Tag Archives: Reflections

Boardgames and Maths… Surely not?

Boardgames are fun,
There is maths in boardgames,
Therefore, Maths is fun

I’m not sure if that is quite right, but I do know that the second premise is true. Boardgames really do contain maths. On 1/12/15, we were all invited to bring in a boardgame and to play in the workshop, and I’ll admit that I was skeptical about it, but again, I was proven wrong. We talked about where the maths comes into it, and I was not disappointed!

One such example was a jigsaw. We were tasked with finding as many uses for a jigsaw as we could, I could think of:

Grouping
Distribution
Tessellation
Randomisation
Fractions

This makes a lot of sense as when most of us pick up a jigsaw, we tend to split the pieces up by colour, then we look for corners and straight edges and begin to build up the picture. The particular jigsaw we were using was a ‘Where’s Wally?’ one, so we considered distribution in the number people in the picture and then looked for the average number of people in a piece. Another obvious mathematical concept within comes in the form of tessellation, essentially that all the jigsaw pieces fit together to form a continued pattern, which is of course the case with a jigsaw.

Another game we had was Monopoly, the related mathematical concepts in Monopoly and I struggled to think of any. Yes, there is the obvious money, grouping of similarly priced properties, but I felt that there should be more, and they should be easier to find. When in doubt, take to google! I found this blog called ‘MONOPOLY MATH’ by someone called Lainie Johnson {http://blog.keycurriculum.com/monopoly-math/} which gave me loads of ideas, including:

Shape (rectangles and squares on the board)
Numerical orders (Properties are laid out in ascending value)
Probability (Dice)

Or as Lainie sums it up, “addition, subtraction, multiplication, fractions, percentages, statistics, probability, interest, patterns, number lines, and basic geometry”

This, to me, is amazing, I love to think that there is still more to discover in the world of mathematics, things that are not abstract beyond my understanding. So from a teaching perspective boardgames are an untapped resource for children. In my experience, the only time we see boardgames in classrooms is during free time or on the last few days of term as a means of keeping children quiet. To me, boardgames could be used far more constructively, to improve maths skills in children. I also think that the activity we did in the workshop, where we had the game in front of us an had to find the maths could be a good co-operative learning activity for groups of children, with perhaps a reward near the end of the week to be able to play the game.

Iraq Education

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“The impact of conflict, violence and displacement on education in Iraq is nothing short of devastating,” said Peter Hawkins, UNICEF’s Representative in Iraq. “Large numbers of children – those in host communities, displaced from their homes, as well as refugee children from Syria – continue to experience significant disruptions to their education, putting Iraq at risk of losing an entire generation to conflict.”

This quotation from Peter Hawkins, who is UNICEF’s Representative in Iraq. Hawkins is taking about the effects of the current conflict in Iraq. It seems that education is being affected by the conflict from all directions, and the children who are trying to access it are the ones who are losing out.

One major issue is that 5,300, which is 20% of schools, are no longer able to be used for education. This is because they are being used to house refugees or other displaced people. They are also being used by the military or are simply not safe for use due to being in a state of disrepair. The effect of this is that some children will no longer have a school which is close enough for them to attend and therefore they may have had to stop going to school because it’s not practical as it is too far, too dangerous, or costly to make the journey to access education.

On top of this, it has been reported that in the past year “67 attacks on schools and education personnel were reported”. This is a huge number of attacks and understandably will have scared those who work in education and those who access it. This would mean that teachers and other staff members are likely not wanting to go in to work and parents similarly do not want to put their children in unnecessary danger by sending them to school.

Another issue is, that in “northern Iraq, nearly 14,000 teachers have been forced to flee violence.” This means that there are far fewer teachers than there should be teaching in Iraq. This can mean that children do not have qualified teachers giving them an education so they will not learn as effectively, and may also not learn the correct material. The other issue is that it could mean that schools have to close and children begin to receive no education at all. I would argue that this is a massive brain drain for the country.

And what is the ultimate effect of all of the above? Well, in my opinion, in just a few years Iraq will find that they have an entire generation of children without an education. This will mean that they will find themselves without facing a shortage of people to become doctors, nurses, dentists, infrastructure workers etc. Iraq is going to have to work especially hard to deal with this problem in the very near future, so I believe that they need to work on education as soon as it is possible to prevent further issues related to health, crime and other social issues.

http://linkis.com/bs22S

http://muftah.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/iraq-school-trailers-650_416.jpg

A Logistical Nightmare

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So far in the module, the demand planning and logistics has been my favourite. I enjoyed the problem-solving nature of the activity and I think I was quite good at it.

Ever since, I have been looking for examples of this kind of activity in my everyday life. It is difficult to write about this one, as I am not allowed to mention the company I work for nor the exact nature of my work, however I am going to try.

