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Teacher and student learning

Throughout my education and practicum placements, I have often heard other Teacher Candidates confess about their anxiety with teaching math. While math can be daunting, I believe that math is not as scary as we can make it out to be. By implementing a Daily Math Routine into my classes I believe that it makes make just routine. My students will see math in real life and they will learn that math does not always have one answer and one way to get there. The artifact above shows a sample Daily Math Routine PowerPoint which exemplifies the Which One Doesn't Belong questions. In these slides, students are given a set of shapes, objects or numbers and are asked to explain which one does not belong. They explain different attributes and discuss which object they think does not belong. Often times students do not share the same answer but they use their critical thinking and communication skills to express what they think. This teaches them that there is often one right answer, but we can use the strategies we learn in math and apply them to real life problems. I often look at these questions differently after hearing what my students have to say. This shows them that we can all learn from each other, including the teacher learning from students. A Daily Math Routine models life long learning and allow for individual and collaborative learning opportunities for students. 

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Professional Growth & Improving Practice 

​As an educator, I believe it is critical to commit to continued professional growth. I am dedicated to learning about new and innovative practices within education. This is evident in my choices to continue learning through taking additional courses such a Introduction to Family Engagement in Education, and Indigenous Canada. Both of these courses will help me to reach all my students and provide them with the most culturally relevant and safe learning spaces. Reflection is a critical aspect of my teaching practice. At the end of each day, I like to take time to reflect on what happened that day. It is important to learn from our successes as well as our failures. Not every lesson will go perfectly, and that is ok! Ensuring I practice a growth mindset allows me to learn from my mistakes and reflect on my teaching. As well, I believe that teachers can learn so much from each other. In my practicum placements I have had the opportunity to witness inspiring teacher teams. In these teams, colleagues work together to create fun and engaging lessons. Two heads are always better than one, and I believe that superb teaching ideas and lessons can come from collaborative work, where more ideas and creativity is brought to the table. I collaborative with colleagues by co-planning and teaching units. This allows students the opportunities to many different teaching styles, more time for additional feedback, and the chance to build more relationships with caring adults. ​

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Artifact:

Daily Math Routine - Which One Doesn't Belong (Click to access file)