Oct 25th Professional Development Day

 For the Province-wide professional development day, I attended AOEC’s conference: “The Anti Oppression Classroom Toolkit: From Theory to Practice”. This was a rich day, though admittedly not explicitly in mathematics. This day involved a keynote speaker and some workshops, all which aligned with the philosophies I associate with anti-racism and SOGI.

My first workshop was about SOGI – Activism as Pedagogy; it was my first exposure to SOGI in an explicit educational context. It was helpful to have discussion around how ideologies associated with SOGI manifest in an educational context. In my second workshop, ‘Navigating Complex Conversations’, we worked with strategies to improve one’s ability to fully engage in conversation. In particular, we discussed some techniques which help one hold space with the intention of helping others share their story.

This conference ‘walked the talk’ as it relates to creating safe, welcoming environments – in this way I most clearly saw the value and importance of the pedagogies being discussed at this conference. This is work that I continue to integrate into my perceptions of the world, as a teacher. That being said, as junior math teacher, I intend to pursue a more math-oriented conference next pro-d day.

Lesson plan for Oct 16th Mini-Lecture

 

Non-Curricular Micro-Lecture Reflections

 Attached below are my peer-feedback forms. 

I think my micro-lecture went well, however I feel that I tried to fit too much content into 10 minutes. In doing this, I wasn't able to really interact directly with my peers, nor did I give them a chance to contribute / interact. I felt that the group was reasonably engaged, but I still felt like I was talking to / at them for 10 minutes. If I could do this micro-lecture again, I would included a Think-Pair-Share involving speculation about one specific archetype.

My peers agree that the lack of activity / interaction was an area for improvement. Additionally, from my own reflections, I realize that I used very academic language for this lecture. As such, I suspect this would have been difficult to access for English Language Learners. . 

This micro-lecture taught me about timing. In a classroom I expect to be able to use my time freely - I want to leave some 'space' which will allow the class to pursue interests that might specifically attract them. For this reason, I'm apprehensive to try 'timing' my lesson plan. That being said, completing this activity showed me the value of associating 'times' with certain ideas. Knowing how long it takes to explain some new concept is valuable information and does not restrict the flow of the classroom. Rather, it will better inform me as I guide the class towards certain ideas.

In short: this activity showed me timing is a tool, not a structure. 

Thinking Mathematically - Average Speed

While completing these, Q1 refers to the question in which we are given a 'number of minutes going at 60mph'. Q2 refers to the question in which we move at 60mph for a certain distance. 

At first, I didn't have any major problems. However, when I completed the Q2, I noticed that the generalization for Q1 and Q2 had the same coefficients! Given that the variables we were plugging in are different (a 'time' for Q1 and a 'distance' for Q2) something felt wrong. See below for my investigation of this. 

Q1:

Q2:

After converting the Q2 generalization to 'minutes', we see identical coefficients. This was confusing and warranted further investigation:

Looking through my work, I realized that the '10' in Q1 is assumed to have units 'mph'. This balances with the units on the bottom of the fraction, meaning that the 'time' units for t2 will be the same as t1. 

In Q2, because we are multiplying t1 by our initial speed (60mph), the final value for time is ALSO in hours. This yields my original equation for t2. However, when I convert this to minutes, I see that we still get the same coefficients. This was confusing! 

Finally, I realized that because our initial speed is 60mph, 25 min = 25 miles. This means that when we are travelling at 60mph, the magnitude of minutes that passes is equal to the magnitude of miles we travel. We are travelling at 1mile/min. This explains why we have identical coefficients in both equations. When we re-write the Q2 formula to be any unit of time other than minutes, the coefficients will be different. 

Interesting twist!

Non-Curricular Lesson Plan - Jung

In my experience writing lesson plans, I generally focus almost entirely on context. Although I was able to organize, in one page, all of the content I thought I would want to know while giving the lesson, I felt as though I would be detracting from it if I tried to fit information on the FPPL, Core Competencies, and Curricular Competencies. As such, I thought it best to have a separate page for this information. In my mind, I would print a single sheet, double-sided. 

Maybe this is too much? I hope this layout encourages me to give appropriate consideration to the FPPL and how they each tie into any one lesson. 

Lastly, I designed this template with math courses in mind. The sections for Curricular Competencies will be populated appropriately, depending on the Subject being taught.