Reviewing Resources

Although I have previously looked through various math curriculum guides along with some resources (specifically math makes sense) this past Tuesday was my first opportunity to compare and closely examine some of the mathematics resources from K-6 and it gave me a lot to consider. 

First of all, I loved the big books for kindergarten and grade one. They are cute and captivating and a great way to introduce math at an early stage. I was a little sad to see that there weren't any big books for grade two or three. 

The math resources that we looked at seemed to reflect the idea that students mature grade by grade. There is an evident jump in language found in books; this is especially evident when going from grade one to grade two. Then, in grade three, students start using text books and by grade five all the fun seems to be gone. There does also seem to be a reoccurring theme of pizza and candy when talking about math... So much for that new healthy lifestyle ideal that schools are supposed to be adopting.

Speaking about the text books... Although these can be a good tool when used properly and not too often, I found that the majority of the questions were close-ended. This type of question is good when ideas need to be practised and reinforced but I don't see it as a useful way to introduce new concepts. Students need to get thinking and relate ideas to real concrete situations, especially ones that can be found in the real-world. 

Also, from experience, I found that a few of the questions to be sort of "trick" questions. For example, today during my observation day, one question asked students to represent a number two different ways but both ways had to use decimals. Turns out they wanted one number to one decimal place (like 1.0) and the second number to two decimal places (as in 1.00). Even I had to ask the teacher about that one. 

Furthermore, I find that some concepts are laid out to be way more complicated than they need to. Like the idea of teaching four strategies to solve a problem and reinforcing the use of each strategy all the time when only one is needed and the others may make things harder for the child. That's may not be the best example, but I still stand by my point. 

I think the main point to take from all of this is to understand and know that there are plenty of resources out there for us future teachers to use but that we are not limited to just these resources. It is important that we use the curriculum simply as a guide and introduce other resources and materials as needed to suit our individual students' interests and learning needs.

The essence of mathematics is not to make simple things complicated,

but to make complicated things simple. 

- S. Gudder

Building Blocks of Math Education

Coined as a "new movement to revolutionize math teaching and learning," YouCubed is a new resource for teachers and parents alike who want to learn more about the best strategies to use when working with and teaching mathematics. Because this site is only now starting to get off the ground and won't be fully operational until a few months from now, it is hard to comment on the usefulness of the site. Nonetheless, here are some of my first impressions...

First of all, I think a site with the goal of "revolutioni[zing] math" has a lot of potential. I like the clean layout that is easy to follow. With that being said, I am not a huge fan of the fact that it is one continuous page. And, when you click on a link it opens in the same page so you have to constantly be clicking back and saving the documents you like elsewhere. That can be a pain in the butt, but thats only a minor functional detail of the site. 

When I did open up the available resources, I was interested and intrigued by what they had to say. One point that particularly stood out was in the document about Unlocking Children's Math Potential. It mentioned the importance of making mistakes. This was a point that I also noted in Sir Ken Robinson's TED Talk that I discussed a few posts ago. The thing that I liked about YouCubed's article is that it had evidence and research to support the claim that mistakes are important. 

I also noticed that a lot, if not all, of the articles were written by Jo Boaler, the driving force behind the site. I am hoping (and thinking) that as this site gets off the ground, there will be more contributors to make for a more diverse and reliable resource.

I liked that they had some ideas for math games for students but I would have liked it more if they were interactive, perhaps even designed for SmartBoards. Then again, there are already some sites like IXL that provide a great variety of interactive math games for students. (Plus IXL even directly relates to the different provincial curriculums, which is a huge bonus!)

Overall, I enjoyed this web-based resource. I like how they have an "In the News" section that keeps readers 'in-the-know' and refers to up-to-date information. I think YouCubed has excellent potential and an appealing design that will help make a mark on the mathematics education community. I look forward to checking back in a few months when the site is fully operational and ready to go. 

Somehow it's O.K. for people to chuckle about not being good at math, 

yet, if I said "I never learned to read," they'd say i was an illiterate dolt.

- Neil deGrasse Tyson