A version of Math Mastermind -- a great logic game to have ready at any moment!

Here is a version of Math Mastermind, slightly different from the way I play it, but really the same game.

Flatland the Film & Flatland the Movie

These two films, both based on the 19th century math novel, are quite different from each other!

Here is a link to the official site for Flatland the Movie, and what claims to be a free download site for  Flatland the Film, Flatland the Movie and Sphereland.

Math Xmas carols and other silly songs!

Here is a link to a new bunch of Math Xmas Carols that we'll try out in our class math party today -- and here are some older ones as well.

Textbook assessment: a chance to practice this important skill

Today we looked at a number of textbooks, new and old, and assessed them in the terms listed below. Interestingly, we found that even a math textbook is very much a reflection of the time, place and society it comes from! No matter that the mathematical content is slow to change -- the social and educational contexts (and printing technologies) change much quicker.

Expectations for your unit plan assignment

Here are the notes from our board in class today:

Pailin's powerpoint on Culinary Math!

Here is a link to the PowerPoint slides from Pailin's great presentation today!










You might want to see Pailin's YouTube channel and blog too -- Hot Thai Kitchen. She is an amazing chef and teacher.

Photos from Monday's class!

Starting to sketch out a unit plan: conic sections

Today we tried out a lesson activity around the focus/directrix 'locus of points'  definition of a parabola, and made a start on researching and thinking about the history and uses of conic sections, reasons to teach this unit in schools, and pedagogies we might take on.

Here are some further resources and a photo of our whiteboards in class today. Arshbir is also planning to upload the photos of the parabolas we made in our two groups outside the Scarfe building!

Here is a clip from the feature film Agora showing Hypatia with her conic sections model.

Here is the Wikipedia article on the history of conic sections -- lots here!

And here is another Wikipedia article, on parabolic reflectors.

Unit planning assignment: The details! Due Wed. Dec. 16 at midnight

A unit of work in secondary school mathematics generally lasts 4 to 5 weeks, and includes about 10
to 12 lessons. In most courses, there are 9 or 10 units of work per year -- approximately one per month. I hope that your unit planning assignment will get you started planning for a unit of work that you will actually be teaching for your long practicum!

Each of your sponsoring teachers will have slightly different requirements for unit planning, and for your practicum, you will need to work with those individual requirements.

For this course, I am most interested in seeing your background thinking and planning for designing the unit. I want to see that you can:

•answer the question "why are we learning this?";
•make connections for yourself and your students with the history, uses, and beauty of this topic;
•think deeply about the pedagogy of this topic and the possibilities for teaching it;
•work out formal and informal ways of assessing students' progress in learning this topic;
•design a large or small student mathematics project that will be part of the unit.

You will also need to think out the sequencing of your 10-12 lessons and outline this in a chart.

In planning a complete unit for your practicum, you will need to write a lesson plan for each of the lessons. For our class purposes, I am only asking you for one lesson plan -- but this should be for an especially-inspiring, creative and actively engaging lesson that does not follow the traditional pattern of lecture/exercises/homework. (I expect that some but not all of your lessons in the unit will follow that traditional pattern -- but I would like to see your plan for one that does not!)

Please download the template linked here to write up your unit plan, and stick closely to the suggested word counts for each section. You will see that you are asked to produce short paragraphs for each section, but I will expect them to be well-researched and well-thought out.


Hope you enjoy the process, and the teaching!

Reading & blog response for Monday Dec. 7: John Mason on questioning in math class

Here is the link to John Mason's short and very interesting article on questioning in mathematics classes ! (*Note that the article starts a few pages into the pdf).

Please read this and comment in your blog on:

1) Do Mason's ideas might connect with inquiry-based learning in secondary school mathematics? (And why or why not?)
2) How might Mason's ideas about questions in math class be incorporated into your unit planning for your long practicum?

Have fun!

Two notices from the TEO : school visits & Dec. 17 guest speaker

1) Here's a notice from John Yamamoto to the FAs about your Tuesday school visits:

Hello FAs,

Just a reminder that your TCs are beginning their three ‘bridging’ visits to their placement schools this Tuesday. On December 1, 8 and 15 they will be returning to their placements and reconnecting with their school advisors and school communities. They should be utilizing this time to continue to build their relationships with their SAs (and you), confirm their extended practicum teaching loads, obtain resources for their spring practicum, and/or further their planning/preparation for EDUC 421. In some cases TCs will also be required to teach, however this is not a typical requirement for these Tuesdays. You are also free to utilize parts of these days for collaborative meetings with your TCs if you wish to do so.

