VERA TESCHOW.CA
  • Home
  • About
    • Overview
    • Education & Diplomas
    • Consulting & PR
    • Teaching Experience
    • Workshop Facilitation
    • Volunteer Experience
    • Extra-Curricular Leadership
    • Writing
  • Learn
  • BLOG
  • Contact

Math Magic for teachers

7/21/2014

0 Comments

 
The last few weeks have been a whirlwind of couch-surfing, and catching up with various friends and projects in Toronto before heading off to PEI for the summer.  I haven't been real good at keeping up with the blogging during this time, but now, as I sit in Pearson's terminal 3, awaiting my flight to CYYG, let me take a few moments on the mercifully free but painfully slow wifi to write a bit about the 3-day math workshop for teachers which I attended last week.

Tempting as it was to skip the session and instead spend the day at Canada's Wonderland, which was literally a stone's throw from the High School where the workshops were being held, I was a good little teacher, and went to learn about setting up an effective math program in the intermediate grades. 
Picture
Do you see them? Do you SEE the roller coasters in the background???!!! :D
Melissa and Shahana from Durham Board offered up lots of laughs and also several practical, engaging strategies for organizing, assessing and teaching math to Grades 7 & 8 students.  Before this session, I had been more than a little worried about how I was going to manage in this latest challenge:  I'm heading into an intermediate school this September to teach Grade 7&8 Math and Science!

Those who know me will be peeling themselves off the floor after a fit of guffaws at this point in order to keep reading and find out how such a miracle could possibly occur;  You see, as a rule, I don't do Science.  (No, really, it's a deal breaker:  In the past, I simply wouldn't accept any jobs where Science was a major component, and in those rare instances where I was responsible for teaching my own Science, I would farm this "great curriculum unit planning and teaching opportunity" out to my student teachers.)  Furthermore, as the long road to my finally-completed pilot license shows, Math is also not my forte.  And, although I did teacher Grade 7 my first two years of teaching, and even have some VP experience in a school with intermediate students, it's been a long time since I've worked with this strange beast that is the intermediate learner, and when I did, it was always in a K-8 integrated model, where I had my own class, and developed a strong relationship with the students, teaching them most if not all subjects.

So how did I end up teaching rotary Math and Science for Grade 7 and 8?  Well, I knew I wanted to go back to my intermediate "roots" (having started my career in intermediate, I've been keen to go back and try it again now nearly 20 years later...), and when an opportunity came up that was relatively close to home, I decided to go for it, realizing it was time to meet this final challenge vis-a-vis the math and science.
Picture
Picture
We began our three days with a frank conversation about math phobia (both teachers' and students'), and the impact of this reality on many students' mathematical abilities and confidence by the time they reach the intermediate years.  Making "math monsters" (or "creatures" -- a little less insinuating of math phobia) was suggested as a first day of school activity, so that students could share their personal feelings about math in a creative way -- stop cringing, all you non-arts people; alternate activities were suggested, too! ;-P

I loved this "easing in" to the program, and was grateful for the patience and encouragement of the teachers around me, many of whom were in fact quite comfortable teaching math, and who spent some time throughout the three days teaching me a little bit about integers and other horrible mathy things!!

A number of NCTM resources were shared (I so have to get my hands on some of those to read over the summer!!!), and we spent considerable time actually DOING some math as well as talking about it.  We also spent some time exploring D2L, which I will definitely be using next year!
Two things I will definitely take away from this session are the Problem Solving Folders (a 3-panel folder students make, which includes the 4-step PS process, some criteria for effective thinking, problem solving and communication, and a space for feedback and self assessment), and the Bubble Experiment, where students research "superbubble" recipes, then make said bubble recipe, and see what is the largest object they can ensconce within a bubble. 
With the right guiding questions, it's a great blend of Science and Math (measurement strand).  Add in the story about the bubble artist who wanted to en-bubble and elephant, and you have some excellent fodder for Language Arts as well!

I'm super excited to try out some of these ideas with my students this year...

After five hours a day of "Math Magic", I spent my evening's at a friend's and mentor's house.
My former supt (now retired) lives in Maple, and was kind enough to let me stay with her.  I got to meet her totally sweet, ancient mother (who rides one of those cool little elevator chairs up and down the stairs), and meet some really neat families she was interviewing for a life-changing project she is involved in the Jane and Finch area.  AND, we did a little shopping at the teacher store in Richmond Hill; on the way home, we saw an amazingly brilliant rainbow!
Picture
I'm glad I went to the Math workshop: Canada's Wonderland has cool rollercoasters and other rides, but the best ride of all will be when I return to the classroom in September, and Melissa and Shahana equipped me with the confidence and more than a few practical tools to prepare for said ride!

0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    About Vera...

    Vera & her Sons, April 2021
    After writing for several teacher and multiple birth publications, including ETFO's Voice Magazine, Multiple Moments, and the Bulletwin, Vera turned her written attention to prolific blogging for some years, including BiB,  "Learn to Fly with Vera!"  and SMARTbansho .  In 2014, Homeschooling 4 was her travel blog in Argentina.  She now spends more time on her Instagram (@schalgzeug_usw)  than her blog (pictures are worth a thousand words?!) and moderates several Facebook groups in Canada and Mexico.

    LIKE WHAT YOU'RE READING?? Consider sending a gift to support our Little Free Library and other projects: bit.ly/VeraList
    DISCLAIMER
    The views expressed on this blog are the views of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the perspectives of her family members or the position of her employer on the the issues she blogs about.  These posts are intended to share resources, document family life, and encourage critical thought on a variety of subjects.  They are not intended to cause harm to any individual or member of any group. By reading this blog and viewing this site, you agree to not hold Vera liable for any harm done by views expressed in this blog.
    Picture

    Categories

    All
    Argentina 2013
    COVID 19
    COVID-19
    Cycling
    Family
    Flying
    Geocaching
    Honduras 2011
    Lakeshore
    Lgbtq
    Math Eyes
    Music
    Other Stuff
    Prince Edward Island
    Teaching And Learning
    Teaching-and-learning
    Travel

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    June 2025
    November 2024
    June 2024
    December 2023
    August 2023
    August 2022
    March 2022
    January 2021
    September 2020
    August 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    April 2019
    February 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010

Vera C. Teschow, OCT, M.Ed., MOT
Toronto, ON & St Peter's Harbour, PE
www.verateschow.ca 2023
Photos from Sean MacEntee, Studio Paars, Bengt Nyman, zeevveez, GoodNCrazy, CJS*64, Accretion Disc, CharlesLam, Courtney Dirks, CJS*64 "Man with a camera", Accretion Disc, Bobolink, Ian Muttoo, BioDivLibrary, Alaskan Dude, IsabelleAcatauassu, runran, Transformer18, jglsongs, Create For Animal Rights, david_shankbone, Paul J Coles, foilman, Newport Geographic, Photo Everywhere, kevin dooley, Claudio , Alex Guibord, Tscherno, f_mafra, Terry Madeley, musee de l'horlogerie, BobMacInnes, wwarby, jonathangarcia, amboo who?, chimothy27, Elin B, cliff1066™, Grzegorz Łobiński, Rennett Stowe, Farhill, Phil Manker, Guitarfool5931, airguy1988, dierk schaefer, Rob Stemple, katerha, StockMonkeys.com, Ramotionblog, andrewk3715, charlywkarl, AJC1, rachel_titiriga, chaz jackson, haven't the slightest, paweesit