Project #3 C4T#1

For this project, I was assigned to Jennifer Brokofsky's blog, A Work in Progress.

Post #1

The first post I read and commented on was My 10 Favorite Math Picture Books : #PB10for10. In this post, Jennifer talks about participating in a blogging event that evidently occurs in August where educators share their top 10 must-have children's picture books. Because Jennifer is an educator who is specifically interested in mathematics education, she chose to adapt the list to include her must-have math children's books. Of the 10 books she chose, some of them were specifically geared to help teach mathematical concepts, but several were "just plain old" children's books that she had adapted for use in the math classroom setting.

I love the idea of using children's books to help with classroom learning. I think that any method of keeping children engaged in the learning process and potentially relating concepts they are learning to real world experiences is key. If we isolate classroom experiences from real life, we are doing a disservice to children. This is why so many people in society today are not lifelong learners. They associate "learning" only with the stuffy class they had to take at some point in their academic career where they are force fed information and asked to recall it on a test at a later time. If we can keep learning engaging and fun, we would all be better off.

I also love that Jennifer was creative and flexible enough to adapt non-mathematical books for use in math class to teach certain concepts. In my opinion, one of the most important qualities a teacher can have is resourcefulness. The fact that Jennifer was able to delve more deeply into the subject matter of these books shows her creativity and willingness to work hard to instill a passion for learning in children.

Comment #1

In my comment, I told Jennifer how excited I was to use these books in my own classroom someday, and thanked her for the resources. I also told her of a book I encountered when having to "teach" a lesson to my classmates in my Math for Elementary Teachers course last Spring called The Hershey's Milk Chocolate Bar Fractions Book by Jerry Pallotta. I found it helpful to go beyond the norm of writing a lesson on the board for the class to copy down.

Post #2

The second post I read on Jennifer's blog was Creating Mathland, and it was on the following video that Jennifer found on David Wees' blog.

In this video, the way that math and science are typically taught in the classroom is addressed. Specifically, Jennifer compared it to living in France but only interacting with people who spoke English - we are missing out on the whole experience. She went on to muse that teaching math should be more attuned to the way a French teacher instructs her students to speak the new language. Just as a French teacher uses full immersion to get her students to truly grasp these new concepts, we should teach our students to view everything with a mathematical lens.

She goes on to ask several questions about how to most effectively create a "mathland" for students, and how to foster connections between math and all other subject areas.

Comment #2

For my comment, I told Jennifer that I loved the idea of creating a "Mathland" environment in the classroom, and that I think it is very important to create a curriculum that is constantly relating lessons back to other subjects. One comment left ahead of me referenced the idea that regardless of subject taught, all teachers are to be language teachers, and the commenter pondered that if we took on the role of math AND language teachers, if that message would get diluted. I said that I did not think the message would get diluted in this case, but rather it would be reinforced. I also think that ideally all curriculum should be revolving and relate back to lessons learned previously in the day or weeks past, regardless of subject.