Love to teach/love your students

Entry#10: (11/30/2019)

Synopsis:
It's the last post in this amazing journey and I want to wrap it up by dedicating this space on focusing not on what to teach, but on the individual that is doing the teaching. In the end, we might post amazing ideas, methods, teaching styles and so on, but if the teacher her/himself does not embody someone who emphasizes love for their material, dedication towards their students, patience towards student success and in-depth cultural understanding, then a day in this type of classroom, under the guidance of a monotonous, uninspiring individual is as excruciating as sitting outside the desert waiting under the hot sun. Let's dedicate this entry to the amazing teachers that give it all for their students.

HERE IS TO THE HUMOR, THE PATIENCE AND THE OVERALL JOY THESE TEACHERS DECIDED TO PORTRAY ON A DAY TO DAY BASIS TO THEIR STUDENTS AND COMMUNITY AROUND THEM, REGARDLESS OF OBSTACLES, CHALLENGES OR HARDSHIPS. THESE ARE THE THPE OF TEACHERS WE ALL SHOULD STRIVE TO EMBODY.

 

TO ALL HARD-WORKING, DEDICATED, PATIENT TEACHERS: YOU ARE OUR INSPIRATION!

The Oregon Trail (Video Game Turned Fun Math Activity)

Entry #9: (11/16/2019)

Synopsis:

Last week I started working at a new educational facility-a private school up in Bronx's Riverdale area. On that particular day of the week, I was substituting at a 3rd-grade classroom alongside the head co-teacher. As the math period started, the teacher opened the math book on the page titled "The Oregon Trail". He went ahead to explain to the kids that once upon a time, during the mid-1980s, there was this video game called The Oregon Trail, that simulated the migration of people from the East coast to the West coast along the wilderness of The Oregon Trail. As a player, you became familiar with the harsh conditions and unexpected situations that would often rise while embarking on this challenging route as you traveled in horse and carriage. The school's math book took the game's theme and turned it into mathematical exercises dealing with unit measurements (miles) incorporated in a real-world setting. One of the questions went as such (reworded): "The wagon started off at *the name of the town* and traveled 135 miles west. They stopped at *name of second town* for 1 hour then continued 158 more miles. When they stopped at this forest *name of forest*, how many miles have they traveled so far since *name of initial town*?" Since this school uses their own particular textbook (charter schools and public schools both use the same teaching material), I'm assuming this chapter reflected the below commno core standard:

CCLS - Math: 3.MD.8

Category

Measurement And Data

Sub-Category

Geometric Measurement: Recognize Perimeter As An Attribute Of Plane Figures And Distinguish Between Linear And Area Measures.

State Standard:

Solve real world and mathematical problems involving perimeters of polygons, including finding the perimeter given the side lengths, finding an unknown side length, and exhibiting rectangles with the same perimeter and different areas or with the same area and different perimeters.

 

The game itself looks quite interesting and kind of ahead of its time, if you ask me, with the visuals and theory applied to it in a realistic manner (for the 1980s). You design a game that entertains players as well as helps them understand how people embarked into unexplored territories full of danger and unexpected circumstances for a chance to attain a better life. Nowadays, the only video games that simulate reality are war games and crime-ridden ones, which I feel are too deeply incorporated into our kid's psyche. At least this one was flexible enough to be applied in the math classroom.

 

 

 

I don't know if this image is an actual image that would pop up while playing the game, or maybe someone in the internet wanted to turn the game humorous, but if it's indeed something that would pop up in the game, then this would be a bit too realistic for people playing it. Wow, what an announcement!

This is how the map was shown in the student's math book-the Oregon Trail Map on an actual US map with different points labeling different stops taken by the carriage, in miles, where you either had to find the total travel time or the difference from one town to the next. 

Making 2nd graders comfortable with Number Lines

Entry #8: (11/07/2019)

Synopsis:

Thinking back on days when I attended elementary school, I would often find myself struggling to comprehend one particular math topic-the number line system. As the teacher would demonstrate on board that 10 plus 5 equals 15 by demonstrating jumping arrows starting from 0 landing on 5 then adding 10 from 5 until it reaches 15,  I simply couldn't grasp it due to constantly seeking a number line in real life to compare it to. Where did  the number line come from? When you close your eyes, do numbers rest on a line? How long is the line? Where is the line located in the world? Why are there negative numbers to the left of 0? Where do those numbers go?  Is there a place where these numbers stop? These were some of the questions I often asked myself when dealing with this principle. How would you approach this theory to your students when you first introduce them to the number line topic?

