I left our first session with George Couros feeling energized and inspired.  While I have to admit that most of the technologies he shared were not new to me (except for bit.do which I have already used to help our school secretaries create a short link and QR code to our school supplies list for next year), it was refreshing to hear George and other teachers share some of the ways that they have made learning innovative and creative in their own classrooms.

As a high school math teacher, I try to find ways of replacing worksheets and “drill & kill” lessons with real life scenarios.  One of my mentors describes the best math lessons as ones that are active, interactive, thoughtful, meaningful, personal, and practical.  Keeping this in mind, I decided to teach Grade 12 Calculus using a storybook (The Life of Fred by Stan Schmidt) instead of a traditional calculus textbook. Rather than learning calculus the traditional (university) way of:

• Definition
• Theorem
• Proof
• Corollary
• Definition
• Lemma
• Theorem
• Proof
• Definition
• …
• Final Exam

with such a lack of excitement that even a rock would be bored, my students learn about functions, limits, derivatives, related rates, maximums/minimums, etc. through the adventures of a boy who discovers the topics of calculus naturally during his own life experiences.

When I chose The Life of Fred before the start of the semester, I thought to myself “This is perfect! No more worksheets, no more lectures, no more definitions… lots of creativity, lots of understanding, lots of thinking outside of the box, and lots of real life applications!” It seemed perfect, and I was sure that my students would appreciate such a creative approach to teaching and learning calculus.  And then it happened… one week into the course, one of my students said what no student has ever said before “Can we please do notes and worksheets tomorrow?”  Others in the class agreed. It turns out that after 14 years of learning mathematics and pre-calculus from worksheets and textbooks, learning calculus from a story of life experiences is very hard.

I went home that night with a tough decision to make. I could take the easy route and start to give traditional lectures (using my old notes from when I took CALC 1500 at the University of Manitoba), assign worksheets and make my students happy, or we could tough out the innovative approach a bit longer and see what happened.

I stuck with The Life of Fred. While lectures and worksheets would have been easier, I had no good reason for going back to them other than that was the way that calculus has always been taught. Two months later, the largest benefit of creativity in a mathematics classroom is very clear – there is a large increase in student understanding. Not only can my students calculate the first and second derivatives of a function, they also know the meaning of a derivative and when it would be useful to calculate one.

The world doesn’t need human calculators. Technology has given us the power to compute calculations in a fraction of a second that would take a person minutes (or hours) to complete. Instead, what we need are people who have a deep understanding of mathematical concepts and know how to use them when solving a problem.

Thomas Locke
Churchill High School
Cluster 1971

Taking part in the ITLL PD with George Couros was a very eye-opening experience. One thing that stood out and resonated with me was with regards to various forms of social media. He mentioned how not being familiar with them and how they work could result in me being illiterate in today’s society and falling behind with the times. That was a “wow” moment for me because I never thought about it that way. I viewed social media as a tool for causing more harm than good, but seeing how George utilized it as a tool for learning was really cool and inspired me to join Twitter, something that I never thought I would ever join in my life.

Another moment that stood out was when George said what student has ever uttered the words “That was a great worksheet?” That may be one of the truest statements that I have ever heard. I thought back to when I was a student and the assignments that I remember and enjoyed working on. At no point did one single worksheet come to mind.  I remember the assignments where my teachers allowed me to use my creativity. They empowered me to show my understanding in unconventional ways and in doing so; those assignments have stayed with me to this day. That statement had me thinking about assignments I have done with my students and which ones will they remember in ten to fifteen years?

Since our session ended, I have been thinking about creative assignments to incorporate this year and beyond.  A great idea for me came from an article from the Eyes on Innovation newsletter that was released in February.  A middle years teacher posted an activity entitled “Case Files”.  This is an inquiry project where students research mysterious creatures or happenings around the world and they can present their findings in various forms, not just a word document.  I thought it was such a cool and innovative activity that I am incorporating that as my final unit to end off the year with a memorable note for my students.

This PD I honestly believe has changed my outlook on how I will plan out assignments in the future and I look forward to the next session!

Randy Medeiros

Churchill High School

Cluster 1971