Inquiry Project

We decided to break down Mental Health and Emotional Wellbeing into three categories that we thought were most relevant to teachers currently. Considering that there are so many more unwritten responsibilities teachers have to take on due to covid, teachers are having a harder time dealing with their own mental health. It's a teacher's responsibility to adapt their teaching style accordingly, and with covid as a main issue that's affecting students, teachers are forced to go above and beyond to only meet the basic needs of their students. There are so many last minutes changes and so much more to prepare that it's reasonable for teachers to forget about putting taking a breather and putting themselves first. Even outside of covid, teachers have unwritten responsibilities that parents might put teachers on for their children. 

Considering that teachers can go through so much, we thought about whether the resources teachers have access to are actually helpful and if so, to what degree. It's interesting to learn about what the communities and schools have to offer for teachers and what are some programs that directly help teachers with their emotional wellbeing within the classroom. The last aspect we really wanted to focus on was how teachers might regulate their own emotional wellbeing and self awareness. It's true that when we are teaching, it's not about us and it's about the children, but that statement is too broad to stand by itself. Teachers need to have the right mindset and be in a good mindset to deliver a good lesson. This all boils down to the teacher's mental health and emotional being. From there, we also thought about extending a little bit to how teachers might help with student's emotional well being within the classroom that can also in turn help the teacher. 

 

Exit Slip Oct 14

    Some of the biggest takeaways from the videos we watched today in class are that everyone has a different mindset and the differences between one dimensional and multidimensional math. Through discussion, I realized the importance of understanding that students who memorize methods are the lowest achieving performers, and highest achievers are the ones who discover and link the 'how' and 'why. I grew up in a traditional setting, where we would be asked to listen for most of the class time then we either do problems over and over again or do homework at home. Looking back, my classes all had low participation and a lot of us just wanted an A so they would be forced to learn. In fact, traditional learning produces underachievers and an inequitable classroom. What's more important is that students should want to learn without that incentive, and that learning shouldn't be associated with percentages or grades. Since percentages might foster a negative environment, educators can consider feedback instead. Students still need guidance for the specific material they need to improve in so in order to eliminate the anxiety and competitiveness in the classroom, students can think of feedback as a positive thing and will look forward to improve instead of feeling defeated if they didn't get an A. From my group members, I related to them when they mentioned the time that is associated with mathematicians. A lot of people have a misconception that all math teachers should be able to do math really fast but what's important to consider is that intelligence isn't related to the speed of how you do certain questions. 

    I learned that effective math tasks should give students different ways of seeing, methods, pathways and representations for the math concepts. With these kinds of math tasks, the opportunities for learning and developing a growth mindset are increased. One of the many things that resonated with me was that we need to stop teaching calculating and start teaching math. 

Entrance Slip Oct 14

     The invisible grid that appears everywhere in the education system and also school building reminds me of jail or the army. Especially when the articles describes that the grid-like chart makes claims of control and ownership of intellectual spaces. This is similar to jails because the individuals area all locked up into rooms. Where they are and how long they get in each room is all decided by prison warden and officers. As for the army, this analogy is similar in ways where there are certain rules of how they represent themselves, the hierarchy that exists, and the rules people are forced to follow.

    I agree with that grids do give a sense of comfort and familiarity as a lot of humans live their day to day life in an organized way. Any big events or ideas can be dealt with more easy by breaking it down into sections. Teaching complex, un-categorizable, unpredictable things can be absorbed by students more easily by breaking them down into grid style so it's also easier to memorize. 

 

    Considering that I think the grid that exist in schools is metaphorically similar to a prison, I think the outdoors and nature  is seen the same way for inmates to be able to take a step back into the real world, outside of the prison. The fact that doing activities in an outdoor environment like at a garden lets people engage in reflective practice and gives them time to take a pause and step away from the hectic daily routines is very true in my opinion. We've been having most of our classes outside in the garden and I do feel that way too. It's a good change of environment, like a breath of fresh air into my busy schedule. At times the outdoor classroom might limit the activities a class can do, so a good balance of two would be perfect. On the other hand, there are a lot more creative outlets for individuals to explore and fun activities that can be tied into math learning that would be harder to enjoy in a room.

 

    The math subject has a lot of misconceptions, where a lot of students think it's just filled with theorems and old concepts. The passage in the reading where it talks about incorporating new ways to become ecological teachers is filled with questions  in my opinion because we can renew students' mindset on how math can be exciting and current.

Exit Slip for Oct 7th

The activity of identifying and drawing shapes for my leaf was really interesting. I realized I was looking at the leaf with a lot of details in order to do this activity and I found so many interesting lines and shapes within such a simple piece of nature. This activity is helpful for students who wants to extend their creativity for shapes. I found myself critically thinking about what shapes I can fit inside the leaf and that special angles and lines can help me recreate the leaf. 

My poem/observations of the garden two weeks later:

tomatoes exploding its’ decay 

addition of grey fuzz to the color bed

sun sprinkling sparkles into the garden

cracklings no more from under our feet 

damp bed from the cold and wet morning

leaves are wilting, plants are falling 

the cold wind takes the colors away 

planes are the new birds 

the wind ripples through the trees 

crinkle leaves on the ground and they disappear 

touch the leaves on the plants and all that’s left is a damp palm 

Entry Slip Oct 7th : Moshe Renert on math and climate change

    I think it's very suitable for educators to incorporate sustainability in mathematics as we're currently trying to change teaching math towards inquiry within students. Instead of feeding students the theorems and formulas, it would give students a more impactful learning experience if they're able to make their own discoveries, read stories, and do problems that are more relatable. The things they learn within the classroom will stay in their minds for longer and increase interest within the subject. Climate change in our world today is very real and it's already been impacting all of us drastically from using compostable straws to high levels of temperatures in the summer. That's why, I think it would only make sense for students to see the world using sustainable mathematics education through renewed mathematics. I agree with Renert that "Mathematics is popularly conceived of as a pure body of knowledge, independent of its environment, and value-free". A lot of students sometimes don't even want to try math problems because the question looks boring and complicated. I want to change that misconception where if they see a problem, whether it's actually hard or easy, they should be excited to figure the problem out, and have a similar mindset when people want to try out new games or puzzles.

    Some of the ways and ideas educators can use issues of the environment in their lesson is to include descriptive modeling in problem-solving. Word problems are good for when you want math topics to be relatable and to imagine a representation of what specific math topics looks like in real life. One can also understand and start to notice how math shows up in real life within word problems. If educators can incorporate sustainability, students can think about important current issues that is affecting all of us while understanding and learning math. I appreciate how Renert describes that "a critical stance could also be constructive for mathematics educators who wish to approach issues of the environment, such as climate change." In other classes, we talk a lot about social issues and I believe that talking about sustainability and climate change issues are just as important and relevant for students.