Class Video

Do Schools kill creativity?

Although carried out in a humorous and witty manner, the suggestions and points made by Sir Ken Robinson in the above video are both compelling and relevant to those involved in the education system. Robinson brought ideas to my attention that I hadn't thought about or considered. I love when people can make me think. 

"The most useful subjects for work are at the top. So, you were probably streered benignly away from things at school when you were a kid - things that you liked... on the grounds that you would never get a job doing that, is that right? Don't do music, you won't be a musician. Don't do art, you won't be an artist"

This part of Robinson's speech resonated to me because of the truth it holds. I vividly remember teachers and adults guiding me away from my interests and towards what they held as "important" in school - math and language. I always considered myself as a person who had little to no creativity, but I'm beginning to reconsider this notion. I don't think I had the opportunity to explore my creativity.

"Stop humming"
"Put that drawing away"
"Times New Roman, size 12 font, white paper, essay format"
"Stay inside the lines"

Sound familiar? Robinson notes that "We are educating people out of their creative capacities". I have to agree with this concept, as I grew up in an education system where creativity wasn't valued. Why wasn't it valued? If more time and effort was put into encouraging creativity, I feel as though I would be much more passionate in areas of life that I ignored, or put to the side.

Another point discussed by Robinson that stood out to me was the following:
"In the next thirty years more people worldwide will be graduating through education since the beginning of history. / Suddenly, degrees aren't worth anything. / Now, kids with degrees are heading home to carry on playing video games." 

One of my biggest phobias has always been the fear of dedicating years of my life in order accomplish a piece of paper (University degree), only to return home and live in the basement of my parent's house. I have friends who have completed their degrees and they are literally (like Robinson says) sitting home and playing video games, or working a minimum wage job. After plugging in the time, the effort, and the money, one would expect to gain employment after finishing University. Unfortunately, this is not necessarily the case anymore. With times changing, we have to adjust. With such competition, we need to educate children to  reach their full potential and creative capacities in order for them to succeed. Step one could be the aim for more compassionate teachers and doctors, such as those experienced by Jillian Lane in Robinson's speech. 

Math Autobiography

     Outside of the basic math concepts (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division), I feel like my math career has been a lot of short term learning. I remember learning topics in math, doing well on the tests, then forgetting most of what I learned. In younger grades, I was one of the best in my class at math. I would fly through math worksheets and ace tests. As I reached higher grades, math became much more difficult. In particular, I struggled with problem solving, which was practiced in almost every math class. This was peculiar because I was a good reader and loved words. Language Arts was my specialty, but something about the combination of generating an equation or formula from a confusing riddle was frustrating. Somehow, I still managed to do well and keep A's and B's throughout my whole math career. Unfortunately, I know it's because I was memorizing... not understanding. 

     As the years progressed, my confidence in math dwindled. In younger grades, math was fun - bright, colorful, and full of fun materials. I mean, we played math games, built towers, used various math materials such as geometric shapes, and so on. It was noticeable that my math teachers in younger grades put effort into making math interesting and stimulating. In higher grades, there was no concern for this. Math became dull and repetitive. The concepts became more challenging and the teachers were less patient and understanding. If you weren't a top math student in the class, it was almost as if teachers cared less about you. I can even remember pretending to complete assigned math work and lying about being finished - praying that the teacher wouldn't call on me to answer a question out loud. I think this was mainly due to pressure from the math teachers and peers in class. Those who weren't experts at math were terrified to be humiliated - both by the teacher and students. For this reason, I think it's important that math class offers a safe and comfortable working environment. 

     When I look back at my math career, one thing I'm thankful for is the fact that I had parents at home who could help me learn math concepts before tests and complete math homework. If it wasn't for this privilege, I would not have been nearly as successful in math. It was not enough for me to be given a math problem on the board in class and be expected to master it. I needed to practice concepts at home. The sad reality is that there's an abundance of students who don't have the help they need outside of school. Because of this, I would like to be able to offer some sort of after school math help for my students in the future. 

     After high school, I completed math 1090 and math 1000 in Grenfell in Corner Brook. As I did 1090 first, I was not required to write a math placement test upon my entry into Grenfell (this was why I did 1090 first). Those who immediately entered math 1000 had to do the placement test - I had way too much anxiety about the test to even consider this route. I did fairly well in both math courses, scoring above 75, which I was happy with considering math was not my forte. I have heard that math courses in St. John's were much more difficult than those in Corner Brook. My professor in Grenfell was phenomenal. She sort of spoon fed us, giving us which problems would be on the tests and teaching concepts step by step so those having difficulty could follow along and understand. This was the type of instruction I needed in order to be successful in university math. 

  

     Currently, my feelings about math are pretty neutral. I have had good experiences and bad experiences. The bad experiences have made me want to be a more caring and considerate math teacher. I have been bartending downtown in St. John's for a number of years and calculating tabs, sales, and change has been the only math that I have seen in the past 3 years. I am looking forward to getting back into the math groove and revisiting many of the math concepts that I have forgotten many years ago.  

Welcome!

Hello!

Welcome to my blog! My name is Jessica Murphy and the purpose of my blog is to share my personal feelings and experiences surrounding math, respond to aspects explored in my math education course, and reflect on my own personal growth as a future math teacher.

Growing up, math was never my forte. I was always a lover of letters, words, reading, and writing. Numbers were more of a challenge for me - at least when I reached higher grades. However, I am currently enrolled in a math education course and I'm feeling very optimistic. I'm looking forward to building skills that will enable me to become a great math teacher in the future.