Hello everyone...My name is Kevin Lavallée and I am a prospective educator in the Concurrent Education program (Chemistry and Mathematics, I/S) at Brock University. Although chemistry is my first teachable subject, this blog will mainly be written through the lens of a math mind. Before I describe why I chose mathematics as my second teachable, I wanted to present you all with a quote from Ken Robinson, a British author, and an expert regarding education in the arts. He said "We don't grow into creativity, we grow out of it. Or rather, we get educated out of it". Although he speaks to the education of arts, I believe that this statement can apply to the education of mathematics. Ever since I could remember, mathematics has been an outlet for me to express my creativity. Whether it meant trying to solve a question in a different way from my classroom neighbour, or developing a game out of my math homework, or optimizing the size of the tree fort I could build given the limited supplies I found in the dumpster at lumber store down the road, I always found a way to give what I had learned in the classroom a creative purpose. Although my "Math Story" revolves around creativity, I find that most other's do not. Referring back to what Ken Robinson said, I believe that a significant portion of mathematics students have had their creativity educated out of them. They believe that math is a right-or-wrong, yes-or-no, factual subject with no room for imaginative thought. Well, I believe that there is room for creativity in the mathematics classroom, and I believe that it is up to mathematics educators to make their students believe it too. Identifying and understanding this notion only progressed my passion for creative mathematics, and as a result the subject was a natural choice for my second teachable.
As a prospective mathematics educator, my biggest fear is incorporating the entire mathematics curriculum while attempting to develop a fun, creative, and relevant mathematics classroom. I hope that this course will help me gain practical knowledge and experience to ensure that creativity is not lost at the expense of the curriculum, or vice versa. This blog will serve as a tool to track my progress throughout this journey! Thank you for reading!
-Kevin Lavallée
As a prospective mathematics educator, my biggest fear is incorporating the entire mathematics curriculum while attempting to develop a fun, creative, and relevant mathematics classroom. I hope that this course will help me gain practical knowledge and experience to ensure that creativity is not lost at the expense of the curriculum, or vice versa. This blog will serve as a tool to track my progress throughout this journey! Thank you for reading!
-Kevin Lavallée
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