FInal blog post

Suggestions to improve this class

Less blog posts. 

With 8 classes already, the sheer number of blog posts we've written for 342A, 442 and 450B outweighs everything we've done in all of our other classes combined. I think focusing on quality rather than quantity would be a better use of time. 

Also blogger is very outdated, and UBC has canvas, which is excellent for showing what posts are missing and keeps things organized. I find going through blogger is somewhat cluttered and difficult to find what I need. Also we wouldn't have to send each other 60 + invites at the beginning of the year, and accept 60+ invites because Canvas already has us organized into our classrooms. Using blogger ruins a big part of the experience in my opinion. 

What I took away:
I think I've learned a lot from our inquiry project the most! I was always interested in having group work being a focus in my classroom so I was excited to be given the chance to do some research on it. 

Exit Slip: October 14

Jo Boaler & Allie Kohn videos

I loved both of these videos and I even rewatched them again because I agree whole heartedly with the messages they're trying to spread. Obviously there's constraints that can't allow all of their views from taking shape as of yet, like not having mark in the context of higher grade levels. But I think they both do an amazing job of just highlighting the glaring issues of having marks and giving the wrong kind of "praise"

Inquiry project 1

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1pRgHxsNuip1Rq7KcqyUfAR4mpL4-cLYd_-yt6XW278I/edit#slide=id.g1072f8d0b07_3_315

Entrance slip: October 21

1) What are your "student bird" and "teacher bird" thoughts about assigning percentages or letter grades in the assessment of student work? What do the grades indicate? How are they arrived at? Whose purposes do they serve?

I believe assigning percentages and grades make students perform more for their marks, rather than the learning. But because of that, I don't think they're a good indication of what they've learned but rather how effective of a test taker they are. How they're arrived varies considerably from teacher to teacher as I've seen in my assessment classes. Depending on your perspective of what's important a teacher can assign a zero or a perfect mark depending on what they perceive to be important. The purpose of grades, are partially for a student to understand and assess where they're at in their learning, but they may even be more for universities so they can see where a student is at before accepting them if they've passed certain criteria. 

2) What are some of the unintended side effects of grading? How do grades and marks in themselves format the social relations and learning situations in a classroom, a school, a district?

students perform more for their marks, rather than the learning. It can also devastate a students self esteem as it ranks them instead of motivates them. Test anxiety is another common issue associated with mark. Grades can also promote unhealthy competition and make them less willing to help each other learn, especially in university situations where marks are based on a scale. This creates a cutthroat environment, and these behaviours can carry on into adulthood.

3) Could you imagine teaching math and/or science without giving grades? How could a teacher encourage learning without having an emphasis on grading?

Yes I can because I've seen it happen in classrooms already where students receive narrative feedback. I've seen this have a great effect on students and I plan on using narrative feedback as much as I can instead of grades. 

Entrance slip: October 14

Dancing teachers into being with a garden

how these ideas interact with your own hopes and concerns about taking up the profession of teaching

"It begins with noticing that teachers are in the squared-off boxes of classrooms for most

(or all) of their teacher education experiences."

I find myself butting heads with a lot of ideas in this article,  on of how I would run my classroom. I don't really find my self wanting to teach in a garden or dance. It talks about being in a classroom being a problem but I just don't see it that way. If anything taking my students outside presents more of a problem from my viewpoint. I plan on incorporating technology, which most of the time requires wifi, or the projector, my students will need a place to write on, and I can't expect them to bring out their table in and out, the weather will be unpredictable. I could go on and on. 

what images and metaphors you take away from the reading

" teachers and learners sit inside rectilinear rooms, at tables, chairs and desks, and talk about things

that are not present, within the straight-line, right-angled grid structures that are

always present. Tiled floors and ceilings, windows, boards, ranks of chairs and desks,

bookshelves, boxes, the corners of the room itself, all are rectilinear."

It talks a lot about how these things essentially "box" us in, and create almost a prison, but I don't see it that way. Schools can be a place for creative freedoms if the classroom and teacher allows it. It's not the place that's important, it's the people and the mindset. You can't 'think outside the box' if you're never in the box. 

things you agree and disagree with, wonder about and/or can extend to other ideas about teaching in a fast-changing and uncertain world.

Read above.

Exit slips: October 7

sit spots and drawing the geometry of leaves

 It was cool drawing geometry leaves. It almost felt therapeutic, and I was so engrossed in drawing the lines of the leaves geometrically, you could even say I was in a 'flow'. 

Exit slip: September 23

Reflection on rope-making, braiding, net-making, poetry,

After reading sharons article, and doing the activity I can safely say that rope braiding isn't for me. But it was still a good way to get my mind off everything else, if only for a few minutes. 

I enjoy poetry more and I like being able to express myself through poetry when I'm inspired. Working with my hands doesn't really have the same effect for me, but I can't say that for everyone, as I know a lot of others in our class had a good time with their rope braiding. 

Exit slip: September 16

Reflection on sketching human-made and growing things, etc.

Things in nature are free to become whatever they want in whatever shape they want, where as human made things are rigid, with sharp lines, everything having a purpose. 

Hexaflexagon Response

 The videos were cute and interesting, and I think there's something to be said about bringing humour and excitement like hers to a classroom. The class was more or less fully engaged, and maybe that has something to do with most everyone having a mathematical background, or tired of doing routine school work. But I believe part of it can be attributed to the excitement the youtuber brought to the video itself. It's often been mentioned in class that showing interest in your own work can be infectious for your students as well, and I believe we saw that firsthand.

Annotated Bibliography

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_VpmjNtKnYeBl7H-HsIRl_OW-hBFulHXEma6cM82vuY/edit

"Short films challenging culture and gender stereotypes" and "Women, gender(s), the Nobel Prize and physics" Response

Are there some who might be systematically excluded because they cannot imagine 'someone like them' in these roles? How can we minimize these kinds of barriers in our roles as teachers?

What can we do, as secondary school teachers of math and physics, to welcome women and other underrepresented groups of people into these disciplines?

I think as in many of the videos, and articles the common thread is that those who are not white-men have a difficult time seeing themselves as someone who can be a 'math person'. This is because throughout history, white men are presented as the centre of all great mathematical discoveries. We know that this isn't true yet we celebrate the accomplishments of white men more than any other race or gender in the mathematical field. That's why all of these articles and videos highlight these mathematicians specifically and their achievements, to give younger folk another idea of what a 'mathematician' is or can be. And I think this is a great solution or at leas the beginning steps to correct the public idea of what a mathematician is or looks like. Math doesn't belong to one race or gender - it's universal; as we've seen throughout history, math has been and always will be an accumulation of knowledge that people of all backgrounds has contributed to. So why not highlight a more diverse group of people to demonstrate that?