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Campus : Toowoomba Web  Smile

 

 

  • Student ID: 0050009966
  • Display name: Leesa

EDX 1280 FOUNDATIONS OF NUMERACY

 

 

 

Introduction

Hi this is just a short introduction of myself, I am a stay at home mum or as I like to refer to myself as "Domestic Engineer".  I have a 12, 3 and 2 year old at home and they keep me on my toes (the photo on the right will show why).  My eportfolio is very easy to navigate around just click on tabs to go to which ever page you require.  I love maths and am really looking forward to this course.  Below you will see my journal (reflections) as I take this journey through the EDX1280 course I will be making weekly recordings which will reflect my trip.  I hope you enjoy reading about my maths adventure !!

 

 

REFLECTIONS !!!

This journal contains my weekly reflections of the EDX 1280 Foundations of Numeracy Course.

Week 1 Smile                                                 15th July 2012

 Week one is about to start tomorrow, thought I would just share a photo of my three year old with you (Georgia on right).  While I was busy setting up my eportfolio Georgia decided to take full advantage of not having my full attention and decided to try a little creativity of her own by colouring in her face.  Ha ha great start to the course !!  So I have discovered that maths is a language of pattern, order and relationships.  The first thing we have been introduced to is addition and this includes the four lanuages concering maths, childrens language, materials language, maths language and symbolic language.  

 Things have certainly changed since I was at school and I can see that I am going to have to parcitse different addition strategies as well as start to think of numbers as items and not as symbols when using concepts.  We are being taught very effective strategies for addition including counting on, using doubles and the using 10's.  An important thing I have learned this week is "Build the understanding before you try and teach."  

 

Week 2 Cool                                                26th July 2012

Well we are now into the swing of things and I can feel that this semester is going to fly by.  This week we have been concentrating on subtraction. There were some great concepts talked about in the lecture regarding methods these included the 100 day and the amount of bottle tops required to fill a wheelie bin.   There is heaps I have learnt this week, starting with allowing students to discover mathamatics themselves, through techniques and strategies, getting them to work like mathematicians,  It is important to teach from concrete to abstract.  Always remember students need to see something seven to eight times before they remember it.  Once they have grasped it don't keep teaching it as they will become bored, go back and revise occasionaly but move on and keep them interested.  Start with what they already know, demonstrate it using things they understand and build up their abstract understanding slowly (THIS IS HOW PEOPLE LEARN SO TEACH LIKE IT !!!).  Find out what students know by asking questions talking to them and observing them.  

Three strategies used in subtractiion are 

  1. I had 4 cakes I ate 2 how many is left? (Count back)
  2. I want to buy a cd worth $10 I only have $2 how much more will I need to save? (Missing add-ends subtraction)
  3. I have 10 apples, John has 5 how many less apples does John have? (Comparison subtraction)
These need to be introduced from a very early age, what is the differnece, how many less, how many more do I need.  Difference, less and more all need to be taught as a language.  
 

 

Week 3 Kiss                                                                    01st Aug 2012 

 

 We are now into week three and have looked at multiplication.  So far I have found that the way I was taught at school is obsolete and thank goodnesss for that.  The strategies used to teach now are not only a lot easier to understand they also make sense so it will be a case of the student understanding how and why they are obtaining an answer rather than the lesson taught being repetitious and making very little sense at all.  I love the double strategy and think it will be an easy one for students to comprehend.  The array model cards will be a way of enforcing this concept to students while giving them visual stimlus to grasp the concept.  Romina said in a lecture" assume nothing teach everything", this will be one of the things I have on my wall when I have my own class.  I think we need to have little reminders around to ensure we do not forget the little things.  So far I have taken notes of the lectures and have created a word doc with all information.  The only regret I have right now is that I have three courses on the go.  I really wish I only had this one, it is a course that I am enjoying immensely and feel it is one that I will be refelcting on for many years to come.

Week 4 Tongue out                                                                                                          08th Aug 2012                                             

 Week four has seen us investigate divison.  It is crazy to think you know all there is about something and then realise you actually know very little about it.  This week i learnt about partition and quotation, two types of division, and here I was thinking there was only one type !!  Partition being the easier one out of the two for students to comprehend.  Once again Romina has provided us with some great resources that can easily be created and will benefit our students so much.  The partition mats and quotation mats and function machine are some examples of these resources.  An important thing to remember when teaching divison is Never say goes into.  Always use language such as divided by, subtracted from etc, all going out nothing going in !!!  I always knew that 0 x 3 = 0, 6 x 0 = 0 and so on but until Romina showed us with materials I probably would of said the reason was just becuase.  It is like just because you know it you don't actually think about how or why you know it.  This was the same for the long division that Romina demonstrated.  I have always been able to do long divison but the way we were shown in the lecture just made so much sense and gave a path that would make the whole concept teachable.  Absolutley loving this course.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

Week 5Cool                                                                                              16th August 2012                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

We are now getting into the nitty gritty of mathematics, we have covered addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.  This lecture felt like it was more of an english lesson rather than a mathematics lesson.  It was interesting to think about teaching maths using senses, such as touch, taste etc.  Sorting by, comparing to, ordering,  patterns all using attributes can make it feel like it is not maths related when infact is very much maths related.  I love the way one thing leads to another with maths, like patterns help a child organise, remember and identify relationships.  I am now using Georgia as my guinea pig to talk about patterns and see if she actually understands the five counting principles.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

