Tuesday's Interviews

Hi everyone! I cannot believe it is coming up to our last week of classes.

On Tuesday at 10:30 I am going to begin short 'interviews' with you in groups of two (but you can do individual interviews if you request that). I will have a sign up sheet made available at the start of class so you can chose the order in which you will go. As I said today in class, we will run into the lunch period, and will just continue until everyone has had a turn!

To help you focus, I would like for you to consider the following questions/topics that come from the chapters we read, and from class discussions:

1. a) Boaler (key international math education scholar) created a short document with 5 research results that can transform math learning. It was part of the site (you cubed.org) you all spent time with (had a full class to work through it too). Please be able to speak to these research results and explain how they will impact you as a future teacher of K-6 mathematics.

1.b) From above, be ready to be able to explain 'fixed mindset' vs 'growth mindset' when it comes to your own learning of math, and when it comes to teaching mathematics. If you want to know a little more about this (I discussed this in class) you should check out this article about mindset. It is a really significant finding and has huge implications for mathematics learning as well as other areas of our lives.

2. Describe what your dream mathematics classroom would look and sound like. What would the students be doing? What would you be doing? and why? What would assessment for and of student learning be?

3. What makes a great problem?

4. What is the difference between a problem that requires problem solving and one that does not?

5. What is your philosophy of teaching mathematics? (Base your answer on educational research, not just on what you are familiar with or have experienced).

6. What are five frames for? Why are they important? What are ten frames for? Why are they important?

7. You are in the line up inside Tim Hortons on a Saturday morning. Someone you know is ahead of you in the line up. They know you are close to completion of your education degree and they say, "Why can't kids just do math the way we learned it 20 years ago, by rote memorization?" How do you respond? What are the key points you would want to make?

8. Why is it important that you have a whole class conversation during every math lesson after students have had time to work individually or in small groups?

9. Talk about the various cognitive capacities one would need in learning to count.

10. In class right after the reading break we did the activity,  "if five is the answer, what  could the question be?" ... Tell me about that particular activity and why it is an important thing to do with children.

11. What was your greatest 'learning' this semester with regard to teaching children mathematics? How has your thinking shifted (if it has)?

See you Tuesday. :-)