Intermediate Math
Welcome to Ms. Burnie's math centre of activity! This is where you will visit to find all of the latest homework, assignments, amazing resources, and opportunities for communication! Below, I have included a survey form for guardians to decide how they want to receive communication about our daily math explorations. I appreciate your timely feedback.
This blog was created during my professional year to allow for organization of resources, ideas, and placement happenings. My learning has continued throughout my university career and this blog has allowed me to keep an online portfolio of my continued development. I can use this platform effectively for a intermediate math class through the school year because of its accessibility and easy-to-use demeanour. This forum allows for a visual aid that allows for parents to see and be aware of what is going on in their child's classroom. Hypothetically, I would use this forum for a grade 8 class. At the beginning of the year, I would allow for each student to create their own Weebly blog. This would be not only beneficial for math, but all other subjects. It would help cultivate a positive digital footprint for students and give parents access to everything their child is creating and accomplishing during the year. Through my blog, parents would have access to their child's blog as mine would act as the main gateway to the student's pages. Weebly allows students to upload photos, links, and videos to make the experience more interactive for those visiting. This platform is appropriate because through media literacy I am demonstrating and helping to establish a positive digital presence that showcases one's interest and identity. It also proves that math does not have to be traditional pencil and paper work, but rather can be put on a forum that is both engaging and motivating to the 21st century learner. Additionally, it is practical for communication because this format will be familiar with students as it will have become an ongoing school year project. After each post about an upcoming assignment, event, or happening in the room, I will include a comment box such as the one found below, so parents are able to instantly react to what has been posted.
Welcome to my classroom guardians. What you would see when you walked in is an environment of flexible seating, which would involve large groupings to allow for collaboration. These groupings will be monitored and altered if necessary, dependent on productivity and accountable talk. This also provides for an opportunity for students to collaborate with a variety of different peers and learning styles. You would also see a variety of student work on the walls because I believe that this gives students a sense of ownership of the room and fosters a safe and inclusive environment for students. A set of co-created classroom expectations would be on the walls to remind students what we expect from each other throughout the year as a community of learners. Manipulatives would be present for students to freely access and make use of at any time during their math journey. Finally, a parent would be able to see a horseshoe table rather than a teacher desk because it makes it easy for students to conference with me as well as come to me in small groups for assistance.
Students need to be at the focus of our practice. I think that this platform ensures that this is happening because it provides students much needed wait time for questions. This concept is especially applicable to First-Nations, Metis, Inuit (FMNI) students, and English Language Learners (ELL) who may require more time to process a given question. By making questions or concepts into a blog post, rather than an on the spot oral answer, ensures that every student is given an equal and fair opportunity to compose an answer, therefore meeting their social and emotional needs. This gives each and every student their own unique voice and style to how they are approaching their learning of mathematics. Blogs also allow for the clear display of student thinking and supports risk taking in math. Many students may be uncomfortable taking a risk for the fear of being wrong, so taking part in a blog post as well as instilling the growth that comes from failure, is a vital aspect of not only math learning, but life learning, making it a soft skill. Students could also partake in a self-evaluation or peer-evaluation of their blog posts, in order to continue to improve their content and strategies for future posts. These valuable concepts and more can be found in the resource linked below.
In conclusion, I believe that this blog outlet not only allows for cultivating a community of learners within my own classroom, but also fosters a unique sense of a shared environment for teachers, students, and guardians. It keeps guardians up to date on the happenings of the classroom, as well as their child's individual work and progress throughout the year, and also allows for the teacher and the guardian to communicate efficiently. Through the use of polls, guardians are able to feel as though they also have a say in what goes on in the classroom and how they receive communication and information, fostering a positive relationship between the two parties.