My Math Experience and Teaching Grade 8

When I first started my Bachelor of Education degree at BrockUniversity, I had no idea of what classrooms I would be teaching in my placement. I did not not know the school or the grade level I would be teaching. 

My placement is at St. Matthew Elementary School and I am teaching a grade 8 classroom math. I'm not going to lie, it was very intimidating at first. It is extremely important to build rapport with the students while ensuring that lessons are covered and students are having fun. I was extremely humbled when my teaching associate asked if I would like to teach the next unit of math, which was geometry, when I started my internship. Seeing that my teaching associate trusts me and has helped me get on track shows me the importance of building connections within the teaching environment.

Games are always a great way to get students engaged with material. My first lesson was 45 minutes and consisted of a brief overview of concepts that grade 8 students should be familiar with at this point in the year. I gave them a chart to fill out as we progressed through the lesson and decided to surprise them with a Kahoot quiz. I wasn't sure if they knew what Kahoot was or if they would enjoy the activity, but was relieved at the excitement they expressed. One of the central lessons I learned in math class was that the best learning takes place when students are having fun. I got to experience many new activities and games this year that I had never heard of. Some of the approaches to teaching were informing as well and I plan on implementing some of the strategies set forth in my math class.

Collaboration is a big part of learning in a math class. Allowing students to work with each other can be extremely beneficial as they are communicating ideas, resources, and thoughts with one another and can potentially build off of each others knowledge. Math seems to have a bad reputation in the school system as it is always the subject that gets labelled as "boring" or "too hard". This is not the case in my classroom. My teaching associate has made great efforts to engage students and uses technology as a platform to captivate students. From the various activities that he creates in the classroom to the online communication, my teaching associate has made sure that every student has had an equal and equitable opportunity to learn.

Watching every student teach a small lesson in math class has been very enlightening to me. While I was able to teach a lesson on the surface area of a circle, many of the other presentations showed me techniques and strategies that can be used across grade levels. Every lesson had an activity or game, which I consider to be the action part of the lesson. These activities and games varied between students, but collaboration seemed to be at the heart of almost every lesson taught. I don't think this was coincidental. I don't think math is a one-way street and that students need to talk with one another and build an understanding of there own. I hope that the knowledge and skills I developed in this math class will transcend to my teaching practice and show students how fun math can be.