This topic is most relevant in 3rd grade as students start to get familiar with fractions and the definition behind integers.

 1. What is the number line? 

According to Mathisfun.com, a number line is used to get a better understanding of ordering numbers from lowes to greatest and/or greatest to lowest at an easier rate. 

2. Kids become familiar with the relationship of 0 to other numbers. 

When teaching numbers, especially placing them on a number line, ZERO and the relationship it has with other numbers and to the numerical system as a whole, is essential to its foundations. We are often fond of expressing nonexistent things or matters that have no value by using ZERO as the descriptive word. Not only is zero a number that sets the start to the number line to the right and to the left, but it's a starting point where everything numerical depends on the distance and relationship with it.  Without zero, the number line is incomplete and worthless.

 

3. Use the number like to add/subtract and more.  

 

4. Everything is remembered/recalled better when turned into a song: 

5. Best way to introduce NEGATIVE integers in a number line:

Mastering Geometry in 2nd Grade

Entry #7: (10/30/2019)

Synopsis:
In 2nd grade, students are exposed to the discipline of geometry and how to utilize numbers, equality, and shapes into one coherent theory. Geometry has been my all-time favorite mathematical discipline since it's all about visuals. I love visuals in math! What I have observed in young students when dealing with the notion of demonstrating"equal parts" on paper, is that they struggle drawing shapes in equal portions. I have seen teachers demand students to show equality in shape by drawing it to perfection but their eye-hand coordination/motor skills are not yet fully developed to demonstrate accuracy which causes them to struggle with these exercises. I have never seen teachers support the use of rulers and protractors when dealing with these particular math lessons and as a teacher, I'd definitely train my students to feel comfortable approaching such objects in math.

CCLS - Math: 2.G.3

Category

Geometry

Sub-Category

Reason With Shapes And Their Attributes.

State Standard:

 Partition circles and rectangles into two, three, or four equal shares, describe the shares using the words halves, thirds, half of, a third of, etc.  and describe the whole as two halves, three thirds, four fourths. Recognize that equal shares of identical wholes need not have the same shape.

Expose kids to protractors and the compass

 

After students have mastered tracing the above geometric shapes, I'd then give them a supplemental activity to further broaden their horizons on how to manage the notion of half/whole in completing figures by drawing the other missing half. This way they master the visual acuity on how to properly address an equal half of an image by hand drawing. It might be challenging at first, but eventually, they will master it.

After ample tries in tracing and completing half of the figures, I can then have my students utilize the use of rulers and compasses in order to create a perfect geometrical figure on paper. This way, as I start teaching the ideology of dividing figures into equal but multiple parts, they will be better equipped with their eye/hand coordination to properly show accurate parts of an image.

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Reflection:
In math classes where I have happened to be present when introducing geometrical lessons, students have never been trained at drawing a straight-lined geometrical figure. All they need is a ruler for straight-sided figures and a compass for curved figures. How can they see on their own paper an equal part of an image if they can't draw a proper image, to begin with?

Bi-Lingual Math Lesson Plan

Entry #6: (10/17/19)

Synopsis:

At some point last semester,  I was appointed the responsibility of teaching Math and ELA to 3rd grade bilingual ICT students, a class made up of 32 kids in total. I was temporarily replacing their homeroom teacher who was out on maternity leave. The majority of the students were newcomers who had entered the US that year or the previous year. Simply trying to keep the class focused was a separate challenge in itself. When it came to teaching Mathematics in Spanish, I would review as much vocabulary as possible the day before and whenever I was actively teaching, if I couldn't find the appropriate word for a phrase in English, I would ask one of the bilingual students to assist me with translations. In the midst of it all, I was able to get through two full chapters before. Below is the review sheet I made up for them two days before their chapter exam.

Reflection:
As teachers, we'll have times when we'll be asked by the administration to participate in tasks that may be challenging and/or out of our comfort zone. Never say no! Always accept them, regardless of challenges. As teachers, the more we put ourselves out there at tackling different situations, the better our chances of moving up the ladder will be.

