“Looking forward and yet worried with what lies ahead.”
It is the same kind of feeling I have each time I attend a new module.
Today is Teacher’s day and I am attending a Mathematics module. I dreaded it. My schooling horror comes flooding back and I began to wonder which of those formulas I still recall and am able to apply later. I was like a nervous wreck!
Dr Yeap totally “wow” me with his “1-10 spelling card magic”. I was blown away by the amount of fun I had. I love magic and am very impressed with all the magic games he introduced. He was like a well known Taiwan magician “Liu Qian”. Haha!! :PThrough discussion with peers and in class, I realized that in order to win the games or break the code, we need to analyze and figure out the pattern to the games. All these maths games follow a certain pattern. As long as we are able to decode the pattern, winning and solving the mathematics game will be a piece of cake. Suddenly, the ‘magic’ does not seem impressive anymore.
“ If this is magic, I can do it too!”
While attempting to break the code, my mind was at work. There are so many facilitating skills and techniques to ask meaningful questions that I need to learn. I wonder…
“What are some of the questions I can challenge my students with
when I introduce these games to them?”
“ How am I going to link these mathematics concept to daily life experiences?
~~~What have I learnt today?
As educators, we should provide children with an environment to learn Mathematics in a fun way, instead of desk bound teaching. When children have fun and wanting to win, logical thinking, problem solving and analyzing come to them naturally.
Discussion stirred up children’s thinking and reasoning skills. Thus we should try to pose leading questions for children, allowing them find their own method to solving the problems rather than explaining first and “kill” their curiosity, but most of all, their learning.
Dr Yeap meantioned that Singaporean children do not get excited easily.
I totally agree with his statement. According to him, this makes our Singapore children appear somewhat disabled. All this could probably be due to the fact that teachers are providing the answers most of the time, even before the children had time to digest the question or to think.
Our society has become too result orientated and as a result, our children misses out the fun aspect during the learning process. It is therefore, the job of GREAT educators/magician like us, to get them out of the “disabled” stage. We need to stir up their interest in thinking, ensure they have an inquisitive mind and instil in them, the importance of learning and not just winning, teaching them the “magic” of asking and problem solving. Ultimately, our children will become great magician in mathematics themselves.
Quote of the day:
They are less inquisitive.
Our society has become too result orientated and as a result, our children misses out the fun aspect during the learning process. It is therefore, the job of GREAT educators/magician like us, to get them out of the “disabled” stage. We need to stir up their interest in thinking, ensure they have an inquisitive mind and instil in them, the importance of learning and not just winning, teaching them the “magic” of asking and problem solving. Ultimately, our children will become great magician in mathematics themselves. According to Singapore Primary Mathematics Curriculum (MOE 2006), teaching mathematics should be a vehicle for the development and improvement of a person’s intellectual competence in logical reasoning, spatial visualisation, analysis and abstract thought.
Quote of the day: “Learning mathematics is not learning and memorizing formulas
but methods and skills that will stay with you forever.”
- Liaw Wanling
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