Essentially this weekend I had a 2-hour slot to go around 11 different pubs in the local area. This was a lot harder than you may think, I had to plan my route around the city as I had to visit in three different post code areas. I admit that one thing I am really bad at is reading maps. I cannot ever seem to understand which way is North, what way round the map is, or where I am on the map. Usually I would just get someone else to do it, but this time I had to do planning for myself.

I decided to use Google Street-View to locate all of the places I needed to go and in what order. The time I had did not allow for doubling-back on myself, so I needed to get it right the first time. Initially I just put all the addresses in and thought it would do, but I found there was a lot of problems as I would have to drive up and down the same roads and it would not work in the time.

I found Google Street-View was a good tool for this kind of activity. I could put in all the addresses I wanted and then I could begin to switch them around until my route became as simplified as was possible and I could do all of the jobs in as short an amount of time as possible. I believe that this is logistics as I had information in the form of the addresses I had to get to and a problem in the form of how to get to them in a short period of time.

From a teaching perspective, this could be quite a good activity as it would teach children about planning routes themselves, especially if they too can’t read maps, it would also be a good problem solving activity, as it is fundamental mathematics but it does not require any maths skills in the academic sense, which could be a great activity to encourage confidence.

On a personal level, I have also learned that I should probably try to gain some confidence of my own in map-reading. This is something I am going tottery my best to do as during the Outdoor Education workshop, I had to sit back and allow the others in my group to take the lead as I did not understand what was going on at all. I am going to make every effort to be able to do this.

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/maps/europe/scotland/dundee/

Demand Planning and Logistics

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Myself and Jenny found that we were quite good at this activity…

Demand Planning and Logistics

This activity was an interesting one for me. We paired up and had to complete the activity, based around demand planning. To explain what demand planing is, I found this video was really good at explaining it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuxpzqVX0xI

Basically it is planning ahead how much stock an organisation is going to sell so that there is enough stock available to sell so as to make as much profit as possible. Obviously that is a really simplified explanation, but that is what it is.

We got into pairs and were given a spreadsheet to fill in. We were given €5,000, and had to run a shop. We had to plan what would sell depending on the season and how much of it we should buy. Each season we were told how much of our products had sold and at what price and we then had to decide what to buy more of and what to stop buying.

The mathematics involved was not difficult, but it did require a lot of thought. Some people lost money by ordering the wrong products, such as Christmas selection boxes in the summer season, or ice-cream wafers in the winter season. We also had the option of buying ‘Premium Durian’, which only ever sold around 10-20%, and was therefore not a good buy as it would cost more to purchase than the profit made on them when sold. Also available were items such as beans, bananas and milk, which always sold at a minimum of 70%.

The maths was not the arithmetic involved, we had calculators and it was mostly very simple addition and subtraction. The real mathematics was in the patterns that began to form. It took some of us a a little while to understand this, but we had to be able to see that, for example, bread sales were always high, so investing in bread was a good idea as it always sold, whereas the durian did not sell or only sold very little. Of course it was important to look at the selling price of certain seasonal items in each season, as when it dropped suggested that it was not going to sell as well.

From a teaching perspective this was interest to consider, as on the face of it, it seems to be fairly complicated. However, the more I considered the activity, the more I thought it was one that I may try with children. I think that it could be done as a mathematics activity, but also a business one. It also occurred to e that this could be a really good activity to have children engage in cooperative learning and good to encourage them to take on group roles. I also think that it could be adapted and used in almost any class topic, maybe running a school or a zoo or maybe a park. I think that it would require a lot of build up and the children in the class would need to be given a lot of support. but it is definitely an activity I would try in the future.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuxpzqVX0xI

Uncut Lesson 1- James Evelyn

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http://www.playbackschools.org.uk/programme/2262/uncut-lesson-1-james-evelyn

What are the most effective aspects of teaching which emerge for you?

Actively using numbers as opposed to writing down
Asking the children what they already know
Peer assessing each other’s work
Effective use of technology
Lesson linked to children personally
Included all children
Recapping on what had been learned previously
Effective use of visual tools
Cross-Curricular learning – maths and Spanish
Teacher took on the children’s ideas
Worked individually, in groups, in pairs and as a whole class
Final activity to consolidate what had been learned

What are the least effective?

Potential for some children not to be following the lesson
Some children may just be copying each other

What are the factors contributing to success or problems?

Temperamentality of technology
Children’s ability to work independently
Children’s ability to work unsupervised (ie. without the teacher sitting with them)
Respect for each other
Individual personalities
Engagement with the lesson
Level of interest in the lesson
Willingness to cooperate with the lesson

How could you use some of the success factors?

I think that the teacher here used a very effective method to start the lesson. I think that to use the numbers where children had to actively be the numbers worked really well, I imagine that this is a recap of something that they had learned before, which I think would be an effective way of keeping up with past learning. I also thought it was good to have the other children to peer assess what they were doing and correct each other’s mistakes, I think they will have remembered their mistakes and not made them again. I think that when I am teaching, I am going to try to use this idea and use starter activities to help to focus on learning and to remember previously learned knowledge.

I also think it was a really good idea to link the children to the lesson, to make the data for the lesson the children themselves and their characteristics made them feel more involved. To use all of the children meant that they all felt included in the lesson, which would mean that they pay more attention and learn more. When I am teaching, I think it could be an effective method to include all the children and to use them as the subjects of the lesson.

I think that the way that the teacher has included Spanish in the maths lesson is a really good idea. I think that to include another subject in a lesson is what the Curriculum for Excellence is all about, so when I am teaching, I will have to try to do this. However, I can see how effective this is in the video and will be very active in my attempts to do this as a teacher.

I also think that it was effective to use different groups. I think that using groups, pairs and working as a whole class allowed children to learn from each other as well as the teacher allowed them an opportunity to consolidate their knowledge, and helped to improve confidence, which I think is very important. When I am teaching, I am going to remember this, as I think to do this is very important and it can also improve social skills, which is a valuable skill to have in children.

Uncut Lesson 1- Rachel Atkins

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http://www.playbackschools.org.uk/programme/1330/uncut-lesson-1-rachel-atkins

What are the most effective aspects of teaching which emerge for you?

Choice of what to do
Stations
Some children were outside while others were inside
Teacher did not do things for the children – got them to try themselves first
Teacher did not give the children the answers – the children had to think about it first
Stickers, star chart, ‘happy face’ board – positive reinforcement
Use of the specialist teacher
Pairs work
Hands up
“1,2,3” – method to get children quiet
Actively involved in the story
Going back through the story at the end
Realising that the kids were thirsty and bored, so changed what they were doing to accommodate that
Mixing with the other classes

What are the least effective?

Children working on their own – could lose focus and start wandering around
Took a long time explaining/getting started

What are the factors contributing to success or problems?

Respect for each other
Individual personalities
Engagement with the lesson
Level of interest in the lesson
Willingness to cooperate with the lesson

How could you use some of the success factors?

I think that the teacher here used some very effective methods to teach. I think that by giving the children a choice of what they wanted to do, she was engaging them better as they had an interest in what they were learning, which I think would make them more focused on their task and likely to take more from why they were learning. When I am teaching, I am going to remember the idea of having stations and letting children choose between them, as I think that it was a very effective method of teaching.

I think that when they read the story, and all the children felt like they were a part of it was a good idea. When I am teaching I am going to remember this practice, as I could see on the video that the children were enjoying it, and that they were not sitting passively listening, so they were taking more in, which I think is really important, as it gives the reading of the story a point during the lesson.

When I am teaching, I am going to remember the resilience of the teacher in the video. When she realised that the children were all thirsty and becoming bored, she changed the plans and sent them to get a drink and to find an activity to do. I think this is very important, as I can imagine that it is very easy to want to stick to your plans, despite how the children feel and how they are acting – especially with the inspector there.

Concept Cartoons

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Concept Cartoons

Investigate & research concept cartoons
What are they?
How do they help you teach science?
Make links between these and the constructivist theory of teaching

Concept cartoons are pictorial aids to help with learning, in this case the learning of science. They allow children to consider different scientific concepts and make informed hypotheses and choices. This should lead to greater understanding, as children are able to think for themselves without as much teacher input to over-guide their thinking. It will stimulate them to make mistakes and then be able to investigate why they thought they were right, and why they might be wrong, which should lead to greater understanding of the concepts as opposed to simply knowing the answer.

Constructivism in the classroom calls for children to learn through active problem- solving, and the use of a concept cartoon could fit perfectly into this model. If I were to use one in through a constructivist approach, I would show the cartoon to start with and ask the children to hypothesise the answer, and then have them conduct an experiment to find out the correct answer. I believe this would help them to understand the science behind the experiment.

For example, one could use the concept cartoon on the left to test the stated hypotheses. When suitable weather conditions became available one could ask the children what they thing, or which of the children the agree with, and then go outside and build two snowmen and put a coat on one and have them monitor which melts faster or if they melt at similar speeds, which would allow children to learn about insulation and the melting process in an active way which should consolidate their understanding. With older children, one could do a similar experiment and allow them to make their own concept cartoon. Or give them some resources and allow them to create their own experiment and a concept cartoon to be completed by peers.

http://www.pstt.org.uk/ext/cpd/dips/concept-cartoons.htm

http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/constructivism/

Do Schools Kill Creativity

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Before watching the above clip, I would have said that I could understand the arguments that schools do stifle creativity, through making them wear uniforms, and learn uncreative subjects like mathematics and providing them with a structured day. But I would also have said that many schools do provide what I would deem adequate facilities for children to express their creativity, through the compulsory inclusion of the expressive arts.

Having listened to the ideas of Sir Ken Robinson, I find the concept of ‘compulsory expressive arts’. This seems ironic now, as we are attempting to structure our children’s creativity. I now agree that we probably do educate children out of their creative capacities, as we move through the education system, less and less emphasis is placed upon the expressive arts subjects, unless one has a specific talent in it, at which point we again attempt to structure their work, while we have the other children learn ‘more useful’ subjects.

I also accept his point that children begin to lose the ability to have a go and make mistakes, I see it all the time at university. I myself do not volunteer to answer questions or otherwise contribute incase I am wrong or look daft in front of other students. I think that children are almost conditioned to think that mistakes are bad as they go through school, and I hate to think that the children I will work with will have this worry.

I remember sayings like “Don’t do music, you won’t be an musician” and “Don’t do art, you won’t be an artist”. And while I did not have a specific interest myself, I have friends who did and I am sure would have done well, but they had parents who did not think that there was a lot of value in it, though on the other hand, I also had friends who received scholarships to school in music and have now left school and gone on to pursue their talent.

I think that there are some children who have to ‘move to think’, though I was not one myself, preferring to sit and listen. I think that there is probably more that schools could do to help these children to learn effectively, though I would have to do some more research to give any examples. I think that an increase in the amount of time spent on the expressive arts may be a good place to start.

Productive Failure: A Recipe for Success!

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Productive Failure, it sounds strange, basically it is a teaching strategy by which children are set up to fail. They are set a mathematics task that they have not learned yet: standard deviation; parabolas; algebra, and they have to try to do the problem by working through it. The method was first coined by Dr Manu Kapur, who is the head of the Learning Sciences Lab at the National Institute of Education of Singapore. His website – see above – is well worth a read of to see more of his work.

I have been thinking a lot about this method of teaching. Essentially children are being asked to complete problems that they do not know how to complete, it is completely beyond their abilities at this point. Initially I wondered how this could possibly be helpful, we all know the dangers of setting work at a level that is too difficult for the child to complete, with their self-esteem and confidence especially in a subject such as mathematics as it is the cause of much anxiety in and of itself.

But then I though more about it and it struck me that there were strong links with Productive Failure and Vygotski’s Zone of Proximal Development.

Essentially, Productive Failure asks children to work within the red section of the Zone of Proximal Development, as they are asked to complete problems that they cannot do. Now that I can see this, I realise that Productive Failure could be a highly useful classroom tool if used in the right way. I think that the method would have to be talked through first, so that children understand fully that it is not to catch them out, it’s not a test, and that it is a chance for them to see what they will be learning and look for possible links to topics they have done before. I also think that it would have to be a collaborative activity where children could work in small groups or pairs to work on a problem to bits of it work out. It would very much be about scaffolding and building up knowledge.

I think that this is a concept that I would like to use, possibly on my 3rd or 4th year placement to see if it works well in practice, and whether it is easily adapted to different ages and stages and even subjects, perhaps for beginning new topics or learning spelling words.

https://getyourheadaroundit.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/zpd-graphic.gif

http://qz.com/535443/the-best-way-to-understand-math-is-learning-how-to-fail-productively/

Why Floundering Is Good

French Workshop 23 /10/15

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Workshop 2

Today in the French Workshop we were looking at numbers. Immediately I was significantly more relaxed than last week, I believe it was because I am more confident with numbers than with greetings.

The most memorable part of the workshop was the ‘Kings and Queens’ game, we sat in a circle and all had a number associated with the chair we were sitting on, and had to say a number and if someone made a mistake then they had to go to the end of the circle. I found this to be quite stressful, in that I was really very nervous about being in the hot-seat and really did not like everyone looking at me when I spoke. Though I had to think about how I would feel if I was a primary school child. On one hand, if I was a nervous type of person I would be thinking that I wanted to not lose and may feel quite stressed about being the only one to get things wrong. If I was more of a confident person, I would be concerned with winning, possibly beating my friends.

I think that the activity was good, but I think that I would have to be aware of the different personalities in the class, I may split the class into smaller groups so that they will be more confident that they are not speaking in front of the whole class. Another option would be to play the game in English for a few week so that they could become really confident in the game so that it would not be too stressful in French.

I left feeling less panicked and stressed than last week, but I am not feeling very confident and would like to have done a lot better. Next week I am going to try to participate a little more and boost my confidence levels.

Out of 5, I would give my anxiety levels a 3.