An opportunity for the educators at Stagg to reflect on our school year.
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Summer Institute Reflection
We hope you enjoyed your week at Solorio and learned a lot. We want you to take some time and reflect on your sessions from the last few days and tell us your three most valuable takeaways and how do you plan on applying them in the classroom?
1. Model Bar Drawing from Singapore Math: As the session started I wondered if it was going to be really basic math (12-7) that we would be solving using this Model Bar Drawing method. Then the problems kept getting more and more complex, but we were still able to draw the model out. It was a very basic but powerful way to solve some complex problems that many of our students (and myself) have issues with. 2. Inquiry Science: This session was right up my alley. I am a mini science experiment junky and I love to show other people really small examples of what science can do. We spent the entire session with hands on experiments you can do with kids from age 5-55. Whether discussing why water beads up, or salt bounces off a balloon it was fun to do and engaging. I will do my best to recreate these mini experiments in my classroom so students can see the joys of science and not merely read about it. 3. Finding patterns in Algebra: This session helped me realize how to use language to aid in the understanding of algebra. Such a very small part of the session was dedicated to it, but it struck me. When writing and equals sign (=) it is helpful to say, “the same as.” That way students will be able to see that both sides of the equation are “the same as” the other side of the equation. For example when reading 4 + Y = 14 – 4. We should say the phrase “the same as” instead of “is equal to.”
I went to the first part of the model drawing and it was amazing! We have to get together since I was unable to attend the other half. I'd really love to hear your thoughts and examples of how the problems became more complex.
1. Model Bar Drawing from Singapore Math: As the session started I wondered if it was going to be really basic math (12-7) that we would be solving using this Model Bar Drawing method. Then the problems kept getting more and more complex, but we were still able to draw the model out. It was a very basic but powerful way to solve some complex problems that many of our students (and myself) have issues with.
ReplyDelete2. Inquiry Science: This session was right up my alley. I am a mini science experiment junky and I love to show other people really small examples of what science can do. We spent the entire session with hands on experiments you can do with kids from age 5-55. Whether discussing why water beads up, or salt bounces off a balloon it was fun to do and engaging. I will do my best to recreate these mini experiments in my classroom so students can see the joys of science and not merely read about it.
3. Finding patterns in Algebra: This session helped me realize how to use language to aid in the understanding of algebra. Such a very small part of the session was dedicated to it, but it struck me. When writing and equals sign (=) it is helpful to say, “the same as.” That way students will be able to see that both sides of the equation are “the same as” the other side of the equation. For example when reading 4 + Y = 14 – 4. We should say the phrase “the same as” instead of “is equal to.”
I went to the first part of the model drawing and it was amazing! We have to get together since I was unable to attend the other half. I'd really love to hear your thoughts and examples of how the problems became more complex.
ReplyDelete