I loved the little class dojo video that we watched this week to kick off our class! A growth mindset is something I myself am still working to attain. I have made sure to be careful of the language I use when I am frustrated even in this class whenever I come to a difficult point in a problem or feel like I won't ever find the solution. I want to make sure I model an attitude reflective of the growth mindset when I speak to students about any subject. Recently, this has been important when teaching grade six students as they start on their instruments for the first time. It is a very steep learning curve and many students get intimidated or frustrated quite quickly. This is why you must be sure to encourage and celebrate persistence!
Data Management was my BIGGEST worry for this course. That was the very last math class I took in highschool and it sealed my fate when I decided to never again take a math course... or so I thought.
One of the first activities we did in class this week was to guess how many Oreos were in a big clear container. I have played this game many a time at baby showers or wedding showers and I have never, ever won. My mother however, the spatial guru that she is, always wins! This time I actually got fairly close to the answer, so I was proud of that... Maybe now I have a chance of getting it!
If only Data Management and Probability had been taught with such soft language when I was a youngin! Maybe then I wouldn't have been so overwhelmed with questions and frustration as I struggled to apply the instrumental algorithms we had thrust upon us.
We went around the class and came up with examples where we had to estimate things in our daily lives. I thought this was a great way to avoid the question - "but how does this apply to real life?" Of course it does! We estimate things all the time! Data Management is simply the process of doing something with the DATA that you have collected!
Do kids still get things from cereal boxes?? I remember getting some pretty great prizes when we were little. One of my favorite prizes was a nintendo game, we had to save up 10 cereal box tabs and mail them away and we received the Mario All Stars games. In this case, we were trying to determine the odds for receiving all six prizes using a dice (or number cube). I was really surprised by the variety of responses throughout the room! Harpreet and I managed to get all six in only seven rolls, but our second attempt took us 31 tries! That was really interesting to explore through the Tinkerplots. The more attempts you have, the more you really get to understand the overall chance or probability of something occurring.
Sarah, I have enjoyed your positive approach in all your blog entries. You have shared not only your thoughts and growth but many resources in addition to those covered in class. Have you done your final reflection to sum up your growth throughout the course (1000 words)? If you still plan to do this in the next few days, please email me as well so I can add that to my assessment.
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