This week we had a very informative math class with engaging activities from both our professor and fellow students. This week some of my fellow students took on the role of teaching patterning and algebra to our class. Now many people find algebra to be an intimidating thing. particularly young students, so I am really happy to say that all of the presenters expressed it in a accessible and understandable way. I was particularly fond of one student's presentation of patterning where she taught the Fibonacci Sequence and spiral. Before this lesson I was familiar with the concept of the Fibonacci Spiral in art, but was unaware of the mathematical elements behind it. I therefore found this activity really engaging for me as I got to learn something new that helped expand my schema. I also got to thinking about how I would teach patterning and the Fibonacci Sequence in my class, and got to thinking that maybe you could do a cross curricular activity between art and math where students utilize the Fibonacci Spiral. Just a concept but would be something I would love to look into further.
The subject of teaching ESL (English Second Language) students was also brought up in class. For me as a teacher with plans of potentially teaching abroad to ESL students I was really interested in this. It also corresponded nicely to the virtual career fair on teaching abroad which was going on the day after. We broke down ESL learners into four types: early stage learners, foundation learners, confident users, and fluent users. You can find the document that details what these mean and what strategies teachers can use for them here. Our professor broke us up into groups based on the four types of ESL learners to come up with strategies for teaching them. My group got fluent users, which you might initially think there would be no challenges to teaching these students in English, but there are. These fluent learners often experience frustration due to higher language expectations and can still make errors with more complex or non-standard language such as math. These students can often get frustrated when their language is corrected. Teachers of these ESL students should not be afraid to still work one-on-one with them to ensure their understanding and make corrections.
I feel like the information I have received this week will be valuable when going in to my teaching service. Particularly if I decide to go abroad to teach ESL students I will take the advice I have received to heart and try to make a welcoming and encouraging environment for all ESL students.
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