Personal Concerns and Next Steps

This class has offered a lot of valuable information. Perhaps almost too much, but I think that is the point. I can definitely see myself using some of the resources, such as the National Library of Virtual Manipulatives. Also, I enjoy the projects because they are not as belittling as other class’ projects, such as coloring and gluing. I also appreciate having the standards being related to what we are doing within the class, mostly so we know how to start choosing them on our own as we will have to do this very soon. I just worry that in the future I will have trouble finding projects and assignments that accurately fit all of the standards. However, having more experienced teachers and good resources will be a great help.
[andrea]

Personal Concerns and Next Steps

Currently my only concerns in the class are figuring out where to find each piece of information and apply it to my learning and future. With all of my other methods courses and classes being on D2L, everything is new to me and is taking time to get used to. I find myself in class trying to pay attention and figure out where everything that was covered was recovered at, however, when I return home to review the information, I find myself confused as to what was read and where to click into. The class has been both informative and stressful. I feel that since we only meet twice a week, there is a lot of information being covered in class each meeting. Some of the information that we began class with, always has the potential to slip my mind by the time I walk out of the door.

Personal Concerns and Next Steps

Personal Concerns and Next Steps
-We are currently rounding out our third week of classes and I feel like this class has already given me a run for my money. I have been given more information in this class the last couple weeks than any of my other courses thus far. I am concerned because I feel like I sit in class and pay attention as much as possible, but yet the information is going in one ear and out the other. I feel like during lectures we don’t get down to the nitty gritty and that’s what I need to feel comfortable with what is important and what is just additional information or resources. I want to be able to listen during lecture and have it all click instantly, but there is just so much information. During class I am finding it hard to pinpoint the important facts to store away into memory. My solution to my problems is to study alot and read the chapters once and maybe even two or three times to understand the materials presented. It looks like I’m going to need to adjust my way of learning and adapt to this new and challenging course.

Personal Concerns and Next Step

I believe that class has been going well so far. I am pretty good at understanding math if I have a little time to look at it. I have encountered both good math instructors and instructors that were so bad that I had to help teach the class. I believe that this class can better prepare me for teaching than the old way of just showing it for memorization and then forgetting about it. I do not have any concerns at the moment. Just enjoying myself. It is amazing that in our world today we have only now come to really look at the standards and how to do things better than we did before.
Adam Jastram

Personal Concerns and Next Steps

The main concern I have with the math class is that I have not been taught to enjoy or like math. I am also not very good at math, so it makes it really hard in this class. The math teachers that I have encountered throughout my math history always just showed me how to do what needed to be done in class. The teachers also just gave me answers a lot of the time instead of explaining to me how to think logically through the problems. Though this class is taught with totally different methods that I am not used to, I believe that I will be able to learn more about math and really enjoy it. Through this class, I think I will be able to think more about math logically and use reason. Also in this class, I plan on really trying to understand math rather than just getting by.

Personal Steps and Next Steps

I have really liked this class so far and it has been very interesting to me. I have already learned a lot more in these few weeks than I have in other math classes on how to teach math. I know that this is a new way of learning and a teaching way that most of us have not been exposed to at the university. It is a bit difficult for me but not too hard that I am not learning. I just wish we maybe had more time to discover things like we have been but also have more time to talk about things and go over the right answer. I like that were are going over the standards because in all the method classes we are needing to look at them more and more and most teachers just expect us to know how to find the right one. In this class we are going more in depth with what to really look for in standards. I have always liked math, maybe have not been that good in teaching it, so I am looking forward to being able to know how to teach it better and to help other people understand it better also. How do you change the standards for special need students? This is one question that I am interested to learn more about in the last couple of weeks. I know that each student is different in their own way and am excited to learn more about fitting the concepts, the individual, the standards and the new way of teaching all together.

Personal Concerns and Next Steps

A concern I have within teaching math, as well as other content areas is the standards. If I am teaching a third grade class math, science, social studies, and language arts, there are a large number of standards I will need to be aware of and make sure I am meeting. This past Thursday in class (Sept. 18) helped me realize that it really is not to difficult. The standards, both state and national, are easy to find, and for the most part, easy to look through. I found the assignment to find the 7th grade math standards for the activity we did in class to not be very difficult. The standard websites have links to go directly to the grade and directly to the strand. Finding the 7th grade standards in geometry and measurement just took a few minutes of reading. Though I am realizing it's easier then I initially thought, I want to find a way in which I can make sure I am effectively finding all standards for every content. I also want to learn a way in which I can sort the standards myself in order to have easier access.