Should you be asked by any of your TCs, these Tuesdays are not optional – they are mandatory for all, and the expectation is that they will spend all day at their schools (unless they have other meetings scheduled through you, or in some cases with the school districts for orientation).

Finally, if you have students who are taking their placements out of town, they will be fulfilling the requirements for these Tuesdays by visiting various local schools. I will be coordinating these visits for them, but if you have any specific goals in mind for these visits please feel free to communicate them to your TCs.

Many thanks
John Yamamoto


2) And here is a notice from the TEO about the Neil Stephenson talk you should attend on Thursday Dec. 17, 12:30 - 2:00 in Room 100:

Dear colleagues,

Could you kindly let your students know about a special presentation by Delta’s Director of Learning Services, Neil Stephenson, on Thursday, Dec. 17th from 12:30-2:00 pm in Scarfe 100? This was arranged based on student feedback that, while there are good opportunities in this program to inquire into one’s own and others’ teaching practice, there are not enough connections being made to how teachers incorporate an inquiry perspective in teaching their students.  Neil works extensively with teachers in his district and beyond in doing just that.  

Info: http://teach.educ.ubc.ca/event/neil-stephenson-sec-17-dec-2015/

We had a less than full turnout of secondary teacher candidates at last week’s mini-conference, which was disappointing for the presenters and a missed opportunity for those who were not there.  It is important that we encourage candidates to attend these important sessions organized (at some expense) for them.  We really hope you’ll attend too if possible.

Thanks and see you soon.

Wendy

I’ll send a separate message about an upcoming inquiry instructor meeting.

Presentation by Neil Stephenson
For Secondary Teacher Candidates

Thursday, December 17, 2015
12:30 p.m – 2:00 p.m.
Scarfe 100

Neil Stephenson, Director of Learning Services for the Delta School District, speaks to teacher candidates and faculty/instructors about adopting an inquiry approach re: the new BC curriculum and the profession.

Presentation:

British Columbia, like many educational jurisdictions, is moving to an increasingly progressive, learner-centred curriculum designed to better prepare students for the future. But how do we do that shift well? What is worth keeping as our system increasingly values creativity and innovation? And what should new teachers focus on as they enter this dynamic profession?

Bio:

Neil Stephenson is the Director of Learning Services for the Delta School District. As part of his position, Neil co­-leads the district’s Coordinator of Inquiry program; a district -wide system that is inspiring and supporting collaborative teacher inquiry whereby school educators and leaders work at the school level to enact various teacher ­initiated programs and new instructional approaches. Before moving to Delta four years ago, Neil’s last stop was at the Calgary Science School in Calgary, Alberta. Spending 9 years at this innovative, inquiry­-based school confirmed Neil’s passion for student­ centered, inquiry­-based learning. During his time at the school, his regular mentoring from the Galileo Educational Network inspired him to design tasks for student engagement and deep learning. During Neil’s time as a teacher at the Calgary Science School he was chosen as an Apple Distinguished Educator, and was awarded a Prime Minister’s Award, a Governor General’s award and an Alberta Social Studies award of excellence.

From today's whiteboards (Nov. 23): 2-column solutions & group micro teaching info

This Wednesday, Nov. 25,  I will need to be at grad (since several of my grad students will be graduating!) It will be a work day for the class, and a chance to work on:

•an individual assignment (2-column problem solving)
•a group assignment (group curricular micro teaching -- lesson planning for next Monday)

Here are the whiteboard notes from these!

And here are our notes as a class after watching excerpts from Dave Hewitt's Number Line and Thinking of a Number teaching videos:

Group curricular micro teaching & 2-column puzzle solving

Here are the groups and topics for the group micro teaching next Monday Nov. 30 (spilling over to Wednesday Dec. 2): (Please edit this to add your names, topic and grade/ course levels)

1) Deeya, Etienne & Ying Ting:  Ambiguous case of sine law (Gr. 11)
2) Alison, Ian: Introduction to linear relations/graphing (Gr. 8)
3) Alice, Daniel and Nadereh: Gr. 11 or 12
4) Pari, Amandeep, Shan: Probability (Gr. 8) (or possibly Pythagorean Theorem?)
5) Jacob & Julie: Multiplying Fractions and Mixed Numbers
6) Arshbir & Sissi: Graphing relations (Gr. 10) (What aspect of this topic?)
7) Pacus, Iqra, Heijin:
8) Simran, Mandeep, Jessica: Percentages (Gr. 8) (What aspect of percentages?) (or probability?)
9) Alice, Daniel, Nadereh: infinite geometric series

Here are the puzzles people have chosen from John Mason's Thinking Mathematically for their two-column problem solving individual assignment: (Please edit to add your name and the name of the puzzle you have chosen. We will aim to have a different puzzle for each person.)