Week 6Surprised                                                                                    23rd Aug 2012                                       

Week six and I had my an epiphany, I know Romina said it would happen but I have been waiting patiently.  I have always had issues with base systems and exponents.  If the number was squared I could handle that but if the exponent was any other number than two, I just crumbled and went to pieces.  When Romina explained how things like every base to the zero power is one I was like you are kidding is it really that easy.  Why didn't my maths teacher teach it like this it just makes so much more sense.  I am not saying I have a total grip on it all but what I can say is that I am not scared of it anymore and plan on practising to ensure I get the hang of it.  Looking at different bases was awesome as well this lecture has given me a real sense of accomplishment and it is all because I now have a better understanding and as they say knowledge is empowering !!  I plan on having a sign on my classroom wall SEE, PLAN, DO CHECK.

Week 7 Undecided                                                                30th August 2012

 

 This week it is fractions, I found it interesting that fractions are the reverse of all other maths operations; reversing. That was something I had never really thought about before.   Romina has so many different ways to introduce concepts in all of the operations and with fractions it was no different.  The way she used simple peices of paper to introduce the concept of fractions was excellent and I could see how it would really enforce the fractions concept.  I guess when one thinks of fractions it is just the basic common proper fraction that comes to mind although there are so many other aspects to fractions.  I found out that I can download all of Romina's lectures I will definatley be doing that !!!! 

 

Week 8 Innocent                                                                                6th September 2012

  So we are now in week 8 and I am off to do my first prac!!!  Decimal fractions is up this week and I have learned some great things this week.  As I said earlier I struggle with numbers that are raised to a power and I am happy to say that I have learned through this course that a number raised to a negative power is a decimal numbe, nowr it all makes sense.  It is amazing to think that if one does the little things right it can mean all the difference in what and how a student comprehends the concepts, skills and strategies e.g. instead of point three if a teacher says three tenths can make all the differnece in how the student pictures the number in their mind.  An important thing I have learned this week is Never move the decimal point,instead move the numbers into the next house otherwise If you teach just to add a zero when multipying by ten, when the student learns decimals they will just add a zero and make no actual change to the number e.g. 1.53 x 10 = 1.530 ( no change).  So I am thinking a better way to teach multiplying by ten would be "when we multiply by ten we move the front number over one house and place a zero into the empty ones house."

 

 Week 9 Laughing                                                                                13th September 2012

 

 Week nine, on the home stretch !!  First week of prac down, with one lesson under my belt (art), next week I get to teach maths for the entire week as well as one more art lesson !!  This week it is Algebra and while I understand algebra it can be duanting.  Romina refers to it as the 'Mother of all Strategies' and it is no wonder.  Just looking at an algerbra equation can do your head in, but as Romina said it is just like putting on your socks and shoes, just do it all in reverse.  It is amazing how everything is inter-related with maths I love the way that by learning one thing sets you up to learn the next thing e.g. how you can learn all about patterns and think that is it but infact by learning all about patterns you are learning the foundation for you to learn all about algebra, love it !!!

 

 Week 10 Tongue out                                                                                20th September 2012

 Just wanted to share my prac experience, I was given the opportunity to teach math to the class, 2/3/4 for a week !!  For the first week I watched my mentor and took as many notes as I could. the main thing I noticed was that everything was very routine (which I could see why with three grades in one) but also there was no fun in the math lessons.  So I tried a few different things to add a bit of variety to their math lessons such as a tally run over the week of the math lesson where if they as a team (the entire class), got themselves organised quickly and quietly e.g. getting out their math books they recieved a point if they were to slow to get organised I got a point etc.  This coincided with what they were learning through C2C (graphs and data), I constructed a graph out of the tally that was updated daily.  I also put up a written problem on the board before the lesson started and told the students if they finished any of their tasks early they could work on the problem.  I had students who tried to slip under the raidar come up to the board to write an answer on the board or just ask a student to answer a question when they did not have thier hand up.  If they didn't know the answer or were unsure of the answer I gave them prompts and they came up with the correct answer and were so pleased with themsleves.  There are so many more things I could write about but the main thing I want to say is that I would never have achieved what I did without this course and for that I will be forever grateful it was such an enriching experience.

 

 Week 11 Foot in mouth                                                                                27th September 2012

 

 Almost done, week eleven, Problem solving.  One of my down falls, although in saying that I have learned from previous experience to write everything down and step through a problem.  This week Romina has said soemthing that I have not heard before but is just one more thing that I will be taking with me on my journey and that is 'teach students to think".  It would be so easy to be a teacher and think you are there to teach students to learn but by teaching them to think we will be encouraging them to be risk takers and confident problem solvers.   

 

 Week 12 Smile                                                                                4th October 2012

 Well I am about to submit my 2nd assignment for this subject.  I am a little sad because this is by far one of my favourite subjects.  I have learnt so much, I have had the opportunity to put what I have learnt into practise and my only regret is that I have not had more time to truely enjoy this awesome course.  I have now down loaded all of the lectures which I am elated about as I know that I will return to them on many occasions to help me be a maths teacher whose students will be budding young mathematicians.  I can not wait to use the knowledge that I have gained over this semester, so thank you to all of the 1280 team !!!