Week 5 Reflection

Week 5 Blog: 

          Hey there, have you ever heard about the 3 types of people in the world, those who are good at math, and those who aren’t? Just as bad as this opening joke was, it is just as terrible to believe in the idea that math is not for you. Something that really resonated with me in my math class was how important it is to have a growth mindset. Believing in yourself and making others believe that math is for them will destigmatize the mindsets around math. We are all mathematic geniuses; we just choose to not embrace it. What people often forget is how frequently we use math on a day to day basis; from calculating how much time you have to go get a coffee, to finding the correct size lid for your Tupperware. Some tips for an individual who is on the path of having a growth mindset would be; to embrace challenges, put forward your best effort, overcome obstacles, embrace outcomes even failures, learn from mistakes, and welcome critical feedback. For anyone that has a tough time with math should challenge their mindset first and then work on enhancing their skills.

         At my placement, as I walked around and observed to help students with math, I was shocked by how many students said that they loved math. I went home and reflected on this. At what age do some of us start to dislike math? Is it the age or is it the experiences that we have in life? As I observed the way my Associate Teacher taught math, I took notes. She was very energetic and engaging; she offered an equal amount of support to every student and paired every student up so they could work together. I believe that the environment she created allowed students to have a growth mindset and view math positively.

        This week we focused on Chapters 12 and 13, fractions and decimals. There were games posted under the week 4 resource folder and I decided to try out the Math Interactives fraction game. I found it a little confusing in the beginning but once I played a few rounds, it was quite fun. The goal of the game was to create a perfect blended smoothie by following a specific recipe, each item on the list was a fraction. Players had to choose the largest appropriate fraction measuring unit with regards to the recipe, which involved changing improper fractions into mixed fractions. This game was a good way to engage students and have them practice changing improper fractions to mixed fractions.  

Ruth Obe. Growth Mindset or Fixed Mindset. Medium. October 3, 3019. https://medium.com/@ruth_obe/growth-mindset-a3b13566a78d

The link to the game:

http://www.learnalberta.ca/content/mejhm/index.html?l=0&ID1=AB.MATH.JR.NUMB&ID2=AB.MATH.JR.NUMB.FRA&lesson=html/object_interactives/fractions/use_it.html