1) Shan: One Sum
2) Rachel: Diagonals of a Rectangle
3) Alice: Reversals
4) Amandeep: Coin Slide Puzzle
5) Daniel: Quad-Cut Triangles
6) Jimmy: Kathy's Coin Puzzle
7) Sissy: Odd Divisors
8) Heijin: Weighing Fish
9) Deeya: Hundred Squares
10) Jessica: Faulty Bricks
11) Jacob: Rolling Coins
12) Pacus: Full-Length Mirrors
13) Iqra: Ins and Outs
14) Ying Ting: Ladies' Luncheon
15) Alison: Tethered Goat (Silo Version)
16) Etienne: Arithmagons -- Secret Numbers
17) Julie: Square Bashing
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Homework for Monday Nov. 23, 9 AM: Dave Hewitt on what is arbitrary and necessary in the math curriculum

Here is a very interesting article for you to read and respond to before Monday's class:

Dave Hewitt: Arbitrary and Necessary (part 1) 
 For your blog post, please respond the following questions:

1) What does Hewitt mean by "arbitrary' and "necessary"? How do you decide, for a particular lesson, what is arbitrary and what necessary?

2) How might this idea influence how you plan your lessons, and particularly, how you decide "Who does the math" in your math class?

Enjoy!!

[For those who are interested in following up further, here are Part 2 and Part 3 of Dave Hewitt's series of articles on 'arbitrary and necessary'.]

Oh, too bad! BCAMT New Teachers' Conference cancelled for Nov. 21 because of low enrolment

Hi everyone. Sadly, the BCAMT has decided to cancel their New Math Teachers' Conference next weekend (Nov. 21) because of low enrolment. Thanks to Ying Ting and Shan for alerting me to this, and very sorry that this happened.

If I remember correctly, this conference used to be offered in January or February, farther away from the big October Pro-D Day conference, and I think that may have been a better time for everyone. It also gave the BCAMT a longer time to publicize the event.

Sorry to everyone who was really looking forward to this great conference! I will keep my eyes open for other opportunities that may come up, or for a possible rescheduling of this conference.

SNAP Math Fair field trip this Wednesday Nov. 18, 1:00- 2:30 at the Museum of Anthropology!

I am very pleased and excited that we will be able to participate in the SNAP Math Fair organized by Chris Stroud and his colleagues at West Point Grey Academy this Wednesday afternoon at the Museum of Anthropology on the UBC campus.

Chris will be here for a short presentation in class today. Chris also did his Masters degree at UBC on the topic of SNAP Math Fairs.

SNAP stands for Student-centred, Non-competitive, All-inclusive and Problem-based. Here is a link to the SNAP Math Fair site. I think you'll find that Chris and his colleagues are taking this idea to many new and exciting places too -- for example, to collaborations with the Museum of Anthropology, the Space Centre, the Aquarium and Science World!

Here is a link to the Math Fair Booklet that Chris uses to plan his math fairs. It has lots of good, open-ended problems that are worth kids spending some time on!

On Wednesday Nov. 18 at 1:00 PM sharp, we will meet in the main lobby of the Museum of Anthropology (corner of West Mall and NW Marine Drive, about 5 blocks NW of the Scarfe Building). Our class that day will be held at the SNAP Math Fair there.

Your homework assignment is to read pp. 1 - 18 of The Math Fair Booklet (linked above) and to write a response to the following question:

• Could you, and would you, run a SNAP Math Fair in your practicum high school? Why/ Why not? If you can imagine doing so, how would you adapt the Math Fair to your school and classes, and why?

Enjoy!!

Csikszentmihalyi & Peter Liljedahl on "flow", happiness, and mathematics learning in your classroom

Mihalyi Csikszenmihalyi, a Hungarian-American psychologist, has studied a state he calls 'flow', where people are completely engaged and delighted in a process of problem-solving, and our normal sense of time is suspended. Here is a link to his TED talk on this topic from 2004.

Professor Peter Liljedahl from SFU Math Education has taken up the idea of 'flow' in both a descriptive and prescriptive way for our math classrooms. Here are his slides shared from his Saturday session at the Northwest Math Teachers' Conference from October.

