, I am going to have to think like my students and try to see situations from their different viewpoints in order to help them better understand the learning material. I can not expect my students to know everything and have math come easy to them like it does for me. Each student has a different learning style and a different capacity to take in information. My job is to make sure I give them the tools to grasp this information in a fun, safe environment. Each week, I think I am beginning to see how difficult it can be to create lesson plans and be creative in the methods we use to teach. Being a teacher is going to be really hard and I won’t always succeed in everything I do, but I am definitely up for the challenge!

This week everyone was out of the office for a conference in Denver. Gina, A.J., and I worked on numerous teacher packets, so I think I finally have a feel for how they are made and how much work goes into each one. However, this week I feel like I was able to experiment with technology and social media in the office. After reading one of Suzanne’s blogs, I came across an awesome app called AirSketch Free that allows me to draw on my iPad and what I drew will show up on my computer in my Internet browser window! This would be great technology for students to use in the classroom because the teacher could pass around the iPad and have the students write their work or answers to math problems in the app. Then their work could be shown to everyone in the class through a projector or smart board. Any excuse to let kids use technology in the classroom will definitely make them more active and engaged in the lesson. Another thing I got to experiment with this week was social media. We created an Ask Dr. Math Facebook page and I was added as an admin so that I can help manage the page and post on behalf of the Math Forum and Dr. Math. I also created a math forum twitter account so that I could tweet my “noticings” and “wonderings” about different problems for the conference in Denver. I love how open the Math Forum staff is to technology and social media in the classroom because many teachers are against it and stick to traditional ways of teaching and lecturing. Technology is the future of education and we should begin to expose children to the different resources available to them to expand their knowledge.

This week was very busy! I accomplished numerous tasks, such as working with Dr. Math, creating video scenarios for the different PoWs, completing this week’s Problems of the Week in Math Fundamentals, Algebra, and Trig & Calc, posted my “noticings” and “wonderings” on the PoW Blog, and navigated through the Math Tools website to look for broken links. However, the most exciting task I took on this week was creating the Primary PoW Teacher Packets! I worked on my first packet called Goldfish Galore and was able to add the problem to the word document with its picture, fill in the “Answer Check” portion of the packet with the answer to the question and suggestions of why or why not a student may have gotten the problem wrong or right, and come up with up to five methods of how to solve the problem. Some of the methods included writing out a number sentence, drawing a picture, using manipulatives, acting it out, and using I notice, I wonder. I was able to draw pictures for some of the methods on my iPad as well and add them to the packets which was really fun! I really enjoy making the packets and I think it is great practice for me as a future teacher because it is very similar to creating lesson plans. I think it also helps me to be more open to using more than one method to teach students math and stray away from the traditional method of just lecturing. I always thought math was the one of the most difficult subjects to teach because of the way I was taught at a young age. I always had the material and formulas lectured to me and then I was given worksheets to work on. I was lucky enough to be one of those students who really understood the material, but many of my classmates just couldn’t get it. However, creating these teacher packets has shown me how relating math to real world situations and subjects that the students can relate too, like sports and food, can really help the students to grasp the information better. I think math is one of those things you either get or don’t get, but if teachers open their eyes to new methods of teaching and use technology and manipulatives in the classroom, they may be able to get through to more of their students.

I began my first week of work at the Math Forum this past week! Besides missing the last two days of work because I was sick, I learned a lot about the Math Forum and what it has to offer teachers and students. I find that the most important aspect of this educational website is the Problems of the Week, or PoWs. Each week, various problems are put out in six different types of math: Primary, Math Fundamentals, Pre-Algebra, Algebra, Geometry, and Trig & Calc. Anyone who is a member of the Math Forum can answer these questions, revise their answers, and receive feedback on their work. I think this is a great activity for students, as I am always learning about how to integrate technology into the classroom in my education classes and this does exactly that. I think this is also a great way for students to get a little extra math work in and maybe recall certain math concepts they’ve learned in the past. I even enjoy doing the problems and sometimes find them challenging! The most important part of these PoWs is helping students gain the ability to communicate how they got their answers and what steps they took to solve the problems. As a future teacher, this is a great skill that I even need to acquire to help translate learning material to my students, so I find that doing these problems myself is very helpful in developing my communication skills. What I also like about the PoWs is that there are video scenarios that students can create and send in to the Math Forum to make math a little more fun and interactive. Not many videos are sent in, but I find that if teachers encourages their students to do this, the students would be a lot more engaged in problems and get a better sense of what the problems are asking. The other Co-ops and I were given the opportunity to make one of these scenarios for a problem and found it to be fun to get out of the office and take math into the real world. After all, math applies to everything in life and really can be fun!