“Suddenly, through these
activities, the mathematical
processes in the math
curriculum came to life right
before my eyes.”
FIELDS IN THE
ELEMENTARY
CLASSROOM
I RECENTLY ATTENDED MY FIRST Mathematics Education
(MathEd) Forum at the Fields institute. Admittedly, I was rather
nervous as I drove into Toronto from Hamilton. I was equally
worried about my own level of mathematical proficiency as
an elementary classroom teacher, and intimidated by the
reputation of the speakers, the other attendees, and the
Institute itself. I was educated in a system where we were
led to believe that there were ‘math people’ and ‘non-math
people,’ and I firmly believed that I fell into the latter group.
As a teacher of 13 years, I came to the profession with an
English degree and worked for a number of years in the
Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board (HWDSB) as a
system literacy coach—this was my niche and certainly my
comfort zone. However, since my return to the classroom
in 2014, I felt a common lethargy with my junior students
whenever we turned our attention to mathematics. Textbooks
were passé, worksheets were not my style, and I felt the
need for something more than a 3-part math lesson. It was
clearly time to find inspiration so that I could, in turn, share
that passion with my students.
The March MathEd Forum looked at math through art and
allowed me to put myself in my student’s shoes. I walked into
this ‘math class’ not knowing whether I would understand,
14
or whether my questions would seem unsophisticated or
completely rudimentary. What I found was a group of educators
willing to support my mathematical journey regardless of my
experience or aptitude. Some of the math was a little beyond
me, but I couldn’t help seeing the beauty and wonder of Dr.
Daniel Jarvis using a simple protractor and angles to draw a
perfect egg. I couldn’t help feeling the excitement as George
Hart and Elizabeth Heathfield allowed us to explore the place
where mathematics meets art by having us create and build.
I couldn’t wait to bring this to my classroom!
For the first time in my career, I saw my students naturally
wanting to discover mathematics. Building hyperboloids with
sticks and elastics was followed by 10 year olds hypothesizing
why the straight sticks would begin to appear curved. During
another activity, I watched in wonder as my junior students
searched the internet to understand how the number patterns
in the Fibonacci sequence could ever ‘know’ how to draw
a perfect shape. Suddenly, through these activities, the
mathematical processes in the math curriculum came to life
right before my eyes. Without lengthy instructions or top down
expectations, students were problem solving, reflecting,
connecting, communicating, and representing their ideas. An
excitement, a ‘phenomenon of learning’, typically reserved
by students for things like Pokemon Go and fidget spinners,
was happening in a math class.
April’s MathEd Forum on Statistics got me thinking about what
data management typically looks like in a classroom—simple