Nov 6 The Giant Soup Can of Hornby Island Problem (Updated Nov 6)

From my research a can of Campbell's Condensed Tomato Soup typically has dimensions where the radius is approximately 3.8 cm and its height approximately 10.8 cm. However there were many other dimensions so I just chose the most common one. The average road bike length is approximately 177 cm. One can measure the length of the bike in the picture with a ruler and the length of the can in the picture (which is the height as it’s sideways). Divide the length of the can by the length of the bike. Multiply that number by 177 to get the actual length of the can in cm.  I will say three bikes fit alongside the length of the can so 177 cm times 3 equals 531 cm. Since the proportions are the same as a normal sized can, the radius of the water tank can is 531 times 3.8/10.8 which equals around 187 cm. Putting it all together the volume is π[(187)^2](531) which equals around 58 334 786 cm^3 = 58.334786 kL. This is more than enough water to put out an average house fire, since only several kL of water is needed. My experience doing this question initially wasn't fun since I couldn't find consistent values for the dimensions of the soup can. There were different versions of the cans and sometimes the dimensions given to me were for the box that contains them! The image of the water tank can was also taken at an angle so measuring it from side to side wasn't even. Thus I just approximated that three bikes fit across. This question made me relate to a typical question grade 10 students would do with scales and proportions, say finding approximately the distance between two city centres in real life. On the diagram a cm could represent 50 km. Students measure two dots representing the two city centres and find their distance, say 6 cm. So that means they are 300 km away. Other times you walk into a museum and there is a big display of a lego model representing ancient Rome. There might be a scale at the bottom so one is able to figure out approximately how big ancient Rome really was back then based on how big the model was.

As a more specific example, below are pictures I took on New Year's Eve 2018 at the Edmonton City Hall. It is a lego model of people (veterans, RCMP, politicians, citizens) at the Vimy Ridge Memorial. I was curious to know if this was to scale as I meticulously observed this work of art. I haven't personally been to the memorial site, but I hope to one day, remembering the victory for freedom the allies fought hard for. It's especially important now as we near Remembrance Day. To see if this is approximately to scale, you can measure the height of one lego human, which is 4 cm. The average human height is 170 cm. The actual twin pylons are 27 m = 2700 cm tall. The scale is 170/4 = 42.5, so when the the height of the lego memorial's twin pylons are measured, it should be around 2700/42.5 = 63.5 cm if this model is to scale. From what I recall, it was around that height, so the model is decently accruate. This problem is doable if we are actually allowed to carefully measure this lego structure with permission. Otherwise we will have to resort to using a photo and use its measurements of the lego human figures/twin pylons to find if the scale for the structure is consistent.   

Oct 20 Professional Development Reflection

I attended the session on Supporting Students with Exceptionalities. The first part mentioned the language usage for someone who does have physical disabilities. For example, exceptionalities, physical impairment, disabled person. We should ask which term is appropriate to use. Another example is that a student may say "I am autistic" or "I have autism". So the tone is important. The stats showed that around 86 thousand students in BC do have special needs and they are entitled to equitable access to learning, achievement, and the pursuit of excellence (however this isn't happening in many schools). An inclusive classroom is one that is supportive with students and teachers doing the best with what they got. We give 100% to the students and they would probably give 100% back. Students learn together, support each other of all abilities, participate and contribute to the life of the school. So including students into the classroom isn't just providing a desk for them. All BC school districts must work to identity, prevent, and remove barriers for people with disabilities and meet the requirements of the Accessible BC Act (2021). What it mandates are to create accessibility committees, create accessibility plans, and establish a process for receiving public feedback. I really liked the visual pictures with diagrams that showed kids being cheerful with each other. A continuum of education practice was also shown from exclusion to segregation to integration to inclusion to teaching to diversity. Learning from students with special needs is helpful since they know what they are comfortable with. There was a video that was shown where a group of young kids with special needs said what they feel inside when a teacher tells them to do something. For example, one kid said that when the teacher tells him to sit up straight, he would have to focus entirely on sitting up straight and not on the lesson. This is quite surprising and it demonstrates the complex nature of people with special needs. Another kid said that he has to move around or rock in his chair to pay attention better. This makes teachers think that we may tell students to do something that may be helpful but it does the opposite. Another surprising thing was that even with an official diagnosis document, the student won't necessarily get the funding handed to them by the school. The district handles the process. I also liked three pictures showing which parts of the brain are responsible for engagement (middle of brain), representation (back of brain), and action/expression (frontal lobe). EPSE 317 addresses more on this topic and content includes types of disabilities, roles of general classroom teachers in creating inclusive classrooms, universal design for learning/lesson planning, trauma-informed inclusive classroom practices, ableism within schools, assessment and students with disabilities, IEP's and the roles of teachers. Currently I am a bit scared because I don't want to mess up and do something that may not be great for those with special needs. Not sure how much extra work/effort I have to put in to help, so I'm worried if I can even get through the material. I have no experience so I hope to have some eye opening findings and interactions during practicum to better support these students.

