New Insights and Implications

I am a notoriously poor math student. In high school, math was constantly the one class waging war against my GPA. Naturally, I dread all things math when it comes to college. This class is nice because it breaks down mathematics into coherent pieces which all fit together. I am beginning to develop a view of math in which all of the elements are interconnect. The activity we did with mean and standard deviation really cemented that concept. I think I will always be slightly uncomfortable with math, and there is no way I would be qualified to teach it at a high level, but at the very least I am confident that through this class I will build skills necessary to teach it at the elementary level, and convey connected ideas to students.

New Insights....

Before taking this class, I was very nervous about the course. Because I have always struggled with math, I think I have began to build a wall up. I am looking forward to continuing to learn how to break down the concepts of mathematics so that I can be confident when it comes to teaching effectively. I have learned a lot through the readings in the text; however, for me I have gained the most out of the class lectures. So far my favorite activity was estimating the mean using the rulers and washers. Because I am a visual learner I found myself really connecting and making sense of the task at hand. I think the biggest challenge I am having in this class is to think simple. I often find myself making the task harder than it needs to be.

Personal concerns and the next step

This class has already been a challenge for me.  I have always had a little math anxiety and I wasn't looking forward to coming into the class.  What I have been learning so far has been very interesting.  I am having a hard time applying it as a student and how I would be able to explain this material to my own students.  I think it is such useful and helpful information that I would love to get better at it.
I think the next step with this is just to work harder and go in for extra help and questions.  I want to be the best teacher I can be and hopefully bring my students to love math.  I do not want students to feel helpless in math

New Insights and Their Implications

Prior to taking this course I considered myself good at math. I have always succeeded in it and have always understood how to get the answer. This summer I took both math concepts 1 and 2 and aced it with very little effort. Since I have been in this class I have realized that I am good at plugging in numbers but not good at understanding why I did what I did. I have been deprived of exercising my critical thinking skills. I have had some of the same problems in this class that I had in math concepts and could not figure out how to come up with the answer without following procedural steps. My implications for teaching and learning math are to first try and understand the problems as a whole for myself and then allow my students to come up with their own techniques for solving problems and to provide them with that foundation that I was never introduced to.

Personal Concerns and Next Steps

It is always difficult to transition from one form of learning to another. I feel that in this class, we are doing the opposite of what we've done for so long and it's difficult to get the proper mindset to make the change in thinking. My concern is that I'm not fully connecting the material we learn in class. I get the main points and how we get solutions, but sometimes I can't quite correlate how those steps come together in the end. I think that it is great that this class is based upon us working to find our answers rather than doing things from the book, but it will just take time for me to switch gears, and I'm afraid that it will take too much time, and I'll miss out on important information. It's just not quite comfortable learning for me yet, but it will get better!
I think the next step with this concern is just to work a little harder, participate a little more in class, and seek help if I feel I don't understand. If I put more effort into the activities, I'm hoping the connections in material just present themselves! I'm confident that I will overcome these issues, it just may take time.

New Insights and Their Implications

At the very beginning of this class, I thought I was in way over my head and was unsure of what was happening. Now that I think I have understood this method of teaching, things are getting better. I like the different activities we are doing and class because we are able to do learn them and actually do them so we can teach our students some day. I have realized that this teaching method is completely different from anything I have ever learned, and I am excited to see where it takes us. I enjoyed teh laft activity and finding out how to teach students about standard deviation. Once we went over how to do that everything started clicking in my head about how to reach students with these concepts. In this class I am starting to learn something unique and different from most of my other method courses. Sometimes I still feel confused, but I just allow myself time to think outside of the box and then I can fully understand these concepts and activities. I am anxious to see what is to come next for this class and to get started on our projects.

New Insights and Their Implications

          Starting this class off the first  couple of days I was a bit intimidated at how we were going to be learning to teach math. The style of progressive learning and teaching the understanding of mathematics rather than the memorization of formulas is foreign to me. However, after working through and completing the scale factors and areas assignment I can see how this style of teaching math is much more beneficial for students. In our math content courses, I struggled with the concept of similar shapes and their ratios, after going through an assignment that dealt with the same concepts I was surprised to see at how well I was able to learn and understand the math behind scale factors, similar shapes, ratios, and so on. The math became much more clear to me and I was also able to reflect on how I thought about it before and what mistakes I made in my previous thinking. I am still slightly uncomfortable with the style of teaching math this way, but experiencing it as a student has opened my mind up to seeing the many benefits it has.

