Blog 2 Summarize

After working with reformed based mathematics for a couple of weeks i am starting to get the hang of it and i am starting to feel like i critically think about math more than i did before. Previously to some of these classes i knew math problems and some of the basic reasons why they work but for the most part i never really cared to take a deeper look and really ask why it works. Writing the formulas for area of different shapes was interesting because we were able to look at a shape, define its constant properties, and from those properties devise a formula to find its area. From this deeper understanding of the material i now know why the formula is the way it is. I had a teacher in high school do the same thing with the quadratic formula by starting with a generic problem it would be used for and taking it step by step to reach the formula itself. All of these steps can be used to deepen the students understanding of why the math is the way it is.

Blog #1 Insight/Implacation

In the first couple of weeks in this class i have already started to view math education in a different way. I think having students develop and struggle with the concepts they are learning before just giving them the formulas that go along with them is a great idea. Students will learn faster and retain more knowledge if they have a deeper understanding of the material they are covering than compared to being given the formulas and told to use them because they work. Even though i don't plan on teaching math this idea can be translated into any other subject that i can teach. As a good teacher i have to make sure the students make the material their own and fully understand it instead of just memorizing, regurgitating, and forgeting it.