Math With No Right Answer?!?



     Too often math is looked at as the subject with no room for creativity. I have found that the more you use technology to teach your math lesssons, the more you will have the attention from your students. I hear the words, "I hate math" on a reagular basis from all levels of learners. Math at one time was my major so I obviously have a different passion for the subject, but I do believe there are ways to make math enjoyable for the teacher and learner.
     I personally have looked up ways to integrate technology into my math lessons to make it unique for each student. My favorite ideas include camaras, Microsoft Word, Powerpoint, and Excell. With early grades you can do a number of different activites with camaras to hit all of the math standards and incorporate many differnet other subject standards. For example, you could buy a cheap set of digital camaras for your classroom (small ones with just the basics) and take them outside to capture their own colors, animals, shapes, etc. Then as a class they can upload these pictures into a slideshow. Math is no longer memorizing your times tables. There are ways to make math exciting and new everyday!

Reflecting on Our Class Projects

      So far this semester we have worked on a couple of projects including: a portaportal and website. Not having very much experience with technology, especially dealing with the web, I had to really "learn" how to do these assignments. It was difficult, but I managed to produce two very effective projects that could easily be used in any classroom. Learning these skills, that will definitely be used when we get our own classromm, will give us a great advantage in our years of teaching to come.
     The first project, our portaportal, was not too difficult to grasp, but it did take some time to gather all of the different websites. Our portaportals are not only useful now for us while we are still studying education, but we can keep our same portaportal when we get a job. Having this many reference sites on hand in one place will be a tremendous help our first few years!
     We then made a classroom website. We had to create a hypothetical website, so we can not necessarily use that same site. On the positive side, it was a great experience using google sites, because it helped me learn how to build a website. There are many website builders, that our school system may require us to use, but I think that google sites exposed us to many of the typical website building gagets. Building the website was definitely testing! It was time consuming, but I can honestly say I enjoyed it and I have so much more technological knowlege that I will need for my classroom. My favoirtie part about the website was I could begin to learn the proper ways of communicating to students, parents, and colleagues through technology. :)

The Creative Mind Longs to Be Released: A Response to the Creativity Video

      After watching the speaker Sir Ken Robinson talk about his ideas on creativity, my mind went to the multiple intelligences kinesthetic and musical. Robinson mentions that there is a hierarchy of the subjects that are being taught in school systems all over the world. I could have guessed that math and language arts would be at the top of this hierarchy. With that said, I do not think I have ever really considered why the arts are at the bottom of this hierarchy.
      Creativity was said to be something we lose as we get more educated. This is fascinating to me because I always associated being more intelligent with a form of creativity, but I understand where Robinson is coming from. When he illustrated the idea that as we further our education we start eliminating most of our body until we just are using our brain, his arguments started to make more sense to me.
     When thinking of how I could use this information to better my teaching career, I considered what types of lessons would better young children's minds for the future. Robinson asserts that we should  rethink the way we view creativity and consider how it could be valuable to the future generations. I think back to the professors I have had that have advised against just using worksheets and instead do some form of activity so the students can use their creativity and multiple intelligences to really capture what is being taught. I also think small groups working together are a great way for teachers to further students creativity, because in all the intelligences there is a form of creativity, it just depends on how the student will express it.

When I think about being a teacher, I consider things like racial differences and how children these days react to one another. I know that at my age I am only now beginning to understand how to see everyone as an individual and not put people into categories. I understand that everyone does not see things in the same light as I do. So my question is, how do we address serious issues such as this in our classroom? What if we hear a student of ours repeat something they heard their parents say that you would consider to be racist. Would you address it yourself?

Teachers by Kevin William Huff

Teachers  
Paint their minds
and guide their thoughts
Share their achievements
and advise their faults

Inspire a Love
of knowledge and truth
As you light the path
Which leads our youth

For our future brightens
with each lesson you teach
Each smile you lengthen
Each goal you help reach

For the dawn of each poet
each philosopher and king
Begins with a Teacher
And the wisdom they bring

Teachers are the beginning of all professions, as you may have heard. This poem makes me smile when I read it simply because I cannot wait to “paint” the minds of our youth! What do you think of this poem?