Kindergarten Math

I had my first ever direct experience with Kindergarten, and it was an awesome experience. The teacher was very active and kept the class very busy and mobile. Math was taught in an amazingly integrated way, and the kids just ate it up.

Also, she let the kids dictate the schedule of the day. One said that they wanted to play board games, so they did and she let them decide that it would be their new activity to start the day with. The games were very mathematical in nature, involving counting, pattern recognition, sequence awareness, etc.

She was riffing on the idea of Whole Brain Learning, which I have thought is interesting, and am now very interested in. A video of this technique (more extreme) is available here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yygIwC3PSvk

The students loved it, and it was fairly effortless for the teacher. She puts out a huge amount of energy, but it means that the kids literally listen to EVERYTHING she says. She incorporated a huge amount of singing, dancing and change of position into all activities, to the point where students were too busy to get distracted.

The Smart Board was also used, and the kids were actively encouraged to talk about relevant experiences with a partner after being exposed to each new concept.

What is Mathematics?

I think that the nature of mathematics has been changing steadily over the last number of years, especially as it relates to teaching and to young learners. It used to be defined by its impenetrability, in the same way that we don't question how our taxes are done, or how the oil is changed in our car. It was for that same reason demonized (I'm talking to you, Galileo) and allowed to be intimidating.

I see math as something that can definitely not be held in isolation. There is nothing that does not rely on and incorporate elements of math, and vice versa. Music, agriculture, mechanics, fishing, astronomy and sport all rely equally on our innate understandings of pattern, symbology and physics as well as what we have learned about math explicitly. I think that an important distinction has been made in recent years, which is that performance as a math-remembering machine does not equate to mathematical intelligence.

The acknowledgement of naturalistic, kinesthetic and other types of intelligence as being equal to "mathematical" intelligence is a very important step as well. It is reassuring to me as a teacher that I will be able to impart appropriate and adequate mathematical knowledge to my students in a way that is meaningful to them and will be meaningful in their lives.