Personal Concerns and Next Steps

You may blog about genuine personal concerns created as a result of the experiences in this course.

These last few weeks of class we have been listening to different peers present about different topics. We have mostly followed a progression from beginning number sense to learning about different probabilites. While everyone has done an excellent job at their presentations, I still feel like I do not have a full understanding of the different topics. I tried my hardest to follow what they were saying and complete the different activities. I would have liked a little more. I'm not exactly sure what, but something could be changed. At times everything felt very disorganized. We also nine times out of ten ran out of class time for further clarification.

Using the constructivist approach to teaching seems very important in this class. For me to feel comfortable teaching somewhat in a constructivist approach, I need to feel comfortable with the materials presented in the classroom. I know I am going to have a variety of students and that I am going to have to present a variety of levels to a topic. I will have to review materials and hope that they sink in. I almost feel that there was too much material and not enough time.

Personal Concerns and Next Steps

Now that we are starting the last week of classes this semester, I find myself looking back at the semester. My views on math have changed along with how I will teach math. Especially after conducting the clinical interview, I feel that my views on teaching math have changed. I never realized how huge a process it is. I always thought it was a bunch of memorization. It was either you got it or didn't. I would like to conduct some sort of clinical interview on my students someday. I think it would be very beneficial for teachers to do this with their students. I sure wish one of my elementary teachers would have done a clinical interview. I wouldn't have struggled so much with math my whole life had one teacher realized the way I was thinking about math was wrong or needed clarification!
After teaching a lesson to our class, I have also realized how hard it is! You really have to know your stuff. How can you effectively teach without knowing the material. That scares me. I'm scared I won't be able to teach math in a way that my students will truly understand and comprehend. I know it will take a few years to get into my groove of teaching math and other subjects. But what about those poor students who get those first years of teaching?

Personal Concerns and Next Steps

I have had a lot of thoughts about class today (we talked about the Equity Principle) and I just wanted to talk a little about that topic. It very clear to me that much of what we do in teaching is better "said that done" and one has lots of ideas about what should be fixed or what should be done, but when it comes down to it, it's really hard to implement. I find this to be a struggle within my heart and my head because I have a true passion for helping students get to their full potential. I was watching a program last night about a district in Washington, D.C. and they were talking to a principle in this district that said if he could he would fire over half of his staff. I found this to be very interesting and he said his main reason is because they don’t set high standards for the students (they teach in an impoverish neighborhood) and they don’t believe the students can achieve high. To me that was very upsetting those teachers think and believe that way. In that case maybe it would be a good idea for him to fire them. It is important for people would WANT to help students and who CARE about students and take this seriously to be teachers. It really bothers me to see people who could careless TRYING to become teachers and passing some how... I think it would save our school districts a lot of headache and stress if we weeded out the teachers who don’t actually care about the students and being a good teacher. Teaching is a life changing experience and by that I mean we have the ability to change lives. We can all recall a time when we have had a "bad" teacher and it scars us or helps us, but either way it affects us. I just want everyone to stop and seriously think about why we want to be teachers and do what it takes to be the best that we can be, not only for ourselves but for our soon to be students also.

New Insights & Their Implications

I want to talk about Cognitively Guided Instruction and how much I love it. My internship teacher used this approach with her first graders. So I have seen it modeled several times. When she first asked me about it I was very unfamiliar with it and felt so behind. Little did I know that I would learn about it soon.  The principal asked my field based supervisor to go toa a training workshop and teach it to the other staff in the school. I remember one day she got a substitute and I observed her teaching math to other classes other than her own using the CGI approach.  I watched her use CGI with her students and demonstrate it for other teachers but never really understood until this class. What I particularly like about this approach is how students have a choice for which strategy they want to use in solving the problem. I also like how they can choose to use or not to use manipulatives. What I really like about this program is how all the students come together at the end and a select few will share how they worked through the problem. It helps us as teachers know their understanding of the content and helps kids think of other ways work. One thing that I loved is that my teacher used Math Journals. She would print off a story problem for each child and they would glue them in their notebook. These stories were made fun by using different the names of her students.  She would then ask them to write in marker because she wanted to see their thinking and that it was okay to make mistakes. I would never have thought of that! It is a great idea! I feel so fortunate to have been able to learn about this approach in class and to be able to see it in action. I know that a lot of teachers out there are now just learning how to implement CGI. As future teachers we will be able to go into the schools with the training already under our belts! This is something that we are going to need to know because Math will most likely not be taught the traditional old way. More and more schools are adopting this approach. 

New Insights and Their Implications

I have learned a nimber of things in this class. I think that it has been helpful to see different ways that we can teach the students. I really enjoyed the CGI approach. This approach has really made me think about the different ways I can teach in my own classroom.
I really liked how the CGI approach allows the children to work on their own ways to solve problems. I think this makes this task more interesting to the children, rather than just having the answer told to them. I also liked how they can share their ideas, so they can see what else may work, and also that there may be a better way to solve it than what they had done.
It was interesting to see the videos about this approach. This helped me to see a real example of this, making it more understandable and usable than just reading the text. I was also given the opportunity to see this approach used in a real classroom in my internship. The children really seemed to enjoy using this in their classroom, and using the children's names in the problems really got them interested in the problems. The children also were able to keep these problems in a journal, so they can look back at the old problems and explore other ways to solve problems. I think that this will be something that I can use in my own classroom that the children can carry on with them as they continue through their schooling.

New Insights and Their Implications

What did you learn from your peers, from the instructor, and/or the readings, about elementary school students, and/or about yourself, and the teaching and learning of math and what are their implications to teaching and learning mathematics?
First, I just want to say that I feel that I have a new appreciation towards math in general. I really had a "math fear" for a very long time and this class has helped tear away at that fear. I can't say I love math, nor can I say I love learning about it quite yet, but I think in time I will eventually feel that way. I can say for certain that I have an amazing group of classmates. They have all made me feel like I was part of the group and I feel comfortable speaking out in front of the class because they have made me feel like what I have to say is important. In the past that would have been hard for me to do. So I want to thank you all for that. Also, I have learned so much from all of you and everyday I keep on learning more. Dr. Reins has taught me to become a very deep thinker. I have never had to think so much on a math problem in my entire life before. I like his way of teaching and I think he does a remarkable job doing so. Finally, I hope that I can someday teach in a way that my students will be able to not only know and do a formula to get an answer, but have a deep understanding on the significance of that formula. Plus, I hope that my students will be excited to learn math and that they don't develop a "math fear" like me.