Mr. Salmond's Math Blogs

  How’s it going today fellow bloggers and readers? Today is bittersweet as it will be my last blog until the new year. We got an action packed blog today so let's jump right into it! Becoming Your Own Questioner In mathematics we are constantly being asked questions to solve, but at the same time we are questioning the question. For example, when I see a problem one of the first things I ask myself is “What’s going on here?” or “what is this question asking me to do?”. Before we get too in depth, we need to know the different types of questions we ask. There are ‘specific questions’ that are asking you about something specific. There are also open ended questions that don’t have exactly one answer but can be thought about in a multitude of different ways. As students are problem solving, we want them to ask the right questions in order to identify the solution. So how do we as educators teach students to become their own effective questioner? Let’s look at an example: After read...

  Welcome back math bloggers! Today we’re going to discuss the idea of “developing an internal monitor” and the importance of connecting curriculum expectations with real life examples. As always we will begin with the math joke of the day! “Developing an Internal Monitor” when Problem Solving Today's problem was presented by my colleagues Dayton, Madison, Gagan and Allen. Their problem asked us to start with a 2 x 1 couch and find a way to move the couch in such a manner that it will be right beside its original position and be facing the same direction. The only catch was that it was extremely heavy and could only be moved 90 degrees on any of the corners. This problem was very engaging with a low floor high ceiling since there were multiple ways to solve it. Many of us ran up to the board to start writing, but one group stayed sitting and began to work out the problem with manipulatives (Using their phone as the rectangle and moving it). I took a different approach and immedia...

  Hello fellow bloggers! Although the material I’m discussing today is extremely beneficial to future mathematics teachers, we can't forget to start with our math joke of the day!!! What does a triangle say to a circle? Process vs Product Today me and my colleagues focused on process vs product in mathematics! One of the biggest questions we were trying to answer was, “Is it more important for students to understand the process or the problem?” In a stereotypical mathematics classroom the ‘product’ is predominantly favored. Although one could argue that one is more important than the other, I believe creating balance between the two enhances students' academic potential. Many of the factors that lead to this stereotypical approach are constructed from the teachers pedagogy and assessment methods. The traditional quiz, assignment and test each unit as the only form of evaluation discourages creating a balance between the two. By including additional assessment measures that focu...

  Hello my fellow math enthusiasts, today is a good day to learn about mathematics! As per usual, we will start our blog with the math joke of the week. Although this is a different kind of math joke it really says a lot about the stereotypes surrounding mathematics. Many students have this mentality towards mathematics and it’s our job as future math teachers to change these stereotypes! So let’s dive right into the blog and discover how we can become better educators! Phases of Work The primary focus of today’s discussion was “How do students tackle a mathematics problem”. The chapter that directed our discussion broke it up into 3 phases. The three phases are listed as entry, attack and review. The entry phase is breaking down the question in a thorough manner to ensure the user knows what the question is asking them to do. Fully understanding the question allows them to think about the question in an alternative manner to solve the problem. The attack phase has the individual...

  Hello Everyone and welcome to my first blog! If you don’t know already I’m a teacher candidate at Brock University and will be discussing a lot about mathematics (my main teachable). I’m going to reflect on a variety of different educational approaches to improve my pedagogy and hopefully give you some neat concepts to mull over. Before we discuss the pros & cons of being STUCK while performing mathematics, I'm going to present to you the math joke of the week! Often students associate mathematics as difficult and boring. I think it’s important to include a bit of humor into mathematics classes. By starting the day off with a simple but corny joke, you can help change that student's attitude and create more classroom engagement. Resulting in a better educational experience. Being Stuck in Mathematics When you hear the word STUCK what do you think of? Most of us think that being stuck is a bad thing. It means we’ve hit some sort of obstacle that we can’t easily overcome. U...