Adriana's Math Blog

Welcome back to my final math blog for year 2!  I can't believe that we have come to an end in our math journey together.  Time certainly does fly! For my final blog, we will be focusing on assessment.   What is the right way to assess our students?  Well, this week's class gave us many examples of what not to do.   I guess we can thank Mr. D for that! Retrieved from http://slideplayer.com One tip that stuck with me was about focusing on the comments and not the grade.   The first thing that students look at when you give them a test back is the letter or number grade at the top of the page.  Everyone does this, me included.  The problem is , that is all the students will care about.  Comments are so much more important because the student will be able to identify their strengths and their next steps.  That is what the purpose of assessment is! To improve student learning.  Comments can help to improve student learning while grades won't have the same effect. A

Hello again and welcome back to my math blog! This week in math class we dove into blended teaching.  But what exactly is blended teaching?  this is how it is described in the short video, "blended learning units for JI math"; Blended learning engages students in math.  As 21st century teachers, it is imperative to implement technology in the classroom.  Students use mobile apps on a daily basis and it makes sense for them to use it academically as well.  As is stated in the monograph, 'Making Math Children will Love', from this weeks readings, "if kids are not having fun, they’re not going to commit themselves. They’re not going to practice or learn. Fun generates achievement and focus.”  In order for students to be more engaged, interested and attentive in math, technology is key in promoting this.  I had the opportunity to use a few mobile apps during my last practicum.  I mainly used apps for review and as formative assessment.  The students were focuse

This week's math lesson was about developing rich tasks.   Our learning goal was to be able to identify the criteria for a rich task and to explore a variety of these tasks at different grade levels.    I learned that rich mathematical tasks are essential for engaging learners and creating dynamic classrooms.  Unfortunately, too few textbooks contain such tasks, so teachers must find or develop them on their own.  Inevitably, the question arises, "How do we know a good rich task from a bad one?"  The following are five (there are more, but I chose a few of the most valuable characteristics that I will implement as a teacher), important characteristics that will help answer this question; Retrieved from class slide show [Personal Image] 1) Accessibility to all Learners :  The students we teach are all unique and learn in different ways.  They come with a wide range of mathematical knowledge, mathematics background and mathematical experience.  If a task is truly r