This week was my turn to present to the class the chapter that I picked for my presentation. When I found out I had chosen the unit on integers I wanted to puke. I get so nervous about presenting in front of my classmates even though they are all the bomb.com but its something about getting up in front of all your friends and making sure you don't mess up that scares me. 

All week I had been stressing about how I was going to teach this when I can barely understand it myself. I decided that I was going to break it down and teach it to my class the way I would have taught it to myself.




I found a simple activity in my text book to incorporate into the presentation and I gave each student a integer number line to help them better visualize the task at hand. 





Here was my activity question:

1. Toss the coin 20 times
2. If the coin lands on heads you gain one point (+1)
3. If your coin lands on tails you lose one point (-1)
4. Indicate your final score after you have tossed 20 times.

I was worried the activity would be too easy so I had another question on my PowerPoint for my classmates who got finished quicker than others.

Bonus Question: How many tails could someone have tossed if their final score was -2?

The presentation went well and I learned that I wasn't as nervous as I thought I'd be. It was a great learning experience to present a lesson and practice your teaching skills to your peers!



We also talked about using manipulatives in class and how they are a great enhancement to any lesson, especially in math class! 
Our teacher brought out the blue and red tiles to help us visualize negative and positive integers and gave us a resource to keep in mind if we ever needed ideas for teaching another integer related lesson.

McWhirter, Ally (2016, October  7). Integer Manipulatives

Our teacher stressed the fact that manipulatives are supposed to be an aid, and not something that children should be relying on. Children should create their own knowledge and use them as a guide when needed. If they are constantly relying on the manipulatives to solve math problems and concepts then we as teachers need to help build confidence in the students so they don't feel the need to rely on manipulatives for help constantly.