May Q 450 Blog

 I particularly liked that you introduced the indigenous perspective into the class. The way they look at nature and respect them. I think all those indigenous aspects could be used in our own classroom as well. We also talked about the intuition in math/science. Sometimes we don't think they are related, but they could actually be related. This is a quite interesting aspect I found useful. We don't have to separate math from art/intuition, or other things. Also, we talked about how to assign grades so we would think more critically about how we assigned grades and how this might affect the student learning. WE also talked about the scientific spirit. The fact that though the majority doesn't accept/believe it is true, we don't have  to say that it's just a fluke. All of these ideas are quite relevant to our own teaching practice and quite useful in broadening our mind and thinking critically about teaching practices.  Suggestion...I think the course is quite good. ...

  https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1SeEUc4EGyaD5YlhQP5o3P7lOYeQu2TtF3ho6u4y3PXY/edit#slide=id.p  This is our slide.

 We continued to work on the project and the professor suggested some more considerations for the " celebrating mistake " part. We figured out that we could adjust that a little bit and start actually making the presentation and writing the script for it. 

  Bibliography: 1. Shaileigh, P. (2015) Modelling Teachers’ Promotion of Powerful Positive Affect in the Primary Mathematics Classroom. Transforming the future of learning with educational research ,(51-78),Information Science Reference This chapter describes and analyses teachers’ promotion of powerful positive affect in primary mathematics classrooms. The author uses a conceptual model to summarize the factors influencing teachers’ work in this area. We want to  2.  Quist, M.E. (2015) Exploring positive learning experiences in the community college mathematics classroom in a midwestern state: a qualitative study ,ProQuest LLC This book focuses on the motivational and other positive learning elements present within optimum moments of college mathematics learning. Data were collected through small group and individual interviews. The findings demonstrated that moments of exceptional learning motivation and experience in college-level mathematics courses may be associated ...

 We listed some topics that we want to talk about: 1. SEL Learning : Students’ emotional responses to others How students could manage their own emotions / identify other’s emotions and deal with them correctly (mutual relationships between students)  2. Tools and strategies for an effective classroom . 3. Factors that affect students’  level of attention and efficiency in learning . 4. May: For engagement : variety of exercises, variety of routine, not the same thing every time, let student lead the learning  5. Cheryl: more choices and trust 6. Cheryl: reasons for not answering the questions & consequences 7.  May: interview from SA celebrating mistakes create a safe environmen t , promoting all the curricular competencies and social values  8. Equity unique attention, there is no favorite student, (Cheryl) 9. External factors (family situations ,socioeconomic status, etc and whether or how we should deal with them  (discussion)  10. Chery...

In our breakout room we discussed the idea that thinking critically and scientifically is actually a priviledge. One of the group members talked about how in ancient times it's usually the nobles doing scientific research and engaging in critical thinking due to their privileged lifestyles. Nowadays of course, many people enjoy the privilege of being educated and not worrying too much about food /shelter, so people start to have more leisure time to think about things scientifically/critically. It is for sure an important skill to teach the students because we live in a democratic world, in which everyone would have the chance to vote. Hence, these skills should be developed at an early stage so that the kids could grow into a mature adult with independent thoughts on current events. We should teach them how to ask "why" in mathematics, as well as in other areas.

One thing that made me stop was that people are literally saying "It didn't happen" or "It was a fluke" when new observations occur, out of one's expections. It is common for human beings to avoid new knowledge because they want to fall back to their own comfort zones. It feels good to stay where you are and not bring in new surprises to the "old comfort world". However, this is not the scientific spirit. We should also teach our students to explore the world beyond their previous expectations and norms and tell them that it's okay to do so. It's okay to challenge ourselves and to challenge the "experts" as long as the idea is well-justified. Another thing that made me stop was that ""If not now, when?" IF the undergraduate years are devoted to getting the grades to get into graduate school, and .....and the first several years of this assistant professorship are devoted to getting tenure, then are you going to do...