Making a Purchase

This week was my turn to present to my peers. I was given the grade eleven foundations for college class and chose to create a lesson plan based on personal finance expectations. Continuing with the theme of last week’s blog I chose to create an activity that was based on real life events and provide students with knowledge that they could use. The lesson focused on researching the differences between a variety of payment options, including debit and credit cards. The consolidation activity then focused on choosing which payment method was most appropriate for a given situation. The students were encouraged to think about what the downside of each payment would be and how other factors would affect their decision. These factors included account balance, incentives, fees, and interest levels.     Even though I was only given 20-30 minutes to teach a portion of this lesson I feel as though the class was engaged in beneficial conversations and exploration. Instead of having the class research card options I provided each table with one of the payment methods. They were then instructed to calculate the cost of a TV purchase after factoring in account fees, annual fees, interest fees and incentives offered.     

     Once this was complete and all totals were recorded on the smart board we engaged in a discussion about which card would be the most reasonable choice. Most of my classmates chose a credit card with a high promotional cash back offer, since it lowered the overall cost of the TV. I then prompted them to think about what if this purchase was made later and the card was no longer in the promotional cash back period. This changed their thinking and made many students realize that they must consider these things when purchasing items in the future.
     In general, I was happy with how my mini-lesson unfolded but there are a few things that I would change. I was hoping to engage students in a discussion regarding the differences between specific cards, but this was difficult to do. This was difficult since each table had one method of payments and could not see the factors of the other tables’ payment options. It would have been beneficial to hear the differences between cards before hearing the total. This would have been different in a full lesson, as the students would have researched their own cards before being given a full set during the consolidation. 

Thanks for reading!

 Mr. Moore

Connections to Real Life

 
  As an educator it is important to remember that we must make connections with students every day lives. These connections will keep them engaged in the course material and will also make the subject more interesting for them. If they realize that they can use the knowledge outside of the classroom it will give them an insight to learn and will encourage them to expand their knowledge. These connections can also include examples from the media and popular culture. These examples will allow students to make current connections and will encourage them to stay engaged. 

     During peer mini-lessons we were presented with a great example of an example of bringing popular culture into the classroom. The instructor engaged us in a version of the game show "Deal or No Deal". This classroom version was designed to focus on expectations from the grade 12 Data Management course. The expectations included probability and allowed students to learn through participation. We were given a game board, an instruction sheet and a set of bankers offers. It was not until I looked at the back of the instruction sheet that I noticed we were directly working on probability concepts. This sheet directly asked 'what is the probability' of specific events and encouraged students to make statements about what is the most likely outcome of their case. 

     While playing the game I began to realize how creative we can be as teachers. I have used games in the classroom, but have yet to use a game like this. This game was taken directly from a TV series and fits the expectations of the curriculum. The instructor took the time to set the game up and then allowed us to play and explore our learning. I immediately made connections to real life and began to think about how else this type of probability appears. 

     

     In my future classroom I would love to use games like this, with some modifications. I feel it may be beneficial to play a game as a class first. One large game would demonstrate how the game looks and may decrease the time that students spend reading instruction. This would also allow technology to be utilized. I can see myself using the Smart Board in order to create a similar board, while allowing students to take turns coming up to pick cases. In general, I am excited to make personal connections with student's lives and encourage them to explore their learning outside the classroom, becoming life long learners. 

Mr. Moore 

Making Lessons Personal!

This week in class I was provided with a great example of how to make a lesson more personal for students! One of my peers demonstrated the action activity of her lesson that focused on exponential growth. The lesson utilized worksheets, stations and manipulative counters.

To start the lesson she instructed us to divide ourselves into small groups and find a station. Once we got there we found an instructional sheet that matched one of the sections on our work sheets. We then had to read the problem, and collect the data that was required to complete our worksheet. This created a student centred lesson and allowed the teacher to circulate around the room incase there were any problems. Each station related to students lives or things that they can connect to.

The first station that we started at was called “Zombie Apocalypse” and involved the number of new zombies that would be infected each day. The theme of zombies is ever growing in relation to television shows and video games, allowing the students to connect to their learning. Similarly, the second station focused on the growth of the ice bucket challenge. This allowed students to explore the growth of viral videos or challenges. Many students will already have completed the ice bucket challenge so they may have been interested to explore how it got started and how it travelled so fast. With 3 people being nominated each day the group of people completing the challenge would ‘exponentially grow’.

In addition to the themes that were used during this lesson the instructor also provided a range of instructional techniques. She implemented differentiated instruction by using pictures numbers and words while also providing the students with tactile manipulatives at all three stations.

I can see myself using student centred lessons similar to this in my future classrooms. Connecting the learning to students lives will not only allow them to understand the material but it will also challenge them to apply their learning outside the classroom. I feel as though it would be interesting to utilize open-ended questions in the consolidation of a lesson like this one. Challenging students to create their own viral trend or task and track the growth over a set amount of time would individualize the content even further. I look forward to exploring personalized lessons more in the future and enjoyed this 21^st century learning!

Mr. Moore 

Bringing Physical Activity into the Math class

Last Wednesday night I was a student in a peer lesson that focused on teaching grade 9 using a variety of teaching styles and resources. As a Physical Education major I have spent the majority of my time in schools in the gymnasium and have not observed many mathematics classrooms. In saying this, I was intrigued by my peers’ ability to incorporate a wide range of resources and technologies into their lessons, most of which I had never seen before. 

        Specifically, there was one lesson that focused on rate of change and graphing these relationships. The lesson was presented using an instrument called a CBR. This attached to a graphing calculator and allowed us to track our movement within the classroom. We were told to get up and attempt to make each of the graphs that we were given on the sheet. This not only forced us to get out of our seats, but also brought physical activity into the mathematics setting. This cross-curriculum activity increased the opportunity for student engagement while creating a student-centred lesson. 

      During the activity I completely lost track of time. I was engaged in what I was doing and was focused on completing each and every given graph. I learned what slowing down, speeding up and standing still all looked like on a graph, while being physically active. As a physical education teacher it was awesome to experience movement in a setting that would typically not include activity. I was impressed by the CBR’s and their ability to track speed and location of a student in the class. Not only did this activity improve my interest in the lesson, but physical activity has also been proven to increase blood flow to the brain. This would then allow me to process information and solve problems more quickly after being active.

           In the future, I would love to include activities like this in my classroom. They allow students to get up and move around, refresh their state of mind and learn in a less formal setting. This may also create a more inclusive environment for students who feel the need to move in order to focus, as they will no longer feel like the center of attention.

Mr. Moore