Oct 16 Group Curricular Microteaching Lesson Plan Post Reflection

What I gleaned from these reflections was that my group graded ourselves relatively more harshly than how our peers graded us. This shows that my group mates were thinking along the same lines as me regarding how we performed. We all agreed that the content was too much for a 20 minute lesson. The examples given out for our peers to do were much harder than the example we went over on the board. It also contained a lot of vocabulary and steps to take that weren't mentioned. It would be wise to give out questions that are on the same level of difficulty as the ones done on the board. There were times where my group spoke softly (maybe it is because another group was much louder), so we should project our voices. Going over a new concept at first requires a lot of focus from the audience, and we were able to capture some of it by asking some simple warm up questions. We should definitely work on our time and pacing because asking questions regarding buying and leasing took longer than expected. It is also the case that the questions do take more time to do, so cutting down the difficulty and giving fewer parts should suffice. On the practical side of things the audience really enjoyed how important and applicable this topic was. Thinking financially about a vehicle is a good budgeting practice to consider. The factors that contribute to whether a car should be purchased or leased as well as the pros and cons of each option were discussed. 

 

Oct 16 Group Curricular Microteaching Lesson Plan

 342 Curricular Microteaching Lesson Plan

You

Allyssa

Michael

Lesson Plan Workplace Mathematics 11

Unit: Financial Literacy

Topic: To purchase, own, or lease and to operate and maintain a vehicle

Big Ideas: Mathematics informs financial decision making

Curricular Competencies: 

- Model with mathematics in situational contexts

- Explain and justify mathematical ideas and decisions in many ways

- Reflect on mathematical thinking

- Connect mathematical concepts with each other, other areas, and personal interests

Prescribed Learning Outcomes (PLO’s): 

- Describe the difference between buying and leasing a vehicle

- To understand and know how to apply the factors that involve buying or leasing a vehicle

- Defining the positives and negatives of both buying and leasing

- Use rational decision-making by comparing buying vs. leasing a car

Materials and Equipment: White board, marker, activity handout

Warm up questions: How many people do you know have cars? Do they buy or lease them? Do you know what factors to consider when debating between buying and leasing?

Lesson components + Activities

Beginning (~5 minutes):

- Warm up questions

- Definitions of buy / lease 

    - Buying: outright buying vs financing 

- What factors do we consider 

- Go over formulae

Middle (Activity) (~10 minutes):

- How to calculate the approximate total cost of either buying (outright or financing) or leasing including operating and maintaining the vehicle

- Students are formed in groups, each to work on one of the scenarios as assessment. It's learner inquiry based. We will help around and go over some examples. As this is a workplace course,  it's more relational learning for the students. 

