Saturday 3 September 2011

Day 6

Today's lesson was about assessments where there are three ways in which we can test them like
  • Procedure
  • conceptual 
  • computations  
Tests can be-paper and pen
                  -oral test
                  -interview
                  -formal or informal                                                                                               Realialable   assesment is when you get a same mark no matter what ?
-amount of material is mass
-volume is the space we occupy
-capacity is used to describe space available
in this lesson we need to find out the height of the stairs from the higest level to the lowest level .
therefore i calculated all the stairs (16+16+16+14)=62 steps
each step is 15 cm
therefore 15  times 62 is 930 cm .which is also 9 meters 30 cm


Day 4

Todays lesson was also about fractions where he asked us how many equal parts can we make .the name of each of it like (one half ,one third ,one eighth and one tenth)
i also learnt that fraction can be part of a whole and part of a set . hmm it was also a refreshment of lesson when he said that being equal does not need to be the same shape and it need not be identical parts.
this was some of the questions that were asked and i could name the answer and i like doing fractions .
  • How many fourths can you make from a piece of square paper?

  • In one how many one fourths are there?

  • One unit can cut into equal units. Once they are equal, we can rename it.

  • Day 4 ( fractions)

    In this lesson Dr han bar was teaching us fractions and he told us that to teach that we need concrete materials like a piece of paper . We were first asked to make equal triangle using a rectangle .at fist we thought that we cannot make an equal triangle .Then we were asked to cut it to prove it and then there was also other method where we proved it using a formular .
    • how many 1/4s are there
    • 2fifths /1 tenths
    • sam have 1/2 liters of orange juice .He needs 5/7 liters of orange juice .How much more he needs?His was done through the model style where we could see the picture and divide it accordingly .
    In this lesson ,i was truly amazed on how he could jus use a piece of paper to learnt a concept which is of fractions and i was like hmmm this is so much simpler for us to arrive to the answer rather than to do it by changing the symbols without even knowing the reason for it .

    These story sums were also created by us where we discovered differnt names for it like :
    • Part whole situation
    E.G There are 37 red and green apples.19 of them were green .How many red apples were there?
    • Comparing situation
    E.G I have $37. I have $19 more than you .How much do ypu have ?
    • Change situation
    E.G Tommy have 37 marbles .He gave Peter 19 marbles .How many marbles has he left ?

    Day 3 (ms peggy video session)

    Ms Peggy showed us a few video clips and 1 that she taught . She told us before hand that it was the first time time she was teaching the kindergartens and she only had 15 Min's to mingle and prepare .
    in the video we were to to look out for
    • Participation /engagement
    • involvement
    • Manipulative /use of materials
    • Flow /sequence of lesson
    • Classroom management
    • seating arrangement
    • attitude of teacher vs students
    • communication
    • lesson delivery
    After watching the video ,we were asked to tell them what went well and the improvement or the feedback's.
    for the 1st and 2nd video there was a drastic change as the research team present gave feedback's on how the teacher could improve her lesson and then try another time with the amendments.
                                     Identify reseach theme --------------plan lesson -------------research lesson ------------post lesson disscusion ---------lesson plan revision

    Problem solving is called divergent .Where one need some- investigation -exploration & experiement -and communcation skills .In these ways the teacher can also learn from her mistakes and can receive areas of improvement.

    In ms peggy lesson there was this interesting game where the kids need to make any structure using 5 cubes .There was only 1 girl in the video who can make it and the lesson delivered was varied as it was a progression like from 3 cube structure to 4 cube structure to 5 cube structure .When ms peggy gave us the game we came out with 20 to 25 structures.I really like the game and it stimulated my thinking when we were creating many structures to come out wid and to come with the most unique structure .

    Day 2 ( Subitize)

    Toady's lesson started with lesson 6 which is of playing  a pick up stick game where 2 players were to take either 1 or 2 sticks each time and they were to  find out which was the bad number . As there were a bundle of sticks at the beginning  of the game we did not know which is the bad number .But,as we played a few times and when we were able to gauge the bad number with a fewer number of sticks than we tried finding out the pattern . As now maths has to do with finding patterns rather than memorising .
    Therefore the pattern were
    Take                   Bad numbers
    1,2                       3,6,9
    1,2,3                    4,8,12
    1,2,3,4                 5,10,15
    thus through this we know that it is in multiples of the next number that we did not take.this content really focuses on counting and for the faster children they can go on to find for the bad numbers .
    The other lesson was a video shown to a group of students where Dr Ban Har will be playing with 2 dice and then he will find out the number you are thinking of . Its kind a like reading ur mind .It was amazing as how he could tell the number that was hiding in between . Even i could not figure it the first few times but after drawing out the dice on my paper i was able to find out the number as the number hiding will always be the opposite number and two numbers of the dice will always add up to 7 .
    i today's lesson i like the terms he used and the one that strike me was the one about meta cognition which is the part of the brain that manged the thinking process and that we need to give time for the children to respond as it takes time and as teachers we provide the answers even before they could respond .

    lesson 1 ( cardinal ,ordinal or norminal)

    This was the first lesson of Dr Banhar .He started with a very interesting game using the letters of his name .It was very mind boggling at the start when he asked us to find out which letter of his name would be the 99th .At the start i could not find the pattern .But after his explanation and that of our classmates i was able to see the pattern (1) all the 9 were in the ones place
                               (2)multiplies of 10 were found only in the letter (A)        
    Then there was another question where he asked us to find out the 99 letter in our name and some of the classmates with the same no of letters had different letters and then we had to double check it .Through this we also learnt the pattern in others name .
    I learnt three types of numbers in the 1st lesson :-Cardinal numbers which is to count  the number of things or the quantity
    -Ordinal numbers is used to indicate positions  like 1st 2nd 3rd eg.who is 3rd from the finishing line
    -Nominal numbers are use to name things like bus 28
    -Measurement numbers are used in instances like 28 kg or 15cm .
    The other thing was to start off with identical sets than with non identical sets so it will be easier for the children
    -Another thing taught was the 10 frame where its easier for the children to count .
    - A interesting fact was that counting had 4 prerequisites like
    • Classifying
    • 1 to 1 correspondence
    • rote counting
    • and the last number uttered is the number
    I like the poker card game .It was very unique and it was a challenge to find out the way it could be used . I really enjoyed the maths games played and the way Dr Ban har conducts his lessons in a fun and engaging way . I like the way he models and wants us to find the answer giving us ample time to respond .

    Sunday 21 August 2011

    Chapter 2 reflection

    In this chapter about exploring what it means to know and do maths ,i learnt the various methods and ways of the theories influences .The main two  theories  are the construstivist theory and the sociocultural theory .
    In mathemathics i also laernt that its more then completing the exersice but finding for the solution and checking to see if the answers make sense .
    not only science is of processes but maths is also a science of concepts and process of a regular pattern .in this chapter i really like the fact that they gave us the setting to do amths which is very appropiate .it allows the children to find a different method of solving the problem and it requires a higher level of thinking .
    in this chapter ,there are a few exercise which we can try and they give us solutions and the pattern in it . i find it challenging and i had a great time trying to solve it .
    in piaget theory ,is about constructing knowledge and tools to additional new knowledge .its more about reflecting and ading new schemes to modify the exiting ones .In vygotsky's theory is not about the physical space but a symbolic space created through the interaction of learners with more knowledge .Its like a mechanism by which individuals belief .But ,most importantly both the theories emphasize the learner building connections and the understanding can be defined as a measure of the equility and quanitity .