This was a very interesting class because I got a chance to look at the Mathematics curriculum guides, resources, textbooks, and work books of each individual grade level from kindergarten to Grade 6. I really enjoyed the set up of this class where we were in groups and moved from table to table to see the resources for each grade at different tables. In my group we had a chance to discuss the various elements that we saw from each grade level, the things that surprised us, and the things that we were glad to see. personally I was relieved to see that there a lot of resources for a mathematics teacher. I did two curriculum courses and we never actually got to see the resources or text books for any grade level or subject. We were not even told that there was resources for teachers besides the text books. I originally thought that teachers were suppose to make up or find their own activities for the topic and SCOs in the curriculum guide. Therefore seeing all the resources that are on hand for teachers was a relief. It is good to know or have something to refer to if you're stuck, and it is also good to know that teachers do not have to stick strictly to the resources given to them.
The thing that was most surprising was how big of a difference in difficulty there is between kindergarten and grade one and between grade one and grade two. There are books provided for teachers to read to students or for students to read on their own if they are put in the classroom library, but the difficulty in understanding and the amount of text was really surprising to me especially from grade one to grade two. These books have a lot of great mathematical topics in them and would definitely be an asset to any classroom in order to solidify the child's understanding of the concepts. As well, the pictures and examples given are very well done and explained.
I was also surprised when I was looking through the grade 6 text book and teacher resources because many of the problems were very open ended and gives the students the opportunity to explore the solutions. I was surprised that all the problems that I looked at in the grade 6 resources I was able to solve. My worst fear when it comes to teaching Mathematics was having to teach grade 6 math, because I assumed that the problems were very difficult and that I would have trouble explaining and teaching children how to solve and explore the solutions. Being able to sit down and scan through all the resources for grade 6 made teaching grade 6 mathematics not so scary because there are so many resources at hand and today's teachers know that there is a YouTube video, a blog, or a website that can help explain anything. The resources at hand are unimaginable so there's no need to worry.
Looking at these resources for a teacher does not change how I will teach but it definitely gives me a better perspective on how I will prepare to teach. This class was very beneficial for me because I was able to be hands on with the material that I will teach one day and I realized that it's not so scary once you dive into the material and see what was making me feel so scared.
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