Reflecting on Grade 9/10 Academic Learning Leading Activity

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 ability and need, while still covering the same curriculum expectations. One thing I really want to work on as an educator is to be more comfortable with the Desmos, and apply it into my own classroom framework. Below is an activity that I would love to use in my classroom, and relates directly to the grade 9 academic curriculum, in the topic of linear relations, in which you must create linear equations to form 'slides' that will reach the stars on the Cartesian plane.

The second activity that was presented was Gizmos. I was initially shocked to see Gizmos being used in a mathematics classroom. Chemistry is my second teachable, and I always thought that this resource was only for science classrooms! However, there are also many valuable resources for Gizmos as well. The part that I liked the most is that Gizmos comes equipped with many resources that makes the life of an educator much easier! For example, many of the activities in Gizmos comes with a teacher guide, a student exploration sheet, a sheet of vocabulary and prior knowledge (which is good for ESL learners or learners who need a refresher of more elementary content) and an answer key for teachers who want to assess and/or evaluate the student. 

Another thing I liked about the Gizmos website is that it is student-centered in nature, and embedded in tons of inquiry-based opportunities within the activities that gives students the opportunity to use their investigative skills. One question I have after experiencing the Gizmo activity is if there are opportunities to create your own Gizmos? I think that aligning a teachers' instructional strategies directly with activities is imperative to maximize the potential for student learning. 

Overall, I found that both resources connected well with a lot of the mathematical skills outlined in Thinking Mathematically. The inquiry and problem-solving rigor that is established within these activities requires many of the outlined skills in the textbook; reasoning, logic, conjecturing to name a few. This makes me realize that these resources that were presented are clearly aligned to the theoretical perspectives outlined by many individuals who are studying mathematics education. In the future, I challenge that I will set for myself is to use these resources in classes outside of the grade 9/10 academic context. Another question I have to ponder is do these learning activities work well for our applied and/or locally developed learners? I will make it my goal to implement these resources into my teaching to find out the answer!

References

Mason, J., Burton, L., Stacey, K. (2010). Thinking Mathematically. Pearson. New York, NY.