Reflections is a monthly column for teachers, by teachers on topics of interest to mathematics educators: lesson plans, book/resource reviews, reflections on classroom experiences, and more. If you are interested in sharing your own ideas with mathematics educators in the province (and beyond), consider contributing to this column! Contact us at thevariable@smts.ca.
Summer “PD” – For Kids!
Sharon Harvey
Each month, the SMTS publishes a list of upcoming PD for teachers. For this month’s blog post, I thought I’d copy that—with a twist.
Summer is almost upon us, and most of us have our own summer professional development lined up (watch for my reflection from Twitter Math Camp later this summer). Summer PD is amazing! I know it’s supposed to be our time “off,” but with the hustle and bustle of the school year, great PD can be difficult to attend for many reasons. The number one advantage for me is that summer PD doesn’t take me out of my classroom!
With this idea in mind, I thought I would put together a list of some summer “PD” options for your students (or your own kids). Continue reading
Diana Sproat has been employed by Greater Saskatoon Catholic Schools for the past 22 years as a teacher, Teacher on Assignment, and most currently as the Mathematics Consultant. She completed her Masters of Education at the University of Saskatchewan with a focus in the area of mathematics and as a member of the Math Cohort. Diana was honored to receive the Saskatchewan Mathematics Teachers’ Society Math Service Award in 2014.
In a magic square, the sums of the numbers in the rows, columns and diagonals are all equal. Use a 4×4 grid to make a magic square for these numbers: 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, … 1.4, 1.5, 1.6.
Dr. Kathy Nolan is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Regina, where she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in mathematics curriculum, qualitative research, and contemporary issues in education. Dr. Nolan’s current research focuses on mathematics teacher education, exploring issues of teacher identity and the regulatory practices of schooling, learning and knowing. Bourdieu’s social field theory and theories of critical mathematics education feature prominently in Dr. Nolan’s work. She is the author and co-editor of two books, as well as author of more than 40 published articles, book chapters, and conference proceedings papers. In 2012, she was awarded a Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Insight Grant for her project entitled Reconceptualizing Secondary Mathematics Teacher Education: Critical and Reflexive Perspectives. Within this qualitative research program, Dr. Nolan seeks to strengthen connections between teacher education, curriculum reform and mathematics education research by studying the interplay of different perspectives, or dimensions, of teacher education. One such perspective includes research into the design and facilitation of a professional learning community approach to teacher education internship.