Many Teachers Can't Do Math, Let Alone Teach It

The title of this newspaper article definitely drew in my interested when I first read it. I first thought it was a stab at all math teachers in general, but after reading the article I understood its purpose. Teachers are getting very little preparation to teach the subjects they are required to teach and math is one of the main ones. Not everyone can do math easily. At least with social studies or English (not to bash either of those subjects) you can almost pick it up as you go. And these courses do not lead in to one another. If a child does not understand social studies in grade 7, it will not affect their understanding for grade 8. However, since math builds upon previous concepts, a child needs to have a grasp on previous years in order to move on. Since spiraling is taken out of the new junior high math curriculum, the course goes on to assume that all children remember how to do the items from the previous year without any reviewing. Maybe in an ideal world. I seem to have gone off on a tangent. With that being said, teachers who are uncomfortable with math may not be preparing students to move on to the next level. And it is not their fault, they were not adequately prepared in university. I honestly cannot pick one course that I did in university that I can say prepared me to be a math teacher. My math  methods course was half decent, but we only spent a short amount of time preparing lessons and ``teaching`` to our peers. It was okay, however, because I was strong in math. I picked up the pieces where I had to. I often have primary/elementary teachers come up to me and ask me how to do certain problems and concepts. Children can pick up on it when teachers are uncomfortable. The first year I tried to teach dividing decimals with base ten blocks was a nightmare because I did not understand the base ten method. I was not taught that way and I was not prepared in university to teach it that way. I did however take the time to learn how to do it and the following year it went flawlessly, but I knew I had to teach it again to the students from the year before. Had they have gone on to another teacher, unless I had told them, there would have been an assumption that they knew how to divide decimals with base ten block. The article also blames the curriculum for being too much about discovery and less about practice. In order to include both, we need to have less topics to cover in a year span. There is just not enough time to allow for the discovery of every topic while still giving children time to practice with them. The math curriculum that is currently being taken out of the high school program is the one that I did in grade 10. That was the first year for it then. From the beginning, teachers complained that there was not enough practice in the book and it was expecting students to have previous concepts that they had not. It took eleven years to replace the curriculum.

Resource:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/opinion/too-many-teachers-cant-do-math-let-alone-teach-it/article2183700/

Calculator use in the Math Classroom

Since I have begun to dig deep into my inquiry project of calculators in the classroom, I am finding myself encouraging children to use calculators less in my classes, even for calculations I would once have let them use it for. It seems to be building their confidence as they are asking to use the calculator less and they do not complain as much when I say it is a no calculator day.

I also find that in my Math 3103 class, I am encouraging them more to use common sense and estimation rather than try to remember rules and tricks. I believe these to be important skills to build on in this course and it is something they will take with them outside of school. They are learning more to decide if a question makes sense or not. This may be a skill that one would think a Grade 12 student would have, but in reality most do not. I am always told by some students that even after doing 3103 they are using calculators less as they find it faster to just do it in their head or estimate correctly.

I strongly feel that a calculator should be used a tool to aid you with complex calculations, not one to replace math skills.

Lead Discussion

Gloria and I lead the discussion for this week on the course site.

New vs. Old

When comparing the two schools of Amber Hill and Phoenix Park, it made me wonder if there really is enough DI happening in my classroom. It is no trouble to see that not all students felt comfortable or felt they could learn from just one method alone. I really like the project based method, but I don’t know if I would be able to give so little guidance or tolerate so much idle time from my students. I try to incorporate both traditional methods and both “newer” methods (for lack of a better word), but I still do not reach all students. Another issue I have is that of CRTs and public exams. How are we expected to teach students using the newer methods, yet 50% of their mark in certain senior high courses is a paper and pencil test. Until the department changes standardized testing, I feel that most teachers are going to continue to “teach to the test” and this means that we will not be reaching all of our students.