From our class today: Some of the things to learn about your new school

Generally, you will need to learn a lot about the culture and practices of the school community. I highly recommend taking time this week to study your school's website (just google the school's name and district online). Some of the specific things you'll need to learn are here, from our whiteboard notes in class today:

Here's to a great short practicum for everybody!

I will be seeing many of you in Thursday morning's class, where we will talk about these -- but for those in another section of EDUC 450B, here are some inspirational tips for you as you start your experience as a teacher.

All the best for a terrific experience, and see you back on campus in two weeks!


Inspirational tips 1

Inspirational tips 2

What else is in the curriculum besides the PLOs?

We will explore other sections of the curriculum documents in class today. The BC curriculum also includes topics like:

• the nature of mathematics
• Aboriginal approaches
• the role of emotion and affect
• alternative delivery of curriculum
• inclusion
• involving parents and guardians

...and much more!

This is all as important to the way you teach the mandated curriculum as are the PLOs.

How to find the BC Math curriculum if you don't have these links

• Google "BC Ministry of Education curriculum"
• Choose English (or French), grade level and subject
• Choose the exact IRPs you are looking for
• Click on "pdf" to get a copy of the full curriculum documents for that grade.

Grade 10 curriculum

Group members: Alice, Heijin, Amandeep, Jordan, Pacus, Iqra

Topics covered in Apprenticeship and workplace mathematics grade 10 include:

Measurement- convert SI units, solve and verify problems that involve SI
Geometry- angles, parallel, perpendicular and transversal lines
Number- understanding of income
Algebra - area, Pythagorean theorem, perimeter

Topics covered in Foundations of mathematics and Pre-Calculus grade 10 include:

Measurement- Solve problems that involve linear measurement, 3-D objects
Algebra and number- Factors, powers, polynomial expressions, irrational numbers

Relations and Functions- slope, linear relations, understanding of relations and functions, graph and equation of a linear relation.

We found that in the grade 10 Apprenticeship and workplace mathematics, the topics are more practical, related to the real world situations like converting units and currencies. The grade 10 Foundations of mathematics and Pre-Calculus is more abstract with more emphasis in equation solving, graphing systems and writing functions.

Math 8 & Math 9

Group member (Julie, Sissi, Shan, and Alison's group)

From the prescribed learning outcomes of the curriculum guide, we found that some Math 8 learning outcomes are implemented as a transition and preparation for Math 9. For instance,  Math 8 explores perfect squares, square roots and approximating square root of numbers that are not perfect squares which facilitates as a foundation for extending the concepts of imperfect squares roots into irrational numbers.

Math 8 topics include:

• Perfect squares and square roots
• percentage, rates, ratio
• multiplication and division of fractions, mixed numbers, and integers
• linear equations
• Pythagorean theorem
• Surface area and formulas of right prisms and cylinders
• top, front, and side view of 3-D object
• tessellations
• presentation of data
• Independent events

Math 9 topics include:

• Power
• rational numbers
• square root of positive rational numbers
• graph of linear relations
• interpolation and extrapolation
• single variable linear inequalities
• operations on polynomials
• circle properties
• surface area of composite 3-D objects
• similarity of polygons
• Scale diagrams of 2-D shapes
• line and rotational symmetry
• Data collection
• population and sample data
• project plan for collection, display, and analysis of data
• probability in society

Foundations 11 & 12

Group 3 (Rachel, Yingting, Deeya, Jacob, Jimmy)

Foundations 11 and 12 are courses that students wish to take if they want to pursue in arts and humanity courses. These courses include history, geography, psychology, etc.

Topics covered in Foundations 11 include:

- Velocity / rates
- Proportional reasoning
- Surface area/ volume
- Planar geometry (triangles, angles, sine law/cosine law)
- Proving
- Analyzing puzzles and games
- Statistics (normal distribution, confidence intervals, levels, margin of error)
- Linear inequalities
- Quadratics (graphs)
- Research project


Topics covered in Foundations 12 include:

- Finance like simple and compound interest; P = a (1+r)^n
- Renting/leasing/buying
- Logic/set theory, Ex: A = {1,2,3}, R, Q, A U B ,
- Probability theory
- Combinatorics
- Polynomials, exponential, log
- Trigonometric functions. Ex: sine, cosine, tangent, etc.
- Research project at the end of the course (summative assessment)

Pre-Calculus 11 and Pre-Calculus 12

• quadratic functions covered in grade 11
• some topics like absolute value, logarithms, and polynomial equations were covered at a basic level 
• grade 11 has few repetitions such as factorization and measuring angles
• both grades 11 and 12 cover trigonometry and relations and functions with increasing difficulty respectively
• graphing and analyzing transformation of exponential functions introduced in grade 11
• graphing and evaluating radical functions introduced in grade 12
• permutations, combinations and binomial distributions introduced in grade 12

Simran, Arshbir, Daniel, Ian, and Jessica

The BC Secondary Math Curriculum

Here are links to the BC IRPs for secondary school mathematics:

Math 8-9

Math 10-12

Calculus 12

You can also find these by googling "BC Ministry of Education" and following the links to curriculum --> subject areas --> mathematics.

