Exit Slip: Reflective Teacher and Jo Boaler's "Beautiful Maths"

 Today's topics were reflective teaching and the multi-dimensional approach to math. 

As a group, we discussed that as a new teacher, there is a need to conform to the schools current system. There was a teacher before that had success with their classroom and the proceeding teacher is expected to take up this role in the school. But like most symbiotic relationships, there is give and take between the institution and the teacher. I think little by little the teacher can test their own strategies of teaching and slowly develop their own new teaching structure that the school will eventually rely on. 

The next part of our discussion was on reflection, planning and improvisation. I expressed my concerns about my own habits of hyper-planning and when to find a place and time for reflection on the events of the day as a teacher. Max proposed a solution that gelled well with me. A teacher can plan for the coming day by writing down a rough outline of activities and what to focus on. The teacher also plans for brief breaks between the activities to reflect on the previous event. "Did that go well?" and "How can I improve that next time?" and the teacher can even change the following activity and try some improvisation. We agreed that changing things and improvising can be beneficial but very draining so having a plan can help. 

Personally, I really want to help students who focus on the ending rather than the journey. As a high school student myself, I was always in a rush in sciences and maths. The faster I get it done the better. The more answers I got correct on the first try, the less I need to study. This held me back I so many ways. I didn't ask as many questions as a could have and my enjoyment of the learning process was set aside for speed. I want to encourage students to slow down and look at the problems critically. I want them to ask lots of questions so they learn the material inside out.  Most of all, I want them to enjoy their time in the classroom, with the class, learning together as a group. 

Jo Boaler's video "Beautiful Maths" set me down memory lane back to high school math classes. Only in my final semester of grade 12 did I get to practice multi-dimensional math. It was an optional Calculus class for students would had completed Pre-Calculus 12. Every day, we were asked a question by our teacher (usually relating to the world) then split into small groups and told to think about the problem and ask more questions. We had a white board marker and work on either the windows or the white board. I remember there were desks in the room but we spent a lot of time standing up. We were told to communicate what we had learned after a little while to the rest of the class, present and questions and findings. Most of the time, nobody had figured it out so we would work collectively to a result with the teacher's help in the end. This is what I understand to be multi-dimensional math. There is more than one linear way to learn the concept. This encourages students to find their best way to learn the concept.