My Genius Hour Blog- Math Edition

 Hi all, For this blog post, I will be sharing an activity that highlights another social justice topic that is prevalent in today's society. This topic is racial profiling, 1. Housing costs/trends-> C3.1, B3.5, A2, B1.1 2. Public heath statistics of different countries-> C3.1, B3.5, A2 3. Crimes and racial profiling -> C3.1, B3.5, A2 4. Passion project on a social justice topic (student choice) -> D1.3, D2.2 5. Women in STEM/Pay inequality -> A2, F1.1, F1.4  For this activity, students will conduct research, and find data. Students will then make notes of the data they find. They will chose two sets of data to graph and compare (ie. number of arrests made against black people, and number arrests against white people). Students will graph and compare the data to make a real world connection.  Click here to see the activity handout! I think also, this activity could allow for a meaningful class discussion. For this activity I would give students the chance ...

 Hi everyone, For this week, I have decided to look at how I can build in student interest, and have them explore a social justice topic that is important to them, while connecting to math. 1. Housing costs/trends-> C3.1, B3.5, A2, B1.1 2. Public heath statistics of different countries-> C3.1, B3.5, A2 3. Crimes and racial profiling -> C3.1, B3.5, A2 4.  Passion project   on a social justice topic (student choice -> D1.3, D2.2 5. Women in STEM/Pay inequality -> A2, F1.1, F1.4 What the activity will be is a poster presentation. Students will have time to pick a topic, research the topic to find data, and will present their findings on a poster (virtual or physical). The purpose of this assessment will be so that students are working with data, and representing this data in an effective way, as part of data management.  Specifically for math, students will need to create a scatter plot graph to show their data.  Here is the student handout/instructi...

 Hi everyone, During my last block, I kept thinking about how I was going to incorporate social justice in my math courses. This was very challenging. Even when we had department meetings, a teacher brought up an activity on homelessness and as a group, the teachers said they were afraid of doing it, in case they triggered a student. This was towards the end of my block, so I thought I would dedicate this week's blog post to doing some research on how we can overcome the fear of teaching social justice, but also how can we go about it in a way where we aren't afraid of triggering students.  In this article , the author describes some interesting ideas for teaching social justice topics in your classroom.  Create a classroom community of conscience (ensure every students feels like their ideas and opinions are valued) Help students see each others as co-learners Include diverse experiences and backgrounds in the materials you choose for your class Show students how they ca...

 Hi everyone! Welcome back! I hope you all had a relaxing holiday! Over the break, I purchased a copy of High School Mathematics Lessons to Explore, Understand, and Respond to Social Justice . I have added a link over the book title to Amazon, if you are interested in also purchasing a copy! As I mentioned in one of my previous blog posts, this book includes different lesson plans for different grade levels, and topics in math.  This week, I thought I would give a summary one of the lessons, and give my thoughts on it and how I can see it being incorporated in my own classroom. The lesson I am choosing to look at involves healthy food choices and their accessibility. The lesson focuses on how full supply grocery stores are in rich, white communities. Since this book was written by American educators, it focuses on an American community. If I were to do this with my class, I would consider changing it to a community in Canada or more specifically, Ontario.  Here are the wo...

Hi everyone, For this week, I will be looking at creating an activity relating to the equality of pay between genders! 1. Housing costs/trends-> C3.1, B3.5, B1.1 2. Public health statistics of different countries-> C3.1, B3.5, A2 3. Crimes and racial profiling -> C3.1, B3.5, A2 4.  Passion project   on a social justice topic (student choice -> D2.2, D2.3, D2.4, A2 5. Women in STEM/Pay inequality -> C3.1, B3.5, A2 This connects to the Grade 9 math curriculum, with expectations  C3.1, B3.5, A2 . For this week's activity, I thought it might be interesting to try and create a 3 act math problem (with a twist) for students to solve. We learned about 3 Act math a few classes ago, and I think it is really interesting and get students intrigued in the problem! I took the framework of 3 Act math and tried to create a similar structure! For more information on 3 Act math, please click here !      Please click here to see the problem! Until next t...

 Hi everyone, For my genius hour this week, I have decided to look closer at some specific activities and how I can connect them to different stands/expectations of the grade 9 curriculum.  Last week, these are some of the curriculum expectations and some topics that I've related them to.  1. Housing costs/trends -> C3.1, B3.5, A2, B1.1 2. Public heath statistics of different countries-> C3.1, B3.5, A2 3. Crimes and racial profiling -> C3.1, B3.5, A2 4.  Passion project   on a social justice topic (student choice -> D2.2, D2.3, D2.4, A2 5. Women in STEM/Pay inequality -> A2, F1.1, F1.4 For this post, I will be focusing on Housing Trends, and how they relate to the grade 9 expectations (C3.1, B1.1, B3.5 and A2) I was able to find an activity that a teacher has done with their students! You can find the link here ! I also made my first mini-activity that can be used as a warm-up in a grade 9 math class! Yay! Looking at this activity that has studen...