Exit slip (Oct. 15)

Here are my thoughts on some interesting topics discussed in today's class:

1.   What kind of society we want and how it related to our schooling

           I think that we all want a society as Osborne says in his book "Education and Schooling" that " a society where everyone could pursue their own interests without trespassing on the rights of others" and citizens have "a range of knowledges, a capacity for thought and reflection, an ability to listen and debate, a respect for reason and justice, a reasoned (though not unconditional) respect for the beliefs and values of others, a disposition to participate in public life, and the skills needed to apply these principles to specific cases and to live with the ambiguities and contradictions that may arise."( p.32) Teacher should be a role model for our students. So the first thing to do is to think about what kind of person we want to be and how to be that kind of person. 

2.    Don't trust calculator, use mental Math.

I agree with this point. I think the classmate who gave this statement means that people should not completely rely on machines, and we should use the power of our brain more. Nowadays, our lives are full of all kinds of machines. It is hard to image how our lives will become if without cars or mobile phones. Back to classroom, if students rely so much on calculators for basic mathematics calculations they will gradually lose the ability to do arithmetic operations, and probably number sense and estimation skills. Some calculators have strong functions which can do many fundamental operations. For example, students can simply enter an equation in the calculator for the answer instead of memorizing multiplication table. But what can they do if they don't carry a calculator with them in the real life? So I think we need to encourage students using mental Math and using pen and paper for calculation as much as possible. 

3.    Can tests accurately reflect student ability

          I think tests can not, but assessments can, because test is just one of the methods of assessments.  Using multiple methods on assessment is always a good choice to avoid unfairness. Teachers should not rely on single method to reflect their student's achievement. Tests could only reflect a part of student's learning outcomes. Projects, assignments, in-class activities can all be used to assess student's learning progress.             

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Sep 13, 2021

Paper and string are very handy materials that can be used in math class to teach various math subjects.  

This book introduces many origami activities. For example, activity 6 is folding a parabola. This can be used in a pre-calculus 11 class when teaching quadratic functions.

A classmate, Ivan, introduced an Indonesian traditional making craft -- Batik. This reminds me of making keychains with plastic lace when I was in elementary school. I learned it from my classmates. 

When we were making these little things, we needed to design their patterns in terms of shape, color, and size. It somehow developed our math skills and creativity.