Summary and Synthesis

I have enjoyed learning more about math and can not wait until we talk about the CGI program, or at least I hope we talk about the CGI program. These last couple of weeks we have been talking about the process of problem solving, scale factors, and both the NCTM goals and expectations and the state standards. One of the first things that we did was the handshake problem. This was interesting because we were asked to write down what we were thinking while trying to solve the problem. For me it was harder to figure out why I was doing what I was doing because it seemed to be so automatic for me. I immediately started to solve it by using diagrams but could not tell you why I decided to you this strategy to solve the problem. I also appreciated the activity on similar shapes. This was great because we had the opportunity to work in groups and we also had to try many different things to find out how to enlarge the shape by a scale factor of both 2 and 3. I hope that we continue to do hands on activities that we could also do with are classes when we begin to teach. I have always believed that hands on learning is a great way to teach and learn different things.

New Insights and Their Implications

Prior to this class I had never really seen myself teaching mathematics. If I were put in the position to teach Math I would have taught it the only way I knew how, the way I was taught. However my views have already drastically changed. I have learned about the deficiencies that we as the United States face when compared to other countries. I think that the problem solving approach is a very practical way that I can teach Math effectively. When we began discussing the problem solving approach and how much more time it takes and the amount of time the problems take i had serious doubts. I personally thought that this was going to be a discussion about how we SHOULD teach that was not practical whatsoever. I have been enrolled in classes in which we have been told how to teach but there is no way that we can teach that way and meet goals and standards that have been set forth. It seems now that I am confident that i can use an approach that can increase student learning as well as meet state and national standards.

Personal Concerns and Next Step

So far the class is really interesting to me, and I have learned quite a bit about how math is taught and how it should be, but I do not feel as though some things are gone into depth as much as I like. I know that letting the students explore how they think and what their methods are are important, but at the same time I need to worry about the standards. I feel it is a bit over whelming knowing that there is a new style of teaching, but the standards have stayed the same. Knowing the standards is not going to make students better learners, or even meeting them. However, I think that teaching is about the students and what they can do and pushing them to a new level of learning. The standards are important, but as far as students with disabilities are concerned how do they fit in the learning process?
I think that the standards are important, but implementing them in a way that makes learning fun and meaningful for the students is the challenge and I would love to learn more about different ways to do this. Students should be the center of our teaching process and fitting the standards into that process sometimes seems to be a challenge because they are so unclear.

New Insights and Their Implications

So far I have learned that our Math scores here in the United States are quite poor when compared to a country such as Japan. I have also learned that the United States does not devote more than five minutes to any one math problem. When we look at a country like Japan and find out that they spend fifteen or more minutes on just one problem, we begin to see why the United States might not be scoring well on these tests. I have learned quite a lot of information in Math Methods these last few class sessions, but this is the one bit of information that really got me to listen. Seeing how poor the United States scores on these tests makes me realize that it is more important than ever to be looking for different ways of teaching math to students. We need to start letting the students find ways of coming up with the answers for themselves, rather than just telling them how to arrive at an answer. Obviously, Japan is doing something different and the United States needs to step up and start doing the same. We need to incorporate more actual thinking into mathematics, rather than using the traditional, here's the problem, here's how you do it, and here's the answer technique. If we as teachers don't start changing things, then our students and the United States will suffer the consequences.

New Insights and Their Implications

Attending class these past couple weeks have been a great learning experience for me, because I now know more about the many ways to teach mathematics to students. I was very impacted by the data that was shown to us about how the United States differs from many other countries when it comes to mathematics. I have always felt that we as a country have high expectations for our teachers and education is put on a pedestal which creates a well rounded learning environment for students. After learning about the statistics I have a new outlook on mathematics instruction. All students learn in a number of ways, especially when it comes to mathematics. We as teachers need to be knowledgeable on the content area so we know how to reach our students. This class so far has prepared me for many types of situations that I may encounter as a teacher, and I look forward to learning more about how to teach students about the many aspects of mathematics.

New Insights and Their Implications

I have already learned a lot of new information pertaining to the concepts of mathematics, but the piece(s) of information that captured my attention the most so far in class were the test results. I have always considered the US to be on top and be successful when it comes to comparing us to other countries, but that was not the case when it came to the test scores. Not only were our test scores lower, they were extremely lower in some cases. This was an eye-opener and pure evidence that we need to step it up and start bringing some fresh, new ideas to the classroom instead of the boring traditional teaching styles. I strongly believe that we need to let students understand the different approaches to solving math problems and encourage them to explore different approaches. Students should also be rewarded for showing creativity and developing or experienmenting with new learning styles. I feel students also need to absorb more of the information by going more into depth on the material they are learning. As a future teacher, I want to do more than just simply demonstate the problem and then send homework home with the students. Taking a fresh new approach and a step further into the learning material will make a difference in how the students learn and retain the information!