Reflections

=Welcome I/S Math Curriculum Studies Reflection Page! =

===**Day 1 - Introduction & Classroom Management ** ===

Bell Work

Is an activity for the students to work on and complete before the class begins. Bell work is appealing because it gives the student something productive to work on to help them get prepared for class. Bell Work that is directed at a review of the last days materials seems appealing for me, because it helps the students recall material that they have already been taught. Bell Work could also be related to real life problems to give students an understanding of how math is applied in everyday life.

Classroom Management

A strategy used to get the attention of the class would just to be stand in front of the class and tell them it is time to listen. This strategy will work if you have great classroom management over the students. If you start this routine from the first day of school, the students will know what you expect from them. Some other strategies that may be useful are:
 * Count Down 5 4 3 2 1
 * Flick the Lights
 * Have a noise maker, which the students know its time to stop and listen when it goes off
 * Clap once if you can hear me
 * Raise your hand, and the students know to stop talking when they see your hand u

===**Day 2 - Motivation ** ===

Classroom Rules

When I was in my placement on the first day of class the students were involved in making the classroom agreements. This is a good strategy to use because as my teacher said the students are now in grade 7 and 8 and are considered to be young adults. Since they are young adults they know what acceptable and unacceptable classroom agreements would be. She first got the class into groups of 4, and each group had to come up with five different classroom agreements. Then two groups came together and out of the 10 agreements picked 5 to write on the board. After all the agreements were written on the board the class came together to combine or eliminate agreements until there was only 5. The class seemed to enjoy this activity and when they did not follow one of the agreements the AT reminded the students that they are the ones who made the agreements. The only downfall of this activity was that it took almost all day to complete.

Rewards and Punishment

Rewards and Punishment is another way to try and motivate your class into having a good classroom management. I don't think that rewards and punishment should be used for classroom management. But that is not saying that you can never use rewards in your classroom, but I would not give them out for good behaviour or for doing well on an assignment. Rewards such as treats can be given out on a special occasion just because you want to do something special for the class. Punishment would depend on what the student did and how often it occurs. For example when I was in placement the junior students have a play ground they can use during recess. Anyone over grade 2 is not allowed on or around the playground. A grade 5 student was over at the playground during recess and pushed a little boy off the slide. This grade 5 student knew the rules since they were gone over the day before in a school wide assembly so I feel it was in the principles best interest to punish that child. But punishment would depends on each situation and each child.

===**Day 3 - How to Sell a Math Topic to Students ** ===

Selling Math Topics to Students

I believe if you are creative enough you can always find something to relate math too. For example with order of operations, you can remind the students the rules we have in place for reading. We read left to right and top of the page to the bottom, if we did not follow these rules what we read would not make sense. The same is with math, if we don't follow the set rules the answer we get would not make any sense.

=== Day 4 - Teaching Strategies ===

What strategies work for you? Why?

 Four different strategies were covered in class today. They are Visual Organizers, such as a Venn diagram, Fermi problems, Story, and Drama. I find that Drama is a good strategy because it gave the students a chance to take a concept and try and show how it fits into real-life situations. I also like reading a math story, since I was the type of student who loved being read too. I also find when I am given a story to go along with a topic it is easier for me to recall what the topic was about.

=== Day 5 - Teaching Strategies ===

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Would you use manipulatives? Why or why not? Which ones do you like?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 12pt;"> Of course I would use manipulatives, they can be a great addition to a lesson for those students who learn from hands on. The manipulative which I enjoyed using the most was pattern blocks. They can be used for tiling, patterning, fractions and percentage.

===<span style="color: #ff0084; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 1.1em; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px;"> Day 6 - Technology ===

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">How do you think technology should be used when you teach?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I believe technology should be used often, as it is a tool to help engage students in the lesson. A SMARTboard is a fantastic tool to be able to use in a classroom. Unfortunately I do not have a SMARTboard in my first placement classroom, but hopefully I will have one in my upcoming placements. A SMARTboard is the combination of an interactive whiteboard, a computer and a projector.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> The clickers are useful as an assessment tool. You can ask students multiple choice questions to assess their understanding of the material. You can see right away if the students are grasping the concept or if more time is needed for review.