Hello and Welcome!

Hi there!

This blog will serve as a continuation to my former mathematic blog postings. For my fellow teacher candidates, welcome to year two! I hope that there may be information that will be useful to you as we continue our final year of teacher’s college. I hope to share more personal experiences this time around, as I now have completed my first of three teaching placements. Let’s begin!

This week has been busy for math to say the least. With having the holiday Monday, we lost a day this week, which has been overwhelming when it comes to doing the online portion of the course. However, as overwhelming as it was to hear what was all due, it was a lot less overwhelming actually completing the tasks. Good news right?

There are a couple things I want to talk about in this blog in regards to what I have learned so far from our first class and the online module. This week I learned something when taking part in the “Game about Squares” online game. While playing the game, the first few levels were a breeze to get through. By the time I reached level 12, I started to really struggle.

I became frustrated because no matter how many times I tried to beat that level, I just was not getting it. Was it that I don’t like to make mistakes? Well, let’s be honest. Not many people would say they like to make mistakes. However, I am okay with making mistakes; it was the fact that no matter how many times I attempted it, I felt like I was getting no further. I decided that I would try again during my break between my two classes. Eventually, I was able to get past the level, and was actually able to get all the way up to level 22, which I failed several times before having to head to my next class.

Now that I have completed the online module, which included videos to watch, I realized something about this activity. It doesn’t matter how many mistakes I made along the way because eventually I got further with the practice. This is something that many of the videos touched upon. It does not matter how many struggles or mistakes we make because this is where we learn. Our mistakes are what enable our brains to grow, which allows us to become better at whatever it is we have been practicing. However, before watching the videos, I was sitting at my seat in that frustrated state of mind because I could not do what the game was expecting of me. This is a feeling that many students struggle with daily.

Sweet Dreamz Design. (February 18, 2014). Picasso Goals. Retrieved from: https://www.flickr.com/photos/creativegem_designs/12623792625/

It is important to remember that students are constantly learning, constantly struggling, constantly learning from their mistakes. Essentially, we are all learners, and we learn from those mistakes. Luckily, I was fortunate enough to be seated next to a fellow teacher candidate who helped me to succeed when I was getting frustrated with myself and this square game. That is our role as future educators though. It is our job to encourage students to work through their mistakes, in order for them to improve.

Math is a constant struggle for some students, if not many. There are some stereotypes and myths that many of us have probably come across during our educational years, though they still exist today and this is a problem. Some of these myths include that there are “math people”, or math, like science, is a boy subject area, which leads to the myth that girls are not as good at math as boys. The fact of the matter is, math is a subject that anyone is capable of learning and doing well in, it just takes more practice for some people over others. Rather than participating in these myths and stereotypes, we should encourage students and even adults, to develop a growth mindset. This mindset demonstrates how you can learn anything as long as you spend the time practicing whatever it may be. Personally, during my placement I wanted to challenge myself after learning about this growth mindset. I knew that math was a challenging subject for some students, and therefore, I wanted to change the mindset for the students who had a fixed mindset in regards to their ability to do well in math. Although I did not have a long period of time with these students, I could see their mindsets changing little by little, as they improved on their prior mathematical skills. It was rewarding for the student and myself, to see them changing their attitude towards their own capabilities in math.

If you want to try out “Games about Squares,” please visit the following link:

Game about Squares

 Thanks for stopping by!

PS - on a side note, when looking for images, I came across a blog that some of you may find useful! If you are interested in viewing it for resources or insight, please click on the following link:

Jill Dawson Blog