Welcome to Mr. Nantais' Math Blog!

In this weeks class, the two presenters discussed resources that would be beneficial for students in grade 12 university preparation courses, specifically in the courses of calculus and vectors and data management. One thing I noticed throughout the OAME portion of the presentation is that the resources stay fairly consistent throughout every presentation that we have seen. OAME has found ways for all courses to be embedded in inquiry-based learning, ranging from the grade 9 applied presentation we saw last semester, to the grade 12 university prep presentation that we saw this week. I have more confidence now with the OAME website and being able to maneuver around the website to find content that is applicable to the current Ontario curriculum. As a conclusion to the OAME, I have realized that this is one of the most useful websites in terms of establishing authentic lesson plans, and unit plans. The first individual presentation was based on the calculus and vectors course, with a ...

Since I was the presenter in this week's leading learning activity, I would like to take the opportunity to reflect on a previous presentation that I feel warrants reflection. The grade nine and ten learning activity that was ran in previous weeks for grade 9/10 academic introduced us to two technology resources that I found could be extremely useful in any mathematics classroom. The first resource that introduced was Desmos for an activity related to quadratic relations. What I found the most interesting about this resource is that there is truly an infinite amount of ways you can use it! Desmos offers algebraic and graphical assistance, and has pre-made activities related to the Ontario curriculum that are made by other educators that provide inquiry into classrooms. One of the big realizations I had when working with this resource is that it is a great exemplar of utilizing differentiated instruction, as you could give students varied activities based on individual student a...

This week, I would like to reflect on the two activities that were done in class today. One activity was for grade 10 applied which was a relay race that was grounded in the new spiral curriculum that has been implemented in many modern day mathematics classrooms. This activity also made me think about all of the times we talked about spiralling last semester in 8F83, and ultimately deepened my understanding of spiralling in a mathematics classroom when I actually was a participant in this activity. The purpose of this relay race was a formative assessment tool which was to aid students for their next test. Something I learned from this type of assessment is that it is extremely engaging! I truly loved being a part of the relay race, and my peer who ran this activity even mentioned that when she did this with her grade nine class (who was often disengaged) that they loved this activity as well! This was my favorite part of the class, and I know that in my future practice that I will ...

My first placement block was quite the experience! I taught a grade 12 university preparation chemistry course, as well as a grade 9 locally developed science course. Now you might be thinking, why would I be talking about a science placement in a mathematics blog? However, many techniques that I learned in EDBE 8F83 ended up being incorporating in both of my classes in my placement block. Reflecting on last semester, a big component of 8F83 was about reflecting on solutions in a critical manner to ensure that students can think deeply about the mathematical solutions they have created. When I went to my first block, I made sure that many of my diagnostic and formative types of assessment were embedded in reflection and meta-cognitive practices to benefit student learning. Some examples of assessment tools I used in my placement block that stemmed from ideas that I learned last semester in 8F83 was a Carousel activity, where students wrote their solutions down on a section of the whi...