How to promote flow in classrooms

It is very important to maintain flow in our classrooms. It plays a vital role in the development of growth mindset, which is very important for every student to be successful in life. Flow means to completely involve someone in what he or she is doing. To create such an environment for students so that they just fully concentrate on their work instead of keeping track of time, which students usually do when they feel bored in the classrooms. Now the question here is how we can promote flow in classrooms. 

Open ended questions: As I learned in our problem solving class, always give students an open ended questions. Don't tell them that the question has only one particular answer. Let students try different methods to solve the problem. Be ready to extend the problems. Students feel excited in solving these type of problems.

Check prior knowledge: Before giving any question always check the prior knowledge of the students. Challenge them according to their skills, because if we will give hard tasks to the students they will feel anxious and bored. The question should not be too easy or too tough. 

Not tell too much: Feel free to share the relevant information as long as the question remains problematic for the students. Do not share too much information with them.

Clear instructions: Always give clear instructions to the students such as how they will solve the problem; in groups or individually. What the question is. What strategies they need to follow to solve the problem.

Connect problems with their daily lives: Always try to make problems relevant to their daily lives. In this way they feel more connected to the problem and try to solve it with more enjoy and curiosity. 

Personal interest: Check the personal interest of students and allow them to choose activity of their own interest. Always make your students feel comfortable in your classrooms, so that they don't hesitate to share their problem with you.

Moreover, involve them in hand on activities because students learn more by visualizing things. Last but not the least take them to the gardens to teach which would be very helpful to maintain the flow.

Reflection: Elliot Eisner on three curricula all schools teach

I learn something new from every reading. From this reading I got to know the functions of three curriculums those are explicit curriculum, implicit curriculum and null curriculum. These are my three stops.

Explicit curriculum refers to the plan for learning that the school offers to the students. It includes subjects that are offered by school. It has goals and objectives for each subject. These goals include what topics are to be learned, which lesson plan is to be followed, curriculum guides and textbooks, what materials to be used, and what is taught by the teachers Not only this, the schools offer to the community an educational menu of shorts; students can choose subjects of their choice. 

Implicit curriculum is the hidden curriculum which consists of unspoken and unintended decision those are made according to the present situations of the classrooms; for example physical set up of the classrooms, expectations of teachers. After reading the article I came to know that there are both positive and negative results of implicit curriculum. The positive results are that "implicit curriculum of school can teach a host of intellectual and social virtues: punctuality, a willingness to work hard on tasks that are not immediately enjoyable, and the ability to defer immediate gratification in order to work for distant goals can legitimately be viewed as positive attributes of schooling." Although these are not part of formal curriculum, but they are taught in the schools. Some of the negatives of implicit curriculum are when students are given rewards for completing the tasks, they become dependent on rewards. As I studied in the Human development class it is called positive reinforcement, when students are given something as a reward to do something. But as a result of this students start looking for rewards for each activity. If the awards are not given, they are less likely to engage even in an inherently enjoyable activity. Students becomes too compliant. Additionally, Competitiveness through grading system and differentiation of classes into ability groups could have both positive and negative impacts on students. It might be good for some students, but it can also cause others feel less valuable  because students in difficult level classes are more valued by community.

In the end, the null curriculum consists of what is not taught in the schools because it simply has not been traditionally taught.  It has two major dimensions intellectual processes that school emphasis and neglect and the other one is subject areas and contents. The curriculum more emphases on math, English, science, history, and physical education, but other subjects like law, dance, psychology, music are frequently not offered or are not required parts of secondary school program. The null curriculum limits the mind of the students and their ability to achieve intellectual discovery.

Reflection on micro teaching

Through this curriculum micro teaching, I got the chance to learn things which were new for me. I and Jashan decided to do our micro-teaching on factoring trinomials by using algebraic tiles, which is the grade 10 topic in B.C. math curriculum. It was a whole new concept for me. I only knew product sum method for factoring polynomials. I saw few videos to check how we can use algebraic tiles to find out the factors, and I found it very interesting. I realised that students will also find this method very interesting, and it will help them to engage with maths and improve their critical thinking. 

Previously, I thought that our peers would have known the use of algebraic tiles, but it was also new concept for them. I believe we managed to explain the use of algebraic tiles very well as they were able to solve few problems. Jashan connected this topic with physics which was also very interesting and new concept for students. The problem we faced was the time management. We thought that we will manage to explain everything in 15 minutes, but during presentation our introduction went a bit long, so we were not able to explain them the zero pair as we decided to explain. Overall it was very good. I find micro teaching very helpful for me because through micro-teaching I got the chance to teach and reflect on myself. The reflections of others are also valuable for me as those help me to improve my weaknesses.

Group micro teaching lesson plan: Karmdeep & Jashan

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fJ1WK1Lve0qjCyyguCis01WwdubvuL90VQhQBS4FbwY/edit

Geometric puzzle

Extension: 1)If there are 60 equally spaced points on the circumference of the circle, then which number will be diametrically opposite to 23?

    2)  Check if the same problem would work when the points are equally spaced on a triangle instead of circle.

what makes this puzzle truly geometric, rather than simply logical?

This problem is related to circumference and diameter of the circle. All the points are equally spaced on the circumference of the circle, and we need to find out the dramatically opposite points which we can find out for all the numbers. Therefore, this puzzle is truly geometric as it includes the circle and its circumference and diameter.

Battleground Schools

The first thing that stopped me is the Progressivist reform for mathematics through activity and inquiry. Before the development of this movement mathematics was totally conservative, and most of the adults in North America had negative views about mathematics because of their negative experiences of their own schooling. The progressivist reform was based on experimental learning that concentrate on the development of student's talents instead of just focusing on traditional methods of teaching. This type of education would be very helpful for the students, the thing that made me stop is why Dewey's recommendations were never taken up in a wholesale fashion across North American Schooling. The second think that stopped me in the New Math Movement, in this movement the main focus was on precision and correctness . The main motive of New Math was to educate students in a way as they all are going to use mathematics for scientific calculations instead of thinking about those students who might not be interested and capable of solving high abstract mathematical problems. Why?.  Furthermore, the curriculum was reformed according to NCTM standards in which the concepts are presented in a haphazard way. I also read in the article there was the Math War over the NCTM standards, because through these methods students are  able to achieve conceptual understanding without understanding the basic skills.  The question that came to my mind is which method is better? or can we use both methods together for better understanding?

Dishes puzzle

1)Whether it makes a difference to our students to offer examples, puzzles and histories of mathematics from diverse cultures (or from 'their' cultures!)
Yes, Off course the examples, puzzles and histories of  mathematics makes a lot difference in their learning. Our classrooms are diverse, through these puzzles students get to know each others culture, like what kind of problems are there in different cultures. These puzzles also make maths interesting for students as they get something new every time instead of same type of boring mathematical questions.  Also through the histories of mathematics, they get the knowledge how mathematics was developed in different civilizations. They understand the contribution of different nations to the mathematics. It creates the sense of equality in them.

2) Whether the world problem/puzzle story matters or make a difference to our enjoyment of solving it.
Puzzles provide knowledge as well as enjoyment to students. Puzzles offer challenges to our brain in a very enjoyable way. We usually get bored with same type of  problems in mathematics, but puzzles create twist in simple problems and add flavour to simple questions. The questions asked in puzzles create curiosity in listener's mind to solve it. Our mind starts working fast to find the solution, and we feel relaxed after solving the puzzle. 

Reflection on micro teaching

My topic for micro teaching was benefits of stretching in our daily lives. Everybody finds it very interesting and helpful. It was a well planned lesson with everything clear in my mind, but one thing that I lacked is rehearsal which caused nervousness in me. Even though I did rehearsal 2-3 times but I think I should do it more. My reflection on it is that I got nerves in the beginning of the activity because I was expecting it in a small group. Also, the people passing near our circle from other classes distracted me. I really felt very sad about my nervousness after the completion of the activity. But I was not nervous through out the overall activity, I overcame my nervousness in the middle.  Everything went very well in the middle and in the end.
I found it very helpful for me that I got the chance to teach a big group and received their feedback. Most of their feedback was on my nervousness, everything else was good. For the next micro teaching I will try to utilize more time for rehearsal to avoid nervousness.

Micro teaching: lesson plan

                                                     Micro Teaching 

Date:  Oct. 2nd, 2019

Subject:  Benefits of stretch exercises in the office or teaching environments

Duration:  10 minutes

Materials Required:  No material required

                                                                  

Introduction ( 2 -3  minutes ): -   ·         I will discuss the importance of stretching in our daily lives ·         I will ask students if they do any stretching exercises ·         How often we should do these stretches

Middle ( 5 - 6  minutes ):- ·         I will demonstrate some basic stretches ·         The first stretch focuses on neck ·         The second will be for the wrists ·         The third will be on the hands ·         The fourth will stretch the shoulders ·         I will do the activity myself and will ask students to do the stretches with me

Conclusion ( 1 -2 minutes ):- ·         Ask if the students have any questions ·         Ask what students actually learned from this session