Dancing Teachers

 

The article was really interesting. Being a person who does not really like being outdoors. I find comfort in structure and safety of the classroom environment. To this extent, I had not realized how Eurocentric ideas can be expressed and be influential even in the structure of building themselves. I see buildings as mainly “a place that keeps me from being too hot or too cold” and not as a social construct that influences us on a deep intellectual level. Although like the structure and order of the classroom, my preferred organizational method is order in chaos. It might look messy to you, but I know exactly where I left everything. In my teaching, I hope to foster the idea that there are different forms of learning and understanding and one is not necessarily better than another. One key aspect of being in the outdoor classroom is that we would no longer be bound by constructs of a classroom and therefore have the freedom to explore other ways of knowing and coming to different levels and types of understanding than we would in the classroom. As the article states, the garden classroom allows students to be more reflective and learn from more senses than the mostly visual delivery of the regular classroom setting. One metaphor that resonated with was the ideas of classroom as parkour or like swing music. As teachers we often need to go with the flow and within the structures of school, teach in a way that suits the needs of ourselves and our students. I’m not sure if there is anything I really disagree with the article though I don’t know if I would put such importance into the structure of school governing the mindset of the people that work within them. Perhaps I’m not as progressive as some but I take comfort in tradition and structure and although I am willing to try new approaches to teaching as it might be best to support my students.

"sit spot" and Geometry of leaves lesson reflection

 

 "I like to rise with the sun she rises........."

This class always surprises me on what a math classroom can look like. Being out in nature and our surroundings as a guide for teaching is a wonderful tool to keep students engaged. I personally don’t really like being outside. I enjoy the structure of the classroom and being shielded from the elements. I have, however, come to realize and appreciate the value of the outdoor classroom and its use as a teaching tool for mathematics. The “sit spot” activity is one that causes a lot of reflection on not only the environment around us, but of our own bodies and thoughts. It’s somewhat peaceful and calming to simply be in one place and to concentrate on one’s own senses. It allows us to slow down and reflect on what is happening all around us; to see what we normally miss in the hectic nature (teacher education….) of our daily lives. It’s a great activity for students to ground themselves and prepare for the learning that is about to happen. The next activity, using geometry to approximate nature was also one that was somewhat calming but at the same time educational. We use our more rigid systems geometry to approximate the seeming chaos and yet somehow ordered and symmetrical properties of nature into a piece of math art that can at the same time teach us about mathematical theorems. These two activities were great ways of keeping the students engaged and to be able to teach the students mathematical concepts in a new way was rather eye opening.

"and ramble in the new morn hay......"

Sustainable Mathematics

 

There are couple of points from the article that really resonated with me. Mathematics as a subject is often seen as a purely academic discourse with little relevance to the real world. Often, students who are “good” are math are “good” at calculations but not necessarily “good” at the greater scope of mathematics. As I have slowly learned this year, Mathematics can been experienced in many forms such is in art, geometric, nature, music, daily life and in the sciences. While this idea was in the back of my mind throughout my academic career, I really had not given it much thought. With the movement towards the (not so) new curriculum there has been a greater emphasis the on not so much pure mathematics as with numeracy and being able to actually apply mathematics to daily life. This brings me to the first point in the article that resonated with me. The author mentions that integrating the environment into the discourse of the mathematics classroom creates a more genuine mathematics education speaks to the idea that be allowing student to relate mathematics to something more tangible to them such as the environment makes math more meaningful to them and will have a greater impact. Another point the resonated with me is the ideas that emotions play a crucial role in decision-making and human action and that we need “feel” the numbers or the effect on us would be diminished. I feel that in order to “do math” effectively we need to be able have a feel for numbers. It is an important skill for students to be able to give a number context, without context numbers are meaningless. You are simply shuffling things around to get a result. With a feel for a number, you are able to better understand a problem and to be able to determine if there is merit to the answer you obtain after calculations. I feel that mathematics is much more than just meaningless calculations, it is a living language that allows us to come to deeper understanding of the world around us.

Exit Slip September 23, 2021 (Updated)

 

This was a wonderfully engaging lesson. There was something magical about working with your own hands to make something that is seemingly simple but at the same time so intricate and beautifully symmetrical such is the case with rope making. My first rope was a very simple twisted rope and after I mastered that I wanted to try something a little more advanced. At first I started with a simple all one color 7 layer braid that took a few tries to get going and to understand how the braiding actually worked. It was not difficult but you have to make sure to keep track of the procedure of it is very easy to get lost and braid the wrong strand in the wrong order. Once I was confident, I endeavored to create something a little more interesting. I used several colors to create the seven layer braid and that’s when the fun really began for me. I started to notice a pattern emerge in the raid as a braided more and more of the rope. It really made me think of how I can create new shapes and patterns simply by using the strands of ribbon. The structure of something so simple created such detailed and beautiful patterns. I really enjoyed the exercise and when used a classroom setting can really keep students engaged in a math lesson.

