Sept 17 entrance slip

1)

1.     I think this article does speak to me as a new teacher candidate. Traditionally, I think the way math has been taught is that teachers demonstrate techniques and problems, students then practice solving problems using the techniques the teacher taught. In the article, the two authors emphasized that students with other cultural and historical perspectives might not understand the same materials as me. For example, I grew up learning long multiplication in China, but some students in Canada are also taught the lattice method. Rather than assuming long multiplication is superior because it is familiar to me, I should also examine lattice method and see if it has any advantages. In the future, I should be mindful of different perspectives and adapt my lessons accordingly.

Some of the terms and examples used in the articles are dated and unrelated to us. For instance, “handicapped” was used when discussing students with disabilities, which feels a bit dated in today’s world.  

 

2)

2.      My takeaway is that teacher inquiry is not just “thinking about how the class went”. For example, after teaching long multiplication the way I learned it, and my students get the practice questions right, a basic reflection of my lesson could be: “the lesson went well, since my students got the problem right?” In reality, I should be reflecting on whether my students understood why the algorithm works or are there better methods that might suit some students’ needs better.

I think one thing I am somewhat conflicted with is that that “teachers should take considerable responsibility for examining and improving their own practices. While that is true, from my experiences, teachers don’t often control every part of their teaching environment. For instance, one student might need a lot more help than others, but I have 30 other students to teach without any education assistance to help me. All in all, teachers’ self-reflections need adequate resources and support, since individual teachers cannot address all types of problems in a classroom.