Brock Math Blog

Well, our first math class in the teacher education program is coming to a close. Only one week left until we begin our placement block. In Week 10 we looked at Data Management and Probability. First, we received a great activity about probability involving spinners. This activity was very well organized and introduced us to using proper probability vocabulary, how to create spinners, and how to visually pick up on theoretical probability. This activity really provided a good example of the 3 parts of a lesson plan: minds-on, action, and consolidation. The minds on is clearly labeled, the action was creating the spinners and the consolidation could be performing some experiment to determine a specific probability. I maybe would have liked to actually create a spinner because it is more hands-on and provides more of a practical use. I also would have appreciated some real-life applications from this activity. In our lesson, I appreciated all the real-life examples of calculating mean, m...

In the past two weeks, we discussed geometry and spatial sense and measurement concepts. I enjoy these topics more so than ratios and algebra because I find them to be more relatable and I see these concepts more so in my day to day life. In the last two sessions, we had very exciting and engaging learning activities. For geometry and spatial sense, we had an awesome bingo game involving shapes! This activity was awesome because it allowed us to briefly review the concepts of basic 2D & 3D shapes before diving into the game. We then moved onto the BINGO game which was a super engaging group activity. I actually hope to implement this game or something similar in my Grade 4/5 placement during my time teaching them math. This article provides some more ways to implement bingo into math as well as other engaging activities for math lessons. For measurement, we had another great activity involving standard and non-standard units of measurements. This helped introduce us to how we use ...