Sara, Courtney, and I worked together for our team teaching assignment, and I think we'd all agree that the most difficult part of the process was actually finding a great problem to introduce to the class. We spent days looking through children's text books, teacher's guides and online websites to no avail. We we becoming quite frustrated until I remembered some of the great activities we came across in our text book throughout the semester. I don't know why we didn't think of it before, but there was no need to search random websites trying to figure out if they had any credibility when we had an excellent resource in our hands the whole time. As I flipped through the pages of our text book, I remembered that Mary had said in class that she wanted us to present a wide range of mathematical problems to the class so that we would gain a knowledge of different mathematical concepts. I decided to look through chapters we didn't study during the semester because I wanted our classmates to become familiar with topics we haven't extensively covered in class. As I flipped through the geometry chapter, I noticed that nobody had done a problem with shapes yet, so I found one that looked both fun and interesting.
After discussing the problem that I found with my group members, our initial worry was if it was "open ended enough". We worried it wasn't a suitable question because it didn't follow the same sort of pattern many of the other problems presented in class followed. Everyone thus far had been presenting problems with no straight forward or "right" answer so we struggled with the concept that ours would have one correct answer. In the end, after much discussion, we came to an agreement that mathematics will have correct answers sometimes. The main point of this course wasn't to teach us that math shouldn't have one correct answer, it was to show the importance of understanding how we get to that one answer, understanding the different strategies we can use to get there, and about being able to explain and justify the methods we use.
We knew that students would have fun playing "What's My Shape?" because we did too! While preparing our presentation, we played a few trials of the game to get an idea of how long it would last, and we loved it. Too often math becomes boring - it doesn't need to be! We learned that if we find an activity fun/boring, chances are students will too. Why supply activities that we ourselves would hate to complete? It just doesn't make sense. We also liked the activity because it can be modified for any age/grade level or ability level. Younger/less able students could play the game using fewer shapes with more distinguished characteristics, while more advanced children could use a larger number of more similar shapes for a challenge. The game could also be adapted so as to include 3D shapes instead of 2D. As children advance through the geometry unit and gain more skills with regards to the language they develop and the ideas they learn, rules of the game could easily be modified to enhance the challenge.
For some reason, I wasn't as nervous for this experience as I was for previous team teaching episodes in other courses. I think that my love for mathematics and my comfort level with our topic/activity is what made me feel confident. I know that my classmates enjoyed our activity as we received many positive comments afterwards. Overall, it went well, and I know that it is probably because we provided a student centered, cooperative learning experience with fun and interesting mathematics intertwined.
That said, I know there will always be room for improvement and a huge part of being an effective teacher is having the ability to look back at our performance and reflect on ways that we can better our methods and approaches. If I were to do this over again, I would allow "students" to have more time to complete the activity - OR - go deeper into the class discussion at the end. Our lesson only lasted somewhere around 13 minutes, and I know that was due to nervousness. I know with practice we will eventually get better at managing time and conducting class discussions, but I also understand that time is valuable and not a minute should be wasted! As a second change, I would include in our class discussion a question about the language students used when distinguishing shapes. We didn't quite know at what grade level or area in the unit that specific language should be brought up. However, after speaking with Mary, we realize it is important to speak about the language children use in mathematics - especially in a geometry unit. (ex: sides, angles, round, (a)symmetrical, etc.) Again, with time and experience, I know we'll improve. Lastly, looking back, I realize that we should have written down the methods that students used to get their answers so that they could be discussed further, the methods could be understood by everyone, and so that students could be reminded in the future of the questioning strategies that proved effective with this activity.
Overall, it was a great experience. Team teaching allows us to experience what it feels like to be both a teacher and student and really allows us to reflect on these roles. It is one of the most valuable ways to learn while sitting in a university classroom and I have throughly enjoyed taking on both roles. Way to go class - yet another accomplishment!
We knew that students would have fun playing "What's My Shape?" because we did too! While preparing our presentation, we played a few trials of the game to get an idea of how long it would last, and we loved it. Too often math becomes boring - it doesn't need to be! We learned that if we find an activity fun/boring, chances are students will too. Why supply activities that we ourselves would hate to complete? It just doesn't make sense. We also liked the activity because it can be modified for any age/grade level or ability level. Younger/less able students could play the game using fewer shapes with more distinguished characteristics, while more advanced children could use a larger number of more similar shapes for a challenge. The game could also be adapted so as to include 3D shapes instead of 2D. As children advance through the geometry unit and gain more skills with regards to the language they develop and the ideas they learn, rules of the game could easily be modified to enhance the challenge.
For some reason, I wasn't as nervous for this experience as I was for previous team teaching episodes in other courses. I think that my love for mathematics and my comfort level with our topic/activity is what made me feel confident. I know that my classmates enjoyed our activity as we received many positive comments afterwards. Overall, it went well, and I know that it is probably because we provided a student centered, cooperative learning experience with fun and interesting mathematics intertwined.
That said, I know there will always be room for improvement and a huge part of being an effective teacher is having the ability to look back at our performance and reflect on ways that we can better our methods and approaches. If I were to do this over again, I would allow "students" to have more time to complete the activity - OR - go deeper into the class discussion at the end. Our lesson only lasted somewhere around 13 minutes, and I know that was due to nervousness. I know with practice we will eventually get better at managing time and conducting class discussions, but I also understand that time is valuable and not a minute should be wasted! As a second change, I would include in our class discussion a question about the language students used when distinguishing shapes. We didn't quite know at what grade level or area in the unit that specific language should be brought up. However, after speaking with Mary, we realize it is important to speak about the language children use in mathematics - especially in a geometry unit. (ex: sides, angles, round, (a)symmetrical, etc.) Again, with time and experience, I know we'll improve. Lastly, looking back, I realize that we should have written down the methods that students used to get their answers so that they could be discussed further, the methods could be understood by everyone, and so that students could be reminded in the future of the questioning strategies that proved effective with this activity.
Overall, it was a great experience. Team teaching allows us to experience what it feels like to be both a teacher and student and really allows us to reflect on these roles. It is one of the most valuable ways to learn while sitting in a university classroom and I have throughly enjoyed taking on both roles. Way to go class - yet another accomplishment!
