Weekly Report & Reflection Week #4!

Reflection 4

"Fractions, fractions, fractions!" Did we not hear that phrase when we were in elementary school? That was because we used to dread the topic. I am pretty convinced that is how students still feel about fractions if they have just starting the topic.

Not everyone feels comfortable with fractions, it can be a very complicated one because we are not working with whole numbers anymore. This is where I want to come in as a teacher candidate. I want my students to feel confident with their number sense skills whether it be a whole number or not. 

Phillip Martin. Phillip Martin Clip Art. Retrieved from
http://math.phillipmartin.info/home_fractions_01.htm

Today in class we focused on two topics: Fractions and Decimals. My three other classmates and I presented our activity learning task, a 10 minutes presentation plus 5 minutes for discussion. One person focused on decimals. He gave us out a really useful tool called the hundredths wheel. I think this is a tool I would definitely use with my students. 

Hundreths Wheel. Retrieved from
http://www.eworkshop.on.ca/edu/pdf/Mod27_representing_hundredths.pdf

Second really interesting method of calculating fractions is called the Macarena Method. I learned that from another presentation and it came to me as a complete surprise as I never heard of it before. I am convinced this method will help a lot of students, I do wish I knew that method myself when I was studying! If you want to check out the method see the video below:

I realized today in class that what math students really need is a tool and a platform. They need resources from which they can learn. The traditional way of teaching is no more and it does not teach anything. Students need to explore and discover. They need to make mistakes, fix and learn. This is math. The more variety of tools they have in their toolbox the more options they can have at problem solving. Just like how if a carpenter has more tools in his/her box he/she can do a lot more work than just one thing. 

Kids are capable to learn if they have, very much like the TEDx we saw in the TECH class. The speaker talks about how if you provide children with one computer and an access to internet they can teach themselves. I think that talk is worth to share it here too, please click HERE.

I think with that talk it would be a great place to end my post for the day. Stay tuned for next week's post.