These IRPs are part of the WNCP: the Western and Northern Canadian Protocol. This is a common curriculum shared by all the western provinces (Manitoba to BC) and the territories (Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Yukon), and is designed to make smoother transitions for students moving from one jurisdiction to another. It was adopted in 2008 after several years of consultations.

A new curriculum in all subjects K-12 is being brought in...soon. At the Pacific NW Math Conference in Whistler last weekend, teachers and Ministry people working on the new curriculum gave us updates on what's happening. As you can see here, the Math 10-12 curriculum is NOT ready yet,but watch this space.

The first draft of the new curriculum is supposed to be ready by February 2016, and will be based on Big Ideas and Key Competencies as well as topics similar to the current IRPs. Mike Pruner, who is working on this, said that about 30% of the new curriculum would involve new material, and 70% would be similar to the current topics.

Organizing our micro teaching

EDCP 342A-15 micro teaching

Hallway:

Alison- basic steps, swing dancing
Amandeep – how to play cricket
Ian – popping: dance moves
Daniel – Rubic’s Cube or hockey ref
Deeya—basic French words


i) Arshbir—braiding hair
Jimmy—card trick
Pari – spices
Shan – how to play Go
Rachel—how to make kimchi

ii) Etienne—Greek alphabet
Iqra – Henna tattoo
Julie – solving Sudoku puzzles
Mandeep- ribbon & paper craft
Sissi – writing Chinese character

iii) Ying Ting—history of tea
Jessica – Saxton Freymann animals from fruits & veg
Jordan—Settlers of Catan
Nadereh—lenses
Simran—how to write your name in Punjabi or Hindi

iv) Gladis –how to make a rainbow in a glass
Heijin – first phrases in Korean
Jacob – Chinese chess
Pacus- magic trick
Alice—iPad apps

Battleground Schools reading for Monday Oct. 26, 9 AM

Our next reading is a short piece I published on the history of math education over the past 100 years in North America.

Battleground Schools: Mathematics education

It's from a very interesting book/ encyclopedia called Battleground Schools which is full of interesting short articles on contested areas of education in the past century -- highly recommended! Quite a few UBC Education profs have contributed to this two volume set, so you may find writing by some of your other instructors here too.

For this blog response, please comment on the fraught history of mathematics education in North America and the ways that you think this might affect your own situation as a math teacher.

The NCTM Standards & Common Core Curriculum

The US-based National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) has had an enormous effect on mathematics curricula worldwide -- including BC! Understanding the NCTM is essential for understanding our own curriculum.

Here is the link to the new NCTM Common Core executive summary,  a link to the Common Core State Standards (something like our IRPs) and a link to the executive summary of the  NCTM Principles and Standards from 2000. We will look at this today to get a sense of one of the biggest influences on our curricular reforms and understand where it is coming from.

Note that there are also standards for teachers, related to a neo-liberal climate of measurement, accountability and teacher testing in the US.

The general NCTM website is accessible at NCTM.org. It is well worth getting acquainted with the great lesson plans, puzzles, interactive activities and other resources included on this page too!

"Teaching Math to People Who Think They Hate It"

I came across this article. Just thought to share it with you all :) 

We need to have students make math at the secondary level or even younger!

Peer- and self-assessment criteria for Wednesday's micro teaching

Here is a form I've put together from our discussion of lesson planning in class today. Make sure to include all these elements in your lesson plan, to be posted to your blog by 9AM next Wednesday, October 21! You can experiment with a one-page format for lesson planning that suits you.

Peer- and self-assessment of 10-minute microteaching  EDCP 342A  Oct. 21, 2015

Name of person teaching:

Topic:                                                               Your name:

Please rate:  1=low, 2=moderate, 3=high,	1	2	3
Objectives & goals made clear
Opening: “hook” or interesting start
Materials well organized
Check-in on learners’ prior knowledge
Participatory activities included
Learning of ideas and skills developed
Timing well planned
Closing: finishing up, indicating closure
Assessment (formal and/or informal) of the learning
Indication of applications or future directions

Comments & suggestions: