This week what stood out to me is the fact that I am not
alone in my pursuit of trying to best educate my students. There are a lot of people
that would very likely be willing to assist in any way they can. There are also
a lot of people that would be able to enhance the richness of the in class
experience tremendously by giving advice and information that cannot be found
in textbooks or anywhere else. What is great is that they all have real world
experience. Some of these people could become life-long partners with you in
your quest to help your students achieve their utmost potential. A list of some
of these Partnerships within the school include, but are not limited to:
1. professionals
2. parents
3. colleagues
Professionals are great people for us as teachers to get in contact with. If a teacher can build a good relationship with a professional then they might find in them a life-long friend who would be willing to come out to their class and participate in the educational process of their students. Professionals can give real life experience from their careers and share with students stories they experience first hand on a day to day basis. They will give students a chance to look into a career that is related to mathematics and that they might pursue. It is s great way of relate the work that is done in class to the work's "real" world applications. There can be many examples, but one that comes to mind is architecture, and maybe asking an architect to stop by the class.
Parents are also great people to be in contact with. Parents will undoubtedly have their children's best interests as a priority and therefore would be excellent resources in helping you with you goals. Parents would have an intimate connection with their children and might therefore be better and helping identify their children's strength and areas in need of improvement. Once the students strengths and areas in need of improvement have been identified the parents would be able to assist their children, and if not, would at the very least be able to help direct you to what needs to be done, in the most efficient way possible.
Colleagues are also a tremendous help. Some colleagues may older, and can thus give you advice based on years of experience. Some colleagues may be younger, and thus can give you a 'fresh' and different perspective on things. As a matter of fact, regardless of age, it is very likely that everyone you come across will have at least one thing that they can add to enrich you in some way. Colleagues can share resources, for example, tests, assignments and videos, to name a few.
All in all there may be a lot of other partnerships that have not been mentioned, however, it is hard to imagine any that would surpass Professionals, Parents and colleagues in terms of the impact they can have.
Ps.
Physicists are another group of professionals that rely heavily on mathematics https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SrHzSGn-I8
and it is important to remember that Mathematics can be lots of fun too, and this video about a professor who makes optical illusions is a great example.
1. professionals
2. parents
3. colleagues
Professionals are great people for us as teachers to get in contact with. If a teacher can build a good relationship with a professional then they might find in them a life-long friend who would be willing to come out to their class and participate in the educational process of their students. Professionals can give real life experience from their careers and share with students stories they experience first hand on a day to day basis. They will give students a chance to look into a career that is related to mathematics and that they might pursue. It is s great way of relate the work that is done in class to the work's "real" world applications. There can be many examples, but one that comes to mind is architecture, and maybe asking an architect to stop by the class.
Parents are also great people to be in contact with. Parents will undoubtedly have their children's best interests as a priority and therefore would be excellent resources in helping you with you goals. Parents would have an intimate connection with their children and might therefore be better and helping identify their children's strength and areas in need of improvement. Once the students strengths and areas in need of improvement have been identified the parents would be able to assist their children, and if not, would at the very least be able to help direct you to what needs to be done, in the most efficient way possible.
Colleagues are also a tremendous help. Some colleagues may older, and can thus give you advice based on years of experience. Some colleagues may be younger, and thus can give you a 'fresh' and different perspective on things. As a matter of fact, regardless of age, it is very likely that everyone you come across will have at least one thing that they can add to enrich you in some way. Colleagues can share resources, for example, tests, assignments and videos, to name a few.
All in all there may be a lot of other partnerships that have not been mentioned, however, it is hard to imagine any that would surpass Professionals, Parents and colleagues in terms of the impact they can have.
Ps.
Physicists are another group of professionals that rely heavily on mathematics https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SrHzSGn-I8
and it is important to remember that Mathematics can be lots of fun too, and this video about a professor who makes optical illusions is a great example.
Hi Mohammed, I like how you took a different approach when considering how to connect math to real-life applications. You chose people (parents, colleagues and professionals) and their experiences, information and advice to help guide us when teaching math. I think this is brilliant. These resources are invaluable and cannot be found in a textbook. Great suggestions to bring professionals in to talk to the students and share their experiences. I always enjoyed listening to guest speakers as opposed to reading information from a textbook. I am an auditory learner and prefer this approach. Parents play an important role in supporting student learning. Parents are the ones that know their children best so it makes sense to me to reach out to them. Colleagues should work in partnerships with other teachers. Different perspectives are always good to consider.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your insight because I certainly will look to these individuals to help me when teaching mathematics.
Mohammed, this post was a fantastic way to look above the nitty gritty of what math is, and think about math in a community sense. One idea that struck me while reading your section about professionals and how they can inspire students to think about math careers, was what if we get our students out of the math classroom for a math related field trip to visit a professional in his/her workplace! This could really help students see math from a different viewpoint, and make connections between math and real life.
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