"Arbitrary and Necessary"

• Dave Hewitt’s article related to “Arbitrary and Necessary” forces me to think that math is not about the memorization of the “arbitrary” terms and names rather than the awareness of the “necessary” mathematical knowledge.  According to Hewitt, “arbitrary” are the conventions, symbols, or the names, which we are using in math. I would say the conventions mean the mathematical language. These conventions are just the choices made at sometime in the past. These did not have any proofs or reasons behind their names or their existence.  For example, why we call tangent as a tangent? We cannot prove the name “tangent” because it is arbitrary. On the other hand, when we talk about the properties of the tangent (it is a line, which touches the given circle at one point), then these properties are the “necessary” for the students. They may have the awareness of this fact or the teacher can introduce tasks, which help students to use their awareness in coming to know what is “tangent”.
• In my lesson plan, I would try to relate the necessary and arbitrary. For example, I would relate the words tangent and touch (the line which touches the circle). Hence, from the word touch they can easily relate the tangent. Consequently, if they understand about the tangent then they would continue to explore about the properties of the tangent. My role is to encourage and scaffold the students to use their own awareness.

Snap Math Fair Feild Trip to Museum of Anthropology

Snap math fair at the museum of anthropology was really a great experience for us. Students of the” West Point Grey Academy” did a great hard work in making that fair successful. They were so confident in their projects. One of the students told us that they came in that museum a week before too in order to do the research of the various arts in that museum. Therefore, they molded their project according to the museum artwork. I think that is the main reason we saw a great relationship between the math’s project and museum’s artwork. The hard work done by the students amazed all of us. They confidently explained the problem and after that, they use the scaffolding technique in order to encourage us and in case we solve their problem, they gave us prizes. It was a really a nice experience. I learned a lot from that math fair trip.

SNAP MATH FAIR

SNAP Math fair reminds me the  family math fair which i had attended in UBC campus. It was so exciting because the problem which we took was not age specific and it was tried by everyone in the family as the name of the fair is family- fair. For instance , a small kindergarten girl tried that problem and with the help of parents she finally solved it. In the similar way, i also want to do the same kind of math fair in my practicum in which the problem  would be given to the  groups of  students  In my opinion it would gives an opportunity to everyone to explore the problem without the fear of failure as they are  going to solve the problem in groups. Also in that fair i would appreciate their efforts rather than its outcomes.

Gladus and mandeep's Reflection on "Apprenticeship and workplace11"

The main objective of this course is to provide the mathematical  understanding and critical thinking skills ,so that the students can enter into the trades at post secondary and for direct entry into the workforce.
Topics of this course are:
* Investing and Borrowing money
*Managing money
*Working  with graphs
*Slope and Rates
*Linear Relations
*Surface areas
*Volume and Capacity
*Drawing shapes and Objects
*Solving Right angle properties
At the end ,the assessment of what student has learned is done by the two methods ;ie Formative & Summative assessment

Battle Ground Reflection

 The article “Battle Ground,” presents the argument, which resonates every math teacher.  There are two reasons behind that. The first reason is, it makes us as math teachers to critically evaluate our teaching methods, whether our teaching gives the learner enough pace to do experimentation with the problem or it expects just the right answer from the learner by following the well-established formulas.  I totally agree with the Dewey’s argument in which he advocated the development of high quality mental process and scientific attitude. For instance, I remember the time when I was in grade seven and taught by the traditional method. At that time, it was very difficult for me to digest those formulas. Consequently, I do not want my students to suffer from the same difficulty. Hence, I am eager to teach my students by involving them in exploring the problem rather then telling them to follow some steps.

Ninja star with paper

 In my micro teaching ,i chosen  paper  folding activity to make a ninja star in order to relate maths  with art.  According to my peers they considered it as a wonderful presentation and steps involved are easy to follow. Time is a  little bit constrained , they want to make more .On the other hand, if i would give more future applications of that model of paper ,then it would be good.  I am also thinking in the  same way as if i have more time than i will assess them formally ,how they will do it independently. As they did that activity following me. For the future application i would have mention its uses in maths project .

Micro teaching topic

 Name Mandeep Kaur Kanwar

                                                                                                                                                           Topic: Paper folding activity

Objective:  Students will be able to pull and push to  make  the Octagon into starand vise- versa

Hook:  Students we are going to make the Ninja – star.

Material required: Scrap- paper of different color.

Prior knowledge: Student should know how to handle scissors and fold the paper.

Activity as well as the Assessment:

 The students are doing the activity along with the teacher. The teacher is doing the activity as well as scaffolding the students and assessing them whether they are able to do the activity by themselves or they need help from the teacher.

Application: Students can easily use their knowledge to find the number of sides of an octagon and of the star.

Resource:

 http://www.whatdowedoallday.com/2015/03/transforming-ninja-star.html