Introduction to Values on Number Lines

Entry #5:(10/11/19)

Synopsis:

My 3rd graders encountered a smooth experience learning, practicing and mastering values on the number line. At one point, my headteacher demonstrated the number line on the classroom carpet using glittering tape. She would make children step onto the value she would ask students to face each other and compare their distances from zero. I really appreciated the number line real-life model she built for demonstration enabling kids to make spacial connections to the theory and then link them back into their worksheets.

Solving Two-Step Word Problems: All Operations

Entry #4: (10/11/19)


Synopsis:

While I worked at the District 9 DOE school in the South Bronx during the 2018-2019 academic year, I learned a vast amount of techniques on how to properly address, teach and maintain an ICT elementary class. Part of the challenge was creating lesson plans for math. Even though members of the administration never approached me asking to review the lesson plan for the day, I still conducted myself as if the situation could occur, which pushed me to always keep myself prepared with lesson plans. The below sample teaches students how to tackle multi-step problems involving all operations. Half of the class would tackle only one part of the problem while assuming the second part would be too complex to solve and just give up. I believe my co-teacher did not do a good job at properly tackle word problems as a whole which made their advancement into multi-step problems a maze they couldn't get out of.

Reflection:
Please feel free to give me as much honest feedback as possible. What would you have done differently?

Adding big numbers with little problem!

Entry #3 (09/27/2019)

Synopsis:

In third grade, kids will be faced with adding one, two, three and if the teacher wants to challenge them, four-digit numbers. At the ICT math class, I substituted in for three months, half of the students were comfortable adding two-digit numbers while others felt ready to tackle three, up to four-digit numbers with ease. For any value, a similar approach exists, which kids can utilize and easily remember. It's shorter than it's written down, but for demonstration purposes, I would explain/write it in this manner.

 Reflection:
Complex numbers with more than two-digit values appear daunting to children. As teachers, we might have children who are perfectly comfortable aligning values vertically in the correct manner and proceeding with addition, even placing the remainder in the right place value. We may also encounter students that will not be able to decompose 345 into 300 40 and 5 effectively. We should be ready to review with them place values before asking them to solve addition problems. Extra caution must be demonstrated with subtraction problems as students will align them up properly but when faced with a number in a place value on the top position in smaller value than the number below it, they might now know how to borrow from the number to the left of it and will just feel stuck.

HOW TO TELL TIME (CCLS: 3.MD.1)

Entry #2 (09/27/2019)

Synopsis

Even though teaching students how to tell time may not be an essential lesson to tackle right away at this point in time since it's not dealing with the exact topics we are focusing on in our sessions, it's actuality part of the Common Core Learning Standards in 3rd grade Math that I had to create a lesson plan for last semester while I taught at The Walton Avenue School.
This type of lesson would be categorized as demanding Higher Level Thinking associated with Procedures to Prior Connections. (You must recall from 2nd grade how to tell time via looking and becoming familiar with the position of the hour and minute hand before narrowing it down to accurate numerical values). This lesson highlights time measurement and problem-solving strategies. It's kinda short but valuable. 

Enjoy!

Problem of the Day

 (Handout taken from HomeSchoolMath.net)

                                         

Lesson Explanation:

Check out more fun ways to tell time!
It's so much fun to know how to tell time!

Exit Ticket

Math is Intriguing and Amazing

Entry #1(09/25/2019)

Synopsis:

Welcome to Mrs.Muka's Personal Learning Path in the subject of mathematics for grades 1-6!

Before we start diving into the journey itself, let's first sit back and use the opportunity of this first post to visually tackle some controversial issues occurring in schools dealing with how mathematics is taught, absorbed and presented by the student body. By the end of this journey, hopefully, all of us can attain something valuable from each other and incorporate it into our own future classrooms.

Let's have a blast diving into the wonderful subject of Mathematics!

Mrs. Muka

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Some interesting visuals relating to the wonders of Mathematics:

                                       Courtesy of https://pm1.narvii.com

                                       Courtesy of prideted.com

 

                                Courtesy of Pinterest

Check out this awesome compilation of number wonders!

Reflection/Thoughts/Comments by the author:

Math is intriguing, beautiful and engaging. As teachers, it's our duty to uphold this subject to the he highest of standards by demonstrating enthusiasm, positive demeanor, respect, adoration and admiration towards this discipline so our students, regardless of grade level, can emulate that same energy and use it to utilize the subject not only in the classroom but in everyday life, as it should be when practiced when properly taught.