Mathematics Autobiography.....

In reflecting on my early math education I can see that that it was very “traditional” in nature, the perception that “practice makes perfect” is one that I am sure was evident in many (if not most) Newfoundland classrooms throughout the 1980’s and early 90’s.

From K-6 Math instruction in my classroom generally involved pencil and paper, the manipulatives were present in the classroom, but rarely made their way into lessons and when they did we were so in awe of these “blocks” that we were not permitted to “play” with at any other time, that little was ever really accomplished in terms of mathematics within these lessons. The teacher would use the chalkboard to do a few examples of whatever skill or strategy we were working on that day and then we would set to work on pages of practice. I remember getting new workbooks in Grade 2 as part of the MathQuest series, I also remember not doing any of the pages that involved cutting and pasting as these pages were "too messy and wasted too much time." In trying to find a way to describe the role of the teacher in my early math classes I came across the following Ten Roles for Math Teachers. I don't think any of these describe the math classrooms I experienced early in my schooling. I think it could best be described as teacher as demonstrator. The teacher demonstrated a skill, we were set about on our own to practice it, if we didn't understand it the teacher would demonstate it again and we would do more practice and the cycle would continue.

(As a side note, in my classroom I generally introduce students to manipulatives long before I ever use them in the classroom, and I often let students “play” with them during centre time. In doing this I find that students get their curiosity about the materials out of their systems long before we use them in math lessons and my lessons are much more productive because students already have some basic idea of what they are supposed to do with the manipulatives.)

I don’t ever really remember math being fun, though I was quite skilled in mathematics at a young age, and was even placed in an enrichment class for math and language in my elementary grades (a class which is interesting to note that was made up entirely of girls.) The enrichment class provided some opportunity for “problem solving” but in a very structured traditional sense, we were given problems, taught various strategies for solving them and then given a number of “new” problems to solve in the same fashion...I think this for many people would be what they think of when they refer to problem solving in math class, a unit taught in isolation to other mathematical skills and processes.

My primary/elementary teachers were wonderful; some could even be described as inspiring....in every way except for math class. When I look back I can think of a memorable lesson from every other subject in primary/elementary; class elections in social studies, bookmaking in language arts, interactive science experiments....I can’t however think of one math lesson that really excited me or stuck with me. Assessment in math....much the same.....nothing too exciting, pencil and paper tests and an assignment every now and then in the elementary grades.....I don't ever remember being asked to communicate in mathematics. Sure, I was asked the answer when the teacher would correct homework round-robin style every morning, but I was never asked how I got an answer (other than to work out the computation as an example) or why I thought my answer was right.

I can say with certainty however, that my worst memory from mathematics at this time would have to be in relation to homework, I am sure my teachers at this stage in my life believed firmly that if “some is good, more is better.” I remember having heaps and heaps of homework even in very low grades, often this homework was meant to reinforce or practice strategies taught at school, I often saw this as unfair to those of us who had mastered the skills in the lessons at school and I am sure it was often a struggle for my parents to get me to complete the work at home. (I wonder if my disdain for this homework caused me to detest it even more in higher grades when I certainly could have used the practice.) While I will admit to having given homework sheets to students (even in Grade 1) I have tried my best to give hands on tasks for homework to younger students, to provide them with a challenge and to allow them to make sense on their own of concepts that have been introduced in class. (I once sent students home during a measurement unit with a container of playdough, a small ball of wool that they were permitted to cut, a box of paperclips and a deck of playing cards. Students were instructed to find out who had the biggest feet/smallest feet in their house and order the feet from biggest to smallest. It was interesting to see how students completed this task, some used the paperclips to measure the length of the feet and could use numbers to describe the length of the feet, some rolled out playdough “snakes” and ordered them from longest to shortest, and others cut the string the appropriate lengths for each foot and then measured the strings with paperclips. Students thoroughly enjoyed this challenge, some even measured the feet on their pets, their chairs....and one student even measured the feet on the claw-footed tub!)

Perhaps my teachers didn’t feel comfortable with teaching math, although I can’t be certain I suspect that it may be partly true as I remember that there were times in Elementary grades in particular when we would often go days without a math class, and at the end of each year there were always units left uncovered, things that there simply “wasn’t time for”. (I recognize that there isn’t time for everything, and I myself have struggled with completing all of the curriculum outcomes. That being said, I would certainly not leave out an entire unit as I feel this would set students up for difficulties in future.)

In Junior High I continued to excel in math, although the battle with homework was one I continued to struggle with. In High School I took advanced math in grades 10 and 11 but dropped back to the academic program in grade 12. I remember my parents telling me that this was ok because I was more “artsy” anyway, and wouldn’t be as likely to need that math in the future. My sister was a year ahead of me in High School and I always felt that her success in math sometimes proved to be my detriment, with teachers asking how we could be so different, why I wasn’t as good as her in math, etc. I think that I heard this so many times that I eventually started to believe it and at times used it as an excuse for my poorer performance in the advanced program in grade 11.

After High School I was determined not to take any more math courses, I had done well in the grade 12 program, but still had never been very excited about math. When I began the Primary / Elementary Education pre-requisites I was required to take two math courses, not wanting to put myself through any more of what I was sure would be torture, than necessary, I decided to take Math 1050 and 1051. To my surprise I really enjoyed Math 1050, I liked that it was logic based and that it was something I could make sense of on my own. (I had always enjoyed Logic puzzles and was amazed that after so many years I was finally enjoying math.) The only other math course I took in University was Educ 3940, the math methods course.

Until a few years ago math wasn’t a big part of my life, sure, it’s useful, and I used it when I had to, but that was about it. Then I was assigned a grade 1 teaching position and I felt like I wasn’t as prepared for the position as I would like to be. At that point I made it my goal to participate in as much math professional development as possible. I began to work with other teachers as part of a Professional Learning Community developing ways to integrate children’s literature into our math lessons to provide our students with interesting lessons. I attended a week long workshop, “Math Their Way”, which allowed me to see how the effective use of manipulatives can influence math lessons in so many positive ways. I attended workshops on the new WNCP Math curriculum and its framework to help me understand where these changes in math instruction were coming from and where they will hopefully lead us.

My goal for increased professional competency has also led to an increased level of personal satisfaction in mathematics. I now feel much more comfortable in a math classroom as a teacher or student, I am hoping that this class will help me to help other students avoid some of the issues that I fell affected my own journey with mathematics.