Hello,
My name is Amanda Younger, I’m in my eighth year teaching. I’m currently at Langley Fundamental Elementary in the Langley School District on the traditional territories of the Kwantlen, Katzie, Musqueam and Semiahmoo first peoples. This is my fifth-year teaching grade four, this is my favourite grade to teach and was my favourite year of elementary school. I completed my Post Graduate Diploma in Mathematics Education at Queens in 2022, BEd at UBC in 2015 and a geography degree at KPU in 2014. I am currently working towards my Masters in Education as a Classroom Specialist through Queens University with a continued focus on math education.
My favourite subject to teach is Math and this is one I think needs closer examination as teachers to make it more engaging and less anxiety inducing for our students. As a teacher I try to make math as real world as possible for my students, for example teaching adding and subtraction of decimals at our “decimall” by going shopping. In my class we use some silly names for things and start our day with “breakfast”, one of our daily breakfast options in “Number Crunch” a set of individual or partner math games that get us warmed up for the day and that we joke are part of a balanced school day.
In my classroom I like to play and have fun and believe that play is a big part of learning. My students enjoy a variety of games individually, in pairs, small groups or as a whole class. I try to have two or three games as part of our day across all subject areas and a math game most days, some days it’s our warmup others our game forms the basis for our lesson. I have noticed my students appear more confident when playing games and having fun with the learning.
As a teacher I enjoy teaching math and geography. One of my passions is helping students connect to place and our local environment through children’s literature. I am constantly building my collection of books about the Salish Sea and Great Bear Rainforest.