Exit Slip October 14

 Responding to the videos there were a number of points that stood out to me:

"Math that is taught is old/ it is not the math that students need" - I agree with this completely I think that far too often we lose sight of the end goal. We need to be constantly reflecting on what do we want students to learn and why do they need to know this in order to achieve their goals in life? If we are not teaching to relevant and meaningful outcomes for our students than we are wasting our time and theirs. As Mr. Wolfram explained it there are four parts to math and we choose to focus on "computation" in the majority of our teaching but this is the one aspect in which we have machines fully capable of solving for us. What, instead, we should be focusing on is how to interpret, communicate, and translate computation to and from machines which can do the heavy lifting of computation for us. This was overlooked in my Math education and I think this is still largely the case. We must begin to change this as the up and coming generation of teachers. 

One thing the video talked about was the idea of "multidimensional" math education. Teaching questioning, problem solving, communication, reasoning, and representing. At first I sort of had a defensive response to this that its such a steep ask of teachers and I thought that it might not have been practical in the math classroom that I knew when I was in school. However, the more I thought, the more I reflected on how the math curriculum has changed recently. In BC, gladly, we as teachers now not only have the time to think about these competencies but they are encouraged in the curriculum and compose some of the fundamental goals of the curriculum. One problem I have found working in schools is that too many teachers just read the content objectives and ignore the rest. I have too often heard from teachers "oh in the new curriculum they didn't add or remove anything they just moved this concept to math 12 or they just do this in 2 years now, or now we talk about finance" however, I think that the new curriculum in many ways represents a fundamental shift in how we think about education. there is so much more room for these multidimensional approaches now and we as teachers need to accept that freedom and recognize that it comes with a responsibility to give our students the best quality and a rounded education.

Some of the findings presented in the video showed that inquiry based learning is correlated with increase achievement, increased participation and is more equitable. One thing that I would like to know about inquiry based education is what about teachers? Is inquiry based teaching a lot more work? Is it more preparation time? How does a teacher incorporate all of the theory we are expected to when it takes so much time. It seems like a daunting task to take on. How does one achieve a successful work life balance and be an effective teacher? I would like more resources on this.

One scene in the video showed students at the front working on a board problem together. I have used  this in my classroom before and I have noted many successes but also some challenges that perhaps I could talk through with my peers in class. Sometimes students don't always wait for each other to understand. Once they understand one piece they move on and many students skip over their misunderstanding to catch up. Also students are not always effective teachers in that they don't feel a responsibility for the understanding of their peers. While I agree with promoting working together on math tasks does this ever leave students behind? Additionally, we are only their teachers for one year. What does it mean for us to teach in a new way when this might not fit in the context of the rest of their education? What if we feel compelled to fit into the existing teaching culture of the school which might be more traditional? Adjusting students to a brand new learning environment takes time, we have to adjust them from last year and are we always setting them up the best for next year?

In my small group we shared a lot about about being slow learners. I know that I am very much a slow learner who needs a deep understanding to know at all. This has been a confidence issue for me my whole life. I also related with others in my group in that many of us understand the inability to work under pressure. 

We also talked about why grades can be harmful and about what are role can be with regard to grades. As new teachers we cannot change a system which requires us to use grades but we might be able to nurture a healthier relationship between our students and their grades. This is still something I need to personally envision for my classroom and also something I need to unlearn for myself. My own 'trauma' with grades is something I need to overcome and my journey in doing might be useful for my teaching and even to share with students. Ultimetly, the exceptional performance of schools which have abolished grades as cited in the second video should motivate us as teachers to reevaluate assessment in our classrooms.