End (Wrap up) (~5 minutes):

- Summary

(Think - Pair - Share):

- Advantages / disadvantages of buying and leasing

- How different circumstances affect this decision

Oct 11 Three Curricula All Schools Teach Reflection

For me the term curriculum initially meant a set of knowledge competencies/content to learn about. It encompasses the structured series of learning experiences or activities designed to enable students to achieve specific information and skills. Each grade has its own curriculum and it gets progressively more complex for the student as they traverse through the years. I like how the article addresses a lifelong lesson that should be understood as a young kid in school: that gratification and success is to be shared amongst each other and that it takes time to get them. It’s very difficult for an eager student to release all of their thoughts and answer all questions. If they take all of the opportunities, there won’t be any left for others. I remember back in math class in grade 6, a keen student sitting in front of me would raise his hand up and want to answer every question. He had that “oh pick me, please pick me” thought running through his head. At one point he got so excited he started standing on his chair with his hand raised! Of course the teacher told him to sit back down and that he was a bright student, but should let other students speak too (I still don’t know if he was showing off, or if he was like Hermione Granger who’s so eager to share). This way people like me also had opportunities to share my answers and it made me feel like “yes! I did/get it!”. Another interesting part that popped up was using some sort of a rewards/punishment system to reinforce/control behavior is present in all cultures. For the most part, students are habituated to satisfactions that are not a part of the learning process per se because a lot of emphasis is on the rewards/punishment structure. Grades is a common factor that gets tossed into the basket when it comes to student’s attitudes. Getting bonus marks for being nice or getting lots of points deducted from cheating are all responding to behaviors. Assessments, like tests, should reflect what the student understands about content material and apply competencies to different questions. So getting marks off for external factors isn’t a compatible way to remind students to stop doing what they're doing wrong. I believe speaking with the students on some issues and trying to see where they’re getting at is more efficient, than a stick hitting a bull. It is just the case that grades are so prevalent in students' school lives that changing them would make the students react more firmly, though often in a more panicking state. Now I can see that the curriculum is not solely based on knowledge/book smart skills, but also street smart skills, ways to communicate/interact/deal with difficult situations. It may also allow students to integrate teachings of ethics, values, and character development. We see clearly that the three core competencies for the BC curriculum are thinking, communicating, and personal/social. So it doesn't just focus on knowledge.

Oct 11 Microteaching Post Reflection

What I gleaned from these reflections was that I graded myself relatively more harshly than how my peers graded me. This shows that the lesson generally went well and was enjoyable. However I did give myself a 3 for organization, whereas most of my peers gave me a 2. I think it is because my pacing wasn't well prepared. I had a good structure to my slides and things I wanted to do. The problem was that I added some extra things to the slides because I thought they were interesting. Those slides contained more information that were harder to differentiate from each other. I brushed by them quickly since time was so limited. A thing I learned was that topics that are interesting to me may not be as interesting to my students, at least when they haven't had the time to taste samples of richness. Giving more time for the listeners to refresh and go over questions/earlier concepts would help reinforce learning. Again, 10 minutes wasn't a lot of time, but it was great practice. I say this because if I can keep my mind focused and my lessons short/succinct in a short period of time (not giving out too many details at first), then I am sure to be able to get through my lessons during the allotted time for a class period. My topic chosen on semantics was interesting. My peers were fascinated with how words and sentences relate to each other. They liked how they had to come up with some examples amongst themselves. The quiz at the end helped put what they learned into practice. For my next micro teaching I would definitely cut down a slide or two and spend some time reviewing and adding fewer examples (since I had too many initially). Providing a sheet with terms and definitions would help too.

Oct 10 Microteaching Topic/Lesson Plan

Topic: Introduction to semantics (a section from linguistics), on relations among words and involving sentences.

Lesson Plan

Big Ideas: Semantic relations, word and sentence relations.

