Reflection on Micro Teaching

Micro teaching is good experience before going to the practicum. Peer assessment is very useful. Most of them mentioned that lesson was well paced and clear. I got a personal comment that I was teaching with patience and with expressions. One of them said that use of cardboard was good instead of using board for diagrams. However, use of symbols for introduction was considered very simple for grade 9. Also, there was suggestion to use real life examples to introduce the concept. I really liked this suggestion. To create students' interest in math, we should bring real life examples.

I, also, realised that our lesson took less time than we thought. We should have something else for extra time i.e. emergency lesson plan. Overall, it was a good experience. I learned alot for my short practicum.

Micro Teaching Lesson Plan

What	How long	Materials used
Bridge	Review the definitions of rectangles, squares and circles. Take several responses to get an idea of what the students know.	2 min
Learning Objective	Students will calculate the area of a rectangle, a square and a circle. Students will solve problems involving the areas of rectangles, squares or circles.
Teaching Objective	Students will be able to solve problems individually and cooperatively. Students will be able to clearly and logically communicate a solution to a problem and the process used to solve it.
Pre-test	Ask the students about the formula of areas of rectangles, squares and circles.	2 min
Participatory learning	Ask the Students to solve a problem that involves the calculations of the area of a rectangle and a circle combined. Ask students to describe in words the steps that they will need to take to obtain the answer. Students will work in small groups to find the areas by using the formulas for the area of a rectangle and of a circle.	5 min	Rectangle shaped cardboards with a cut-out circle in the middle.
Post-test	Ask students to solve a similar problem involving many circles marked on a rectangle. Compare results with other groups.	5 min	Another cardboard with many circles marked on a rectangle

Summary

Give overview

1 min

Response to Simmt article on math education and citizenship education

I like that Elaine Simmt introduced mathematics as a tool to understand and shape our society. I have never thought of math as shaper of society. I agree with Simmt when he says that math should not be taught as fact rather purpose of teaching mathematics should be to create mathematical thinkers. Students should be educated to understand how math is used in formation of society rather than teaching them just computational skills. They should be involved in mathematical conversations in the classroom through which they learn how to pose problems and learn to explain solutions. So, purpose to teach math should be to develop good citizens.

Response to "Thinking Mathematically"

It tells us how we can train our students to think mathematically. I like the way author break the problem in three parts: entry, attack and review. It is really important how you ENTER the problem. I will follow this rule to teach my student how to understand the problem by looking at what we know, what is wanted and what can be introduced to make it simpler (eg. Chart, diagram). The second point which I liked is that visualizing the problem is root to solve the problem. I find it important in two ways: 1) visualizing helps to clear the problem and 2) students can feel that math is not abstract. By training students to visualize the problems, we can convince them that all math problems are related to the real things in the world in some way. He mentioned that being stuck is important part of the problem solving, which is very important to encourage the students. Most of the times, when students could not solve the problem in first time, they get discouraged. Emphasizing this point in class is very important that being stuck at least once is really important and it is natural for real understanding of the problem.
Overall, these two lessons contain many tips to teach mathematics and to encourage students.

EMPTINESS CAN’T BE DIVIDED……

Division is the basic human instinct;
We have been divided by caste, religion, color etc;
But division with zero leads to nowhere;
For god sake,
Something is there to remind us that division is not always possible;
But zero is what, nothing…;
Nothing in itself means emptiness;

Oh yeah,
Emptiness cannot be divided at all;
Just like 0/1=0 and 0/999=0;
But division, in itself, leads to emptiness;
Emptiness in attitude of being a human;
So why divide;
Just because Dictator’s policy of “divide and rule”;
But if division leads to emptiness,
Then what is the use to rule on an emptied world?

Dividing positive and negative numbers in two parts;
Zero tells the division of “good” and “bad”;
Oh, for GOD’s grace,
Positive numbers are on the “Right” side;
In a way;
Zero tells that good (positive) is always right;

What a great concept it is, Zero;
Presented as a small circle;
Put it between “L” & “ve”;
It will give you the way to live;

random writing

divide:

divide and rule dictator's policy.money should be divided equally among people. divide the clothes. divide food. divide the land. what else we can do with divide. whole world is already divided. even students are divide in a same class. people are divided on basis of caste, religion, views.

zero

there is no world without zero i guess. zero is base of everything. we judge persons by saying zero or hero. zero is kind of circle it never ends. we keep revolving around same issues throughout our life. zero zero zero. where it comes from and become the base of everything. if you look at moon it looks like zero.

Five Burning Questions

BURNING QUESTION FOR TEACHERS:-

1) How do you assess your students?
2) What kind of new ideas you use in your class?
3) what are you views on incorporating relational understanding to clear the basic concepts with that of instrumental understanding based on memorization?
4) How do you make your teaching interesting for students who do not like mathematics?
5) What do you do to draw attention or engage your class when students do not seem to be interested?

BURNING QUESTIONS FOR STUDENTS:-

1) Do you find mathematics interesting or are you scared of mathematics? Why?
2) Are you interested in knowing how formulas are derived which you are using to solve formula?
3) Do you like your math teachers or not? Why?
4) Do you think maths is useful for you in your daily life? Why ?
5) What change you will like do in math?