REFLECTION ON GROUP MICRO TEACHING

PEER REFLECTION: Most of the peers found the hook very interesting. According to them we successfully related the Counting Principle to every day life. Some were not clear about the learning objective. Few of the students found second example (ice cream) little difficult to understand. Many of the peers do suggested that time was not properly managed. They need more time to understand the ice example. Two of the peers suggested that question given for home assignment wasmuch more difficult that examples disscussed in class.

SELF REFLECTION: After doing our micro teaching, I realized that learning objectives should be in small chunks. We should have discussed only counting principle and not the permutation and combination. It would have been better if would have selected one cone with one topping, instead of one cone with two toppings. It was a big leap from first example.The example given for home work was actually planned to be explained in class, but as we run out of time so asked them to do as home work. But, I will consider time as one of the most important factor while preparing any lesson plans in future.

At the end, I found microteaching a meaningful activity as I came to know about the areas that need improvement.

Lesson Plan On Teaching The Fundamental Counting Principle

	Content to be Covered	Time spent	Materials	Modifications
Bridges	Asking whether teacher candidates have ever felt what they learn in math class they don't actually use in real life	30 seconds	Paper-made outfits and ice cream cones and toppings
Learning Objective	To be able to use the  Counting Principle in everyday life
Teaching Objective	To teach grade 12 students the essence of the Counting Principle
Pretest	Ask students whether they know the Counting Principle	30 seconds
Participatory Learning	Get the students in one group and work together to solve the outfit and ice-cream problems	9 minutes
Post-test	Write out problems relative to Counting Principle on board and get students to solve	3 minutes
Summary & Wrap-up	Then restate the key components of the Counting Principle	2 minute

Group Members: Paramjeet, Zhi Song and Mandeep

RESPONSE TO CH 2 & 3 OF THINKING MATHEMATICALLY

I not only enjoyed reading these two chapters but found them very rich in terms of motivation and information. Reading of these articles made me to redo my approaches towards mathematical problems. The idea of moving from simple to complex or abstract to concrete is really helpful in having a better understanding of the problems. The concept of breaking the problems in small chunks would definitely help students to solve the problems. This will give more space to students to work on the problems rather than just memorizing the problem. I do not remember of doing reflection or thinking of extensions where the result can be applied very often in my career so far, may be twice in ten times. Nobody is perfect to solve the problems in one go. It is important for us being teachers to build a positive attitude in students if they get stuck in problems. All the examples are important as each is full of different ideas. I found Leap Frogs example very useful while explaining the probability.

Undoubtedly, with this approach students will have meaningful learning.

DIVIDE ZERO

zero is a magic number
It can added,subtracted or multiplied,
with a number,
but it cannot divide a number.

zero is amazing,
we can divide every number,
and get a lower value,
but its the zero that cannot be divided.
and its always as a whole.

Although zero means nothing,
but it exists at the center,
almost everywhere.

RAW MATERIAL

DIVIDE
LESS HALF PARTITION DIVIDE AND RULE DIVIDE IN GROUPS SPLIT DISTRIBUTE GIVE TAKEN PARTIALLY MINE ACHIEVE LESS POLITICS USE RANDOMLY TO SUCCEED

ZERO
IMPORTANT BASE
ANYTHING CAN BE ADDED GIVES SAME
MULTIPLIED WITH ANY NUMBER GIVES ZERO
NOTHING LEFT
WHOLE
MULTIPLY OR DIVIDE GIVES ZERO
EARTH IS ZERO
FACE IS ZERO
EVERY WHERE
NO ONE
ALONE

Response to Elaine Simmt's article

Simmt’s article discusses about the value or importance of mathematics in different fields. It is very important for our society to know about the practical applications of mathematics. Many people are using the mathematics in their daily life, but are unaware that they are using mathematics. I liked Simmt’s emphasis on “ school mathematics is much more than simply teaching them to think quantitavely or statistically. Students should be educated in a way that begins to understand and critique the formatting power of mathematics. Simmt, also gave some useful strategies to promote active and critical participation in society. I found it very useful to use conversation as mode of dialogue, during teaching mathematics. As, it will give space to accommodate different ideas of the other people. This kind of interaction will have the potential for the community to discuss and solve any kind of problems that arise in the community. I would definitely use the conversation during teaching.