Reflection of This Semester (342A)
I have done many different courses related to wide range of topic in this term, like social justice, math history, how to encourage students to solve problems, how to care more about students, how to help ELL students and etc. This course makes a connection among these topics.
It relates to how to assess students and makes me think if exam is a good way to assess students' learning, and this part is related to motivation topic EPSE 308 (Human development. learning and diversity) class. I doubt that sometimes rewards(in competitions) and exam systems may result in jealousy among students but not encourage them to learn. Students might have good grades and get rewards if they think the purpose of learning math is for grades, but they would not find math to be interesting.
It also relates to teaching social justice in a math classroom, which used to be difficult for me to imagine. When I discuss about this topic in Educational Studies class, it was the first time for me to realize that we could talk about social justice and environmental issue in a math class. The reading "Math that Matters" alert me that students need to know how to use math as well as how to do math. What teachers could teach their students is not limited to their teachable subject but also how to know about this world and how to become a good adult.
In the individual mini-teaching, some people from my table taught about knowledge in different culture and I could relate this experience with the course about teaching ELL students. Sometimes, we tend to assume that others have basic knowledge about our topic, but actually many people do not. It is similar to helping ELL students. Since English is not their native language, we need to explain some terms or words in simple English or their own language if we could. Even we tried to explain, we may not understand what we are talking about as they are from a different culture. As an international student, it is not the first time I have realize this problem and I hope to think deeper to this question after having more experience in Canadian schools.
The math art project is also the first time for my teammate Tiffany and I to think back to our own culture and realize that some of the traditional art can be related to math. And this is also similar to what I learnt in math history class about ancient Chinese math. Sometimes, we ignore our own culture background and forget to be proud of our ascendants and ourselves. Learning about art and math history is a great chance to know about our own culture as well as other culture.
There are many chances to do presentation in this class, and it is a great chance for me to practice my public speaking skill since I did not have many chances to do presentations before. And I could tell that I worked hard and have made some progress. I appreciate my experience in this class, and I am glad that I have learnt about many different things from the class.
It relates to how to assess students and makes me think if exam is a good way to assess students' learning, and this part is related to motivation topic EPSE 308 (Human development. learning and diversity) class. I doubt that sometimes rewards(in competitions) and exam systems may result in jealousy among students but not encourage them to learn. Students might have good grades and get rewards if they think the purpose of learning math is for grades, but they would not find math to be interesting.
It also relates to teaching social justice in a math classroom, which used to be difficult for me to imagine. When I discuss about this topic in Educational Studies class, it was the first time for me to realize that we could talk about social justice and environmental issue in a math class. The reading "Math that Matters" alert me that students need to know how to use math as well as how to do math. What teachers could teach their students is not limited to their teachable subject but also how to know about this world and how to become a good adult.
In the individual mini-teaching, some people from my table taught about knowledge in different culture and I could relate this experience with the course about teaching ELL students. Sometimes, we tend to assume that others have basic knowledge about our topic, but actually many people do not. It is similar to helping ELL students. Since English is not their native language, we need to explain some terms or words in simple English or their own language if we could. Even we tried to explain, we may not understand what we are talking about as they are from a different culture. As an international student, it is not the first time I have realize this problem and I hope to think deeper to this question after having more experience in Canadian schools.
The math art project is also the first time for my teammate Tiffany and I to think back to our own culture and realize that some of the traditional art can be related to math. And this is also similar to what I learnt in math history class about ancient Chinese math. Sometimes, we ignore our own culture background and forget to be proud of our ascendants and ourselves. Learning about art and math history is a great chance to know about our own culture as well as other culture.
There are many chances to do presentation in this class, and it is a great chance for me to practice my public speaking skill since I did not have many chances to do presentations before. And I could tell that I worked hard and have made some progress. I appreciate my experience in this class, and I am glad that I have learnt about many different things from the class.
Thank you for your thoughtful connections and comments here, Ashley! Wishing you happy holidays.
ReplyDelete