Final Blogpost of 2021 on Inquiry 1!

 Learning about growth mindset from Jo Boaler was a big takeaway for me.  It helped me understand how to better motivate students in a mathematics class and made me more aware of the struggles math teachers and students have today.  We had an opportunity in this class to create an inquiry project, and I learned many things from my peers' presentations as well as researching for my own project.  I learned more about flow, how to take care of my mental health, how to support the Deaf and hard of hearing community, and more.  I think giving this same opportunity to my future math students is valuable for their learning, as well as mine!  I learned more about how to embody mathematics throughout this course.  For example, the beautiful and captivating short film where we learned about bellringing combinatoric patterns is something I'd want to show my students and have my students experience.  I met many musical and artistic students during my practicum that I know would absolutely enjoy and understand the mathematics involved with bellringing and braiding.  I think if I were to improve this course I would perhaps want to talk about the articles that we read and wrote about a bit more during class, or because it is an inquiry class, we could maybe have a list of suggested readings that we could choose from and explore the topic. Then we could teach each other about what we've read through a jigsaw activity.  However, I personally took away from every reading and activity we did, whether it were related to mathematics, art, or social and emotional aspects of teaching. :)

Inquiry Project Reflection

Overall, I learned so much about the d/Deaf and hard of hearing community, but there is still so much to explore.  During my research, I learned more ASL from watching YouTube videos and visiting ASL websites.  I tried to compare many videos when I was learning new signs because in the past I'd find that there are different ways to sign a word or a phrase (which is a general truth about signing!).  I learned that our facial expressions and head movements are just as important as hand and arm gestures, like when signing "DON'T UNDERSTAND".  Part of why I enjoyed researching this topic is that I found myself inquiring more and more about the d/Deaf and hard of hearing community.  There were many ideas that I wish I could have included in my presentation, but due to time constraints, I left them out.  These ideas include: cued speech, funding, and more on how sign language relates to embodied mathematics.  I suppose I can look into these ideas more in Inquiry II!  

Slight tangent, but when I was younger, the Filipino community was quite small where I lived.  I remember my classmates not knowing where the Philippines was on a map and thinking I was from Hawaii, India, or Mexico.  However, I have a really fond memory of when I felt my culture finally being recognized.  My parents and I were dropping off my sister at her friend's house and her friend's family was Russian.  Their accents were quite thick, but our families were friendly despite the language barriers. What I remembered most about this time was when the friend's dad greeted my dad in Tagalog.  "Kamusta!", he said.  It brought the biggest smile to my parents' face and to all of us really.  I guess the point of me sharing this memory is that learning about another community's culture, like learning their language, can create a strong sense of togetherness.  We can feel safe with each other.  I think that as a future teacher it is so important for me to emphasize that we can't create a better world if we don't help each other out, and a part of helping one another is to have everyone feel like they belong.

I'm excited to see what new and unexpected directions I may take in Inquiry II!

Inquiry Project: Supporting the d/Deaf and Hard of Hearing Community

Hello!

Here you will find my inquiry presentation: https://prezi.com/view/mmmQzU6jkgDGmVcwaJq1/

I hope you enjoy. :) 

Exit Slip: Bellringing Patterns & Braid Groups

The sunlight shining on our vibrant permutations (original set is the rightmost column)!

I love vivid and almost jarring colors like the chartreuse and blood-orange origami papers in the photo above.  Seeing such lively colors almost engenders excitement (at least for me it did!), and I think that was the point of today's class.  Mathematics teachers have a reputation of being dull, repetitive, and uninspiring.  I think if we make it a goal of ours to integrate creative, multi-modal activities that put mathematics under a different light, we absolutely have the power to inspire our students to like math--maybe even love math.   

I can imagine all the activities (bellringing, poem permutation, paper permutation quilt) we did today and applying holiday themes to them!  I wonder what the switches would look like if we were to create the image of a Santa Claus hat or a snowflake.