After being prompted by Jacqueline to start our idea sharing, here is my list of activities that I plan to try (well, do) in the Fall:
I have chosen my course MATH1190 – FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS & PRACTICES OF MATHEMATICS.
It is a course primarily designed for future elementary school teachers – other students take it too, since it is a UT course.
ACTIVITY 1:
The course includes students submitting weekly Journals. Some of them involve watching a video and discussing topics presented by the video.
Instead of the Journals the students will be asked to participate in weekly BLOG discussion. I have opened a blog site with Course Web: http://courseweb.langara.bc.ca/noraf2011/ and topics will be posted and students will be required to post and some (exactly 3) of the postings will be graded.
ACTIVITY 2:
There is an APP for iPhone or iTouch that after scanning the object can locate stores nearby and give the price that the store charges – we will be focusing on UNIT price and thus we compare different prices.
If this is not available, we will go out to local stores, bring in “photos” of price tags and compare unit prices in that case.
ACTIVITY 3:
Students are given weekly homework. There are always one or two problems that seem to be more challenging that the others. I will prepare podcasts to guide or nudge them in the correct direction. I am not sure how to allow them to see the nudge only after they have tried. (???)
ACTIVITY 4:
Students will be asked to prepare a small YouTube video in which they will present a topic as if they were teaching it to elementary classroom. See http://www.khanacademy.org/video/dividing-whole-numbers-and-applications . This will be posted to Langara “web site”.
ACTIVITY 5:
Several APPS are puzzles and games, we will evaluate them whether they have “mathematical”/”educational” value. And maybe choose some for the Math Fair that is a BIG part of student’s classroom work.
Any advice, comments and opinions are welcome.