Exit slip (Sep 17.)--- Multi Dimensional Math Teaching

In today's first group discussion on being a reflective teacher, we firstly talked about conformity and reflective teaching. We concluded that there is a balance between conformity and reflective teaching. Teachers need to meet their teaching goals and tasks, however, if there is only conformity, some teachers might gradually lose their passion of teaching. On the other hand, through reflection teacher could improve their teaching practice on many aspects such as teaching styles. Reflecting constantly while still getting along with the institutions of schooling was agreed by our group.  

Secondly, we all agreed that reflecting can save time.  For example, if some teaching method is not working well, through reflection, teachers could try to improve it to ensure a smoother teaching practice, rather than spending more time on old method which does not work or inefficiently . 

Then, on the topic of planning, one of the ideas was that it is important to have a basic plan to ensure the systematize of teaching. Improvisation and adjustment is also necessary and vital. 

As for the last point, I think to be a critical thinker and learner we firstly need to be a good listener. To carefully listen what they are talking about and what they want to express. 

Our second discussion was about Jo Boaler's  lecture. I totally agree with her that every children could excel in mathematics. Some parents  say that their child is not smart enough to be good on Math, I know it is not true. We should never assume why a student is not that good on Math. As for multi-dimensional teaching style, I shared my relevant experience. When the first time I sat in a Math classroom of a high school in Surrey, I was surprised by that teacher's teaching style. It was totally different from the traditional chalk-and-talk teaching style which I experienced when I was a pupil. During her Math class, students do not need to take a lot of notes, and most of time they do not take any notes. The format of teaching is diverse and interactive. Thus students have more time to concentrate on understanding, learning and digesting the knowledge and skills been taught. Students discuss mathematical problems with group remembers, and they are encouraged to think and raise questions independently. Sometimes they play math games, such as Kahoot which is a popular game in that school. From my observation, multi-dimensional teaching works and have huge potential.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OgKnrPNZiI

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July 30, 2021 Reflection 

Today, I watched Jo Boaler's another 1-hour video. In the video, Jo Boaler introduced multi-dimensional mathematics. The key idea is as below: 

I think one challenge is to ask good questions. We expect that a good question can evoke students' curiosity and also is connected to the method that will be learned. As we know, in the majority of cases, there are normally more than one ways to solve a problem. So, letting students try the problem by themselves before copying the teacher's method would expand their scope, foster critical thinking and collaboration. 

How to teach math in a more engaging way? From the video given by our professor, I found this.

We need to try to open up the Math. Let students see a concept from different angles, solve a problem by different methods, present an idea using different representations. 

Another important point mentioned by Jo is making speed a part of math would cause math anxiety. When she said a lot of mathematicians are actually slow math thinkers, I couldn't agree more. We have to change that mindset which believes only fast thinkers can be good at math.

We also need to let students know that making mistakes is a good thing for their brain growth. 

One last takeaway is providing students diagnostic critical feedback and telling them you believe in them.

Here is another short video about how to praise. The resource is given by our professor.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_uAh4IN-As