Roles and Responsibilities of Teachers and Students

Both teachers and students have responsibilities they must fulfill in order to ensure student success. Teachers are sometimes held responsible for poor student grades because their test was "too hard" when in fact poor student grades falls under the lack of responsibility by the student.Students have roles inside and outside of a classroom which they sometimes don't realize. Teachers also have roles inside and outside of the classroom - different from the students' roles. 

Example: Student receives poor grade on test 

Student must:

• review concepts taught in class
• complete all assigned homework 
• attend class
• ask for clarification or assistance as required (seek extra help)
• put in effort to achieve high grades

Teachers must:

• teach concepts based on curriculum expectations 
• prepare lessons and practice for students (in class and at home) 
• help students as required
• answer questions students may have
• provide students with feedback on how to improve/what to work on
• provide materials needed 
• address different student needs 

Now, as you can see there are many factors that may have contributed to a student receiving a poor grade on their test. To say it is the teacher's fault or the student's fault is not fair. To find out more it, other factors need to be considered such as the marks of other students in the classroom. If they all did poorly it is likely the fault of the teacher but if it is just one student then it is likely his/her fault. 

Understanding the roles of both student and teacher are important because when combined together it is likely to result in students' academic success. Explaining these roles/responsibilities is essential at the beginning of the semester so that expectations are set and both student and teacher know what they must do. A great classroom arises from a mutual understanding between teacher and student.  

Teaching Strategies

Within a classroom it may be hard to think of a fun activity, get that activity started, manage your classroom, etc. I would like to share a list of strategies I have learned in my math class

Strategies when trying to organize students in groups:

1. Use a deck of cards 
2. Number students off 
3. Use an online group maker 
4. Allow them to choose their group 
5. Make your own card with 4 categories with a different item in each category (ex. Category: Animal, Item: Cat, Dog, Frog, Wolf, etc.
6. Have students pick lollipops out of a bag and group them based on the colour at the bottom of their lollipop
7. Have students draw out of a hat
8. visibly random groups   

Strategies when creating/during group activities:

1. Organize different activities by keeping them in large zip lock bags 
2. Use small white boards to compare different group responses 
3. Use laminated paper so it can be written on and reused
4. Use manipulatives to make the activities interesting and engaging
5. Have some "easy" activities not just "hard activities"
6. Desmos can be used as a great group activity especially when there are graphs involved
7. There are many fun and interactive games (What would you do?, parabola headbanz,etc)
8. Use vertical and horizontal permanent and non permanent surfaces.

Technologies to use in classroom: 

1. Ipads/laptops/phones/chromebooks/computers
2. Document camera 
3. Projector 
4. Smart board
5. Motion sensors 
6. Calculators/graphing calculator 
7. Online programs (desmos/excel)
8. Assistive Technology (hearing aids/microphone/speakers) 

Below are some pictures of examples

Learning through Math Manipulatives

Math Manipulatives. What an interesting term. I wish I got to hear it when I was in school. 

Math has always been so painful for the majority of people. Many students hate their math class, mainly for two reasons, it is hard and boring. You sit at your desks, listen to the teacher talk - you probably don’t understand much - then you go home, do your homework and get assessed a couple days later. Then the cycle just repeats. I believe making math hands-on can solve both concerns of it being hard and boring. Math manipulatives will make it fun for everyone because instead of using a pencil and paper, you use different tools and “games”. This makes it seem less hard because it is interactive and you can visually see the progress you are making towards the solution to the problem. 

In class there were 3 math manipulatives that stood out to me. A lot of students can recognize different types of shapes but

a lot of them also would not be able to make a shape out of
other shapes. For example, using two trapezoids and 3
triangles to make a larger triangle. Having shapes to help
illustrate this concept helps with three possible things:

1) recognizing/identifying different types of shapes

2) making a larger shape out of multiple smaller ones

3) working with fractions visually

Small blocks help students build anything. This helps in so many different  such as integers, patterns, shapes, area, perimeter, etc. They are so easy to use but provide such a huge impact in student learning. This makes tasks more interactive and fun. Doing this in groups is also a good idea because then students can help each other if needed. These blocks also allow students to think outside the box and come up with creative ideas they may not have thought about if they did not have the blocks. Students will also look forward to coming to class and learning if they are aware they will get to do

hands-on activities directly related to their learning.  

Being able to use algebraic tiles is so essential. Polynomials is such a huge concept in high school as you use them throughout all your school years but it is also important in elementary school when understanding algebra. They are useful in terms of understanding how to build polynomials with different variables and collect like terms. But when it comes to high school, they are extremely helpful for factoring. The opposite of this is expanding which can also be done with these tiles. They allow students to physically break apart a polynomial. This also helps students understand integers which a lot of students struggle with. 




Teachers NEED to incorporate math manipulatives into everyday math classrooms to meet the needs of all students and fit their learning styles. This also makes math different and unique which is important so that students do not feel bored or feel it is too difficult. Something to think about. 

Highly Effective Yet Unfortunately Unknown Math Courses

Last class really got me thinking about what different high school classes there are out there. I didn’t even know there was a course called Mathematics: Workplace and Everyday Life which is interesting because this would seem to be the most useful and realistic but most students do not take it or know about it. I almost feel it should be a required course because it teaches you about exactly what it says - everyday things in the workplace. Students attending university will almost never take this course which is CRAZY because they all graduate but don’t have the skills to do everyday tasks like taxes for example. 

I also got a chance to think about which courses I would like to teach versus which ones I wouldn’t like to teach. This was interesting for me because I never thought about which one I wouldn’t want to teach but in reality that might be the one I have to teach some point in my career. So it was a big eye opener for me, to really understand what classes I will potentially be teaching. I would love to teach Everyday Life in the Workplace so I can learn the skills I missed out on. I feel it would be a very interesting course to be apart of.

The curriculums are very packed. I’m sort of worried if I’ll be able to teach my students all the concepts and have them understand it procedurally and conceptually. When I was in school I learned everything procedurally so it will be hard for me to explain things conceptually. That is something I will have to work on but let’s leave that for another day. Below is all the math courses you can enroll in, 3 of which I did not know existed. 

About Me

I love math. Why? Well, because I am at good at it. You tend to like things you are good at. Math has always been easy for me and I almost never had to spend long hours studying. My friends always hated the fact that they would study double or triple the amount I did but I would get better grades. This "easiness" has been the drive for me to continue an education in Mathematics. The thing is, math in my fourth year became extremely hard for me which led me to stop there. Why? Well, it is simple really, I was no longer good at it. The crazy part is, that was the best thing that ever happened to me, not being able to understand math. This is because I started tutoring and teaching students the math I did know and that I was good at and realized I LOVE teaching math.

The discussions I had in class today really did not surprise me at all. I know that for students to understand concepts you must teach them in many, many, many different ways. What seems obvious to you really is not obvious to them. I know that you should be figuring out how a student got a solution wrong rather than just telling them they are wrong like Deborah Ball said so wonderfully. What did shock me though was the amount of DIFFERENT solutions there are to a problem. As a teacher you are bound to come across a correct solution from a student that will make absolute no sense to you but is completely and entirely correct. This is so surprising for me because we think we know everything and every way to get the solution to a problem but we do not. I am excited to see what more I learn from this course, it is by far my favourite class. Why? Well, because I am good at it.