Prescribed Learning Outcomes (PLOs) and Achievement Indicators: 

• describe the meaning of semantics in a linguistics sense

• explain different semantic relations among words (synonymy, antonymy, polysemy, homophony)

and involving sentences (paraphrasing, entailment, contradiction)

• identify which meaning to associate a word with based on the context 

Objectives: 

• understand semantic relations and apply them in regular readings

• analyze notions used in evaluating the meanings of words and sentences

Materials and Equipment Needed:

• tablet for presenting and to write on 

• paper to practice questions and for testing 

Lesson Components/Activities: 

Beginning (1.5 min)

• introduction to semantics topic and its applications is areas in philosophy/psychology

• check in on prior knowledge (where it be from grade school or postsecondary) 

Middle (6.5 min)

• go through definitions of relations and provide examples and discuss other examples with each other

• go through any caveats (eg. what constitutes to being a polysemy/homophony)

• address issues that may arise when using certain words in any form of communication

End (2 min)

• go over any questions then test/evaluate learning by asking questions on which relation is used

Oct 4 Battleground Schools Reflection

I was surprised that the math curriculum went under many radical changes in the 20th century alone. The layout between the two (conservative vs. progressive) approaches to view/teach math['s various areas of interests] is also enlightening as I am able to better understand them. The move from methods to deduce algorithms to a more non-standard problem solving/inquiry where students invent their own methods to solutions opens up more pathways to accessibility and reaching goals. It was unfortunate to know that many teachers who teach math (because they were assigned to teach it) are not comfortable with the topic themselves. The article mentions that they will use their own methods to avoid going too deep and maneuvering around hard lessons due to the troubles they once had. Resorting to memorization is a common practice for those who just want to get things over with, and the real crux/meat of the matter of asking “why” is ignored. Math stereotypes arise to math phobia where only a selected elite group is capable of navigating through these hard waters. For me, I want to break that belief because I wasn't a strong math student growing up. It was one of my better subjects but I had troubles with understanding at times too. Eddie Woo, who was last place in math when he was a student, is now a mathtuber and teacher. His Ted Talk video on "Mathematics is the sense you never knew you had" opens up more room for the general population to be fluent/literate in math. This demonstrates that a student probably hasn't encountered an idea/situation/scenario that kindled some sort of interest that made them see why what they’re learning works/makes sense/is useful/is valuable. It never occurred to me that the high levels of competition in the American education system was probably due to global tensions during escalating times (such as the Cold War). The anxieties of a lack of talented intellectuals forced school systems to get more involved in K-12 students learning. I think this quickly filtered out the strong and the weak students at the time since the focus was more on flushing information down student’s heads rather than aiding/nurturing students. This again created a barrier for students who needed more time with understanding math from fully enjoying the richness it may provide. So timing is what I should work on as well, allowing each student the time to see where they may have troubles and go through fuzzy concepts. Creating an environment that isn’t so competitive will also be helpful, as students are able to focus on helping each other rather than competing against each other.

Oct 4 My Teaching Perspectives Inventory Results/Reflection

I wasn't surprised that my highest result was transmission. I value that the teacher of a particular subject should be knowledgeable in the field. Not only that, they should also be able to help students in any stage of learning to reach proficiency and maybe mastery. In my opinion, a specialist is most suitable to teach a specific subject area, albeit it doesn't hurt for a teacher new to the topic to learn ahead of time to get familiar with it. Having knowledge in the subject will allow the students to be comfortable asking tough questions. I know one case where when I was in grade 12, a grade 10 student asked my math teacher about Taylor series/expansion and he wasn't able to answer. It is not the case that all students will be this aspired, but it is always good preparation to be able to give a response. The TPI results also reflect my belief that attitude is important in a student's learning. Believing that you're not good at something will hinder your learning at the very beginning. If no effort or efficacy is present, then there is no assurance that those who do struggle will stop struggling. I am surprised that my apprenticeship total is lower, but it is my responsibility to know each students' zone of proximal development, so I may aid them in closing any learning gaps. Something I may want to work on is to address social issues that can be modeled with math and its realistic applications. This perspective is my lowest one and is recessive. I notice that some of my peers are also in the same boat as me. I wonder in what ways can teachers make math more interactive in real world experiences/topics? All in all I am glad to be able to come across several readings and hands on activities in these courses that allows me to better engage with these notions.