Reflection 4
A friend of
mine today inspired me to start my blog for this week. I was on a call with her
and she mentioned how she hates math. I then took the opportunity to ask her
for reasons. Simply, she mentioned to me that math should be creative and
interesting. She said you have to make
it interesting to get her going on math. That triggered a thought inside of me,
and I started to think that really why most people dislike math is just that
they don’t find it interesting.
Now of
course when you are a teacher you don’t feel right when someone says that they
don’t find a particular subject interesting. It adds some guilt to the plate.
However, it also then makes me feel more motivated and responsible toward
future generations. Previous mistakes should not be repeated again. If in the
traditional classrooms math was not interesting, it should be now. If it is
still not creative enough, then really there is no change; we want that change
happening though.
I certainly
don’t want to be that teacher who makes students miserable in a math classroom.
Who am I to take away from them the numerous career opportunities that can come
with math? Why would I want to create an obstacle for students in learning
lifelong skills that could be used in various fields? When my students grow to become adults, I
want them to say I enjoyed math. For that to happen, there has to be space for
creativity.
![]() |
New Puzzles Daily. National Geographic. (2016). Retrieved online from http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/games-puzzles |
I remember
once teaching a grade 8-math class where I set up a separate station for jigsaw
puzzle games. Every month there would be a new scene and a new set of puzzle
pieces. The idea was to observe all the
different strategies that students can use when completing the puzzle game.
Students got to work together and discuss ideas. They shared ideas and made
mistakes. They also went back, learned, and corrected their mistakes to come to
a final solution. These are all skills that you use/need when working on math
problems!
When my students got exposed to
that station for the first time, they were all very surprised. They all asked
me questions/comments such as:
-What is this?
-Why are we playing?
-Do we really get to play? But then what about math?
-Are you serious?
-“Look! We have a game in the classroom, ssshhh we want to
play later listen to the teacher.”
Comments such as the ones above really opened my eyes.
Students were stripped away from fun and enjoyment in math classes. They had a
thirst for something different. Their minds got sparked only because of a
jigsaw puzzle game station. I was actually able to see excitement in the
students’ eyes. That’s the energy that I want to see in every student’s
attitude.
Okay here
are my final comments:
-
Jigsaw puzzle game is just a small idea that got
students excited
-
There can be numerous other ideas to instill creativity
in students
-
Math can be useful and fun at the same time
-
Know your students and try new things
-
Explain
to them why they are doing math
-
Explain to the students about strategies,
skills, and how they can connect it to the real world
PS: I suggest this website if you want some fun jigsaw puzzle games that you could play with your students on your device. http://www.nationalgeographic.com/games/photo-puzzle-jigsaw/#home
You could make it a cross-curricular with science by playing some of these games.
PS: I suggest this website if you want some fun jigsaw puzzle games that you could play with your students on your device. http://www.nationalgeographic.com/games/photo-puzzle-jigsaw/#home
You could make it a cross-curricular with science by playing some of these games.
Hi Samia,
ReplyDeleteWhat an eye-opening conversation you had with your friend. I loved your idea of giving students jigsaw puzzles for their mathematical process expectations. What a great idea! Where did that come from? What was your logic behind it?
Samia,
ReplyDeleteGames, puzzles, and brainteasers can be a great addition to an effective math program.
Students often don't see the math in these types of activities because of their misplaced understanding of what mathematics is; from experience and stories, they believe math is a set of rules, numbers, and signs.
Playing games is great but I want to emphasize that they need to know the math that is in these games - a discussion about this in a community circle format would help to consolidate the skills and concepts they learned playing the games.
Have you heard of the ThinkFun games? If not, have a look - there are some fantastic games that students can play that can assist them in learning about concepts such as spatial reasoning, logical reasoning and skills like perseverance.
Shelly :)