Entrance Slip September 23

 There were a few things that made me stop and think when reading the Kallis article and watching the videos.  The ideas of backsourcing, creating fulfillment in our lives and that rope making can be a form of technology really caused me to think more deeply about my lifestyle and my place in society.  I am completely new to the ideas of backsourcing  and un-venting ancestral knowledge and lost skills. I have never even considered that we could be growing useful crops for ourselves and become less reliant on industry. I have always thought of food as just something you buy at the store. While I know that it comes from farmers and such, growing my own food was not something I considered doing or attainable. I really like the idea of the self esteem gained from one’s own creation and that this movement is equally about becoming less reliant on industry as it is about creating fulfillment emotionally, physically and spiritually. I have never considered this until reading this article and it has really changed the way I view consumerism. This being said, I not sure if I’m ready to give up on buying things just yet at the moment. I love my modern conveniences and technology and it was eye opening when I watched the rope making video that rope making is a form of technology. I had really not considered this as when I think about technology, I think mostly of modern technology. But as the video points out, technology is cumulative and even our most modern devices can have roots in the technologies of the past.

Outdoor class reflection

 

I was truly surprised by the structure and content of the class. It was truly eye-opening that a “Math” class could be taught in such a way that was so lively and engaging. I did not realize that seemingly unrelated activities such as sketching items in nature and singing a song can be integrated into the “classroom” in such a meaningful way. I’ve always pictured math class, especially in the university setting, as a place where you sit and learn from a lecturer who is often not really interested in teaching and engaging his/her students. Even the sharing of watermelon in class I feel is an invaluable activity of community building where students and instructors can interact freely and enjoy themselves in a more informal manner. The free-flow structure of having an outdoor classroom and having students move around and become a part of the lesson itself seemed quite foreign to me at first but after experiencing it first hand, it has really resonated with me as a something I could try in my own practice.

On Becoming a Reflective Teacher

 

Grant and Zeichner’s article “On Becoming a Reflective Teacher” resonated quite strongly with me and there are a few points that really intrigued me. I was struck by the article mentioning the amount a choice a teacher faces. From the choice of style, institutional values and views, to which content to stress as being important, to how we teach to specific groups of children and even our very mindset as to how we go about teaching. I was unaware of the level of influence that a teacher has on a child goes beyond just the classroom and has a huge impact on the student in the future. In the school I worked at previously, the administration stressed that how a teacher conducts him/herself as a person both inside and outside a classroom is equally as important as the actual act of teaching itself; that as a teacher, we are held at a higher standard than the regular person. This completely resonated with me after reading this article where the point was raised that because of relationship between school and society, the consequences of school lay beyond just the classroom and we must be responsible for ourselves and our students understanding the consequences of our teaching.  The article mentions that as a teacher candidate and the as a future teacher, that I must be critical of the information and training provided to me by the institution and at my practicum as there are often inherent biases, viewpoints and knowledge that are all distinct from one another and that I must make my own decisions on what is important to me and how I will approach teaching as a whole. Being reflective in this point will allow me become a better educator and help to further the field of education.

On Becoming a Teacherman

 

What I took away from class was the idea of inquiry can stem from many places. In the video we watched about Frank McCourt, I was inspired by the fact that McCourt truly accomplished the American Dream. He grew up from basically nothing, and through his need for knowledge and education to becoming successful and accomplishing his dreams. It really struck me as the difference of past times to where we are now is that McCourt without any sense of formal education was able to attend a University and become a teacher. That seems like it would be pretty much impossible today. It truly demonstrated that because he was curious and driven by inquiry, he was able to succeed. There was little requirement aside from the pursuit for knowledge itself that is the driving force to success and that this inquiry based approach to learning can be applied at any level especially for ourselves and our future students. The video inspired me to wonder about what education actually means and is the simple pursuit of knowledge enough as the basis of our learning? It caused me to wonder if institutional learning should be the only source of education or is there other forms Education that would work equally as well for different individuals.

Hello World.

 Hello World! Looking forward to the rest of year!