My name is Teresa-Marie Pagliaro and I am a recent graduate of McMaster University with a Honours BA in French. One of my great admirations is learning new languages and helping students become acquainted with the French language. Due to this admiration, I also took many courses in linguistics. My studies in linguistics allowed me to gain a different perceptive of the general makeup of languages; from the basis of learning sounds to the use of words in forming well structured sentences for communication and writing purposes. This same sort of learning process can be applied to learning math as well. For math, we must learn the basic foundation operations, such as addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, before we go on into learning new and more complex problems.
Since high school, I have not taken any math courses. However, I do believe that I have developed a great foundation of mathematical knowledge through my elementary and high school education in the subject. Math was never one of my favourite subjects, but I managed to obtain a general understanding of its concepts. One way I have tried to re-familiarize myself with J/I concepts is working as a tutor at the Hamilton Oxford Learning Centre. Primarily, I help students, from grades 1 to 8, with their English or French homework; but I occasionally work with math students. Working at an Oxford has helped me enhance my pre-attained math knowledge and allow it to grow as I review the various math concepts with students.
By the end of this course, I hope to gain a better understanding of techniques that I will be able to use in the classroom. Many students find math difficult; as did I. As an educator, I believe it is important to make the students feel less anxious about learning and completing math concepts. Math concepts should not be feared. In order to promote the retention of information, teachers should make the concepts relatable to the students on some level. Whether it is through using sports, food, movies, etc. teachers can try to use any material to help the students remember the material they have just learned Therefore, I would like to learn different strategies that will help engage students and create a fun learning environment in order to build confident math skills.
Clipart. 2016. Math Symbols Clipart [Online Image]. Retrieved from http://cliparts.co/clipart/7428.
Looking forward to the rest of the semester and future posts,
Teresa-Marie Pagliaro
No comments:
Post a Comment