New Insights and Their Implications

I have never been one who enjoys math, and it's by far my toughest subject. Growing up I always remember doing worksheets or problems out of a book. My math teachers taught a concept and then we did a worsheet or x amount of problems out the book. Basically I was memorizing concepts, just to get through to the next lessons. In this course I have found how important it is to help students make connections. I don't believe I ever learned how to make connections and I think that is why I have struggled through it. Helping our students make connections will help them to succeed in lessons that follow, since in math you are always building on previous knowledge. I have also found in the course that when we allow students to do hands on concepts, not only will they be more willing to want to learn about math, but they will also be able to make stronger connections. Learning math and practicing math through worksheets is okay, some of the time, but it should be mixed with real life problems and activities.

New Insights and Their Implications

Throughout elementary and up to my college career, I have always enjoyed math and have been pretty successful. I think very linearly, so math has always seemed to fit into my ways of thinking and understanding. All throughout my schooling, I was pretty successful at memorizing formulas and knowing the procedure for solving them. On the contrary, my husband is a person who does not enjoy math and has struggled with math his entire life. He has worked very hard to try to understand math, but has never been able to understand why he struggles with math so much. Throughout our college career, I would always try to help him with his math homework, and he would ask me questions such as "Why do you use this formula?" or "Why does it have to be done this way?". I was never able to answer his questions because I simply didn't know the answer. All I could do was show him the procedure for solving the equations or problems, and all I could say was, "This is just how you do it. I don't know why it is this way, but you just do it." After talking about and beginning to understand reformed mathematical teaching, I feel like I was "ripped off" throughout my education. Had I been taught this new reformed math, I would have been able to answer why you use specific formulas or why you solve things the way you do. I may know how to solve a math equation, but in many cases, I have no clue as to WHY you use certain formulas or WHY you solve certain problems certain ways. I truly believe that had my husband been taught with this reformed style teaching of mathematics, he would have never struggled with math. His brain is one that functions solely off of meaningful connections. If he doesn't understand how a concept is related or why it is important (for example a formula taught in isolation), he doesn't grasp it. His brain NEEDS coherency, meaningful connections, and meaningful context to build understanding and knowledge. Having realized this, I am super excited about figuring out how to effectively teach this reformed mathematics to my future students. I have come to realize that reform taught mathematics can have far reaching affects for students. Although, I don't feel anywhere near proficient at this style of teaching yet, I believe that if I can master this method of reformed mathematical teaching, my students will not struggle with math because they will understand how all mathematical concepts are linked together and they will have built their own knowledge in a meaningful context. Throughout this semester, I look forward to learning how to execute this style of teaching and learning how to develop lessons that make meaningful connections for students.

Personal Concerns and Next Steps

So far in this course, I have learned to look at education in a whole new light. Unfortunately, not all methods courses that I have taken have provided me with this same insight. Since, I have not been educated myself in the approach that Math Methods takes, I feel somewhat behind. I do my best to keep up on the readings, but when understanding the problems presented in class, I seem to struggle. I do not feel as if that is this course, or the instructors fault. I feel that in order to succeed in this class, I as a student, need to learn from this new teaching style, but most importantly, I need to learn how to incorporate this teaching into my own lessons. If I can grasp the basic concepts and style and apply it myself, I will be able to better demonstrate and aid my future students. So far though, I have learned that I should not just sit back and remain confused, I need to be an active participant and be more vocal with my concerns. Although, my personal concerns may be few, I do think that I have a great deal of construction to do with my own personal teaching style to succeed in this class and as an educator.

Personal Concerns and Next Steps

When I first entered this class I was very concerned that I would not be able to understand the concepts because of the 'new' way of thinking we are supposed to do. Math is not something I have ever been very good at so when I was told I was going to have to forget everything I already knew about math and learn it a different way, I was not pleased. I am starting to become more comfortable in the class but I'm still not sure I am learning the material with a 'new' of thinking. I wish I had a more open mind about math but it is really hard for me to enjoy this subject. I hope that this class gives me the ability to look at math with fresh eyes. Maybe if I learn how to look at math with an open mind I will enjoy the subject more. Hopefully, if I begin to understand the subject better I will reflect that onto my students in the future.

Personal Concerns and Next Steps

For the most part, I understand what is going on in this class. The reasoning for this teaching style is completely understandable, and I wish I'd been taught this way. It is however, difficult for me to catch on to what's happening and what is due each day, because I wasn't taught with this teaching style in all my years of education.

One thing I think would make it easier to understand what is going on in this class is if there were a syllabus or schedule that was up to date and said exactly what is due for the next day. I do understand that we are slightly behind schedule, but whenever I look at the syllabus, I get nervous because I have no idea what needs to get done, what's actually due, and activities we do not need to do because we've not arrived at them yet.

I think as class goes on, I'll be able to figure things out, and have a better grasp as to what's going on. I'm confident that I understand the content for the most part right now, it's just the scheduling and due dates that I need to figure out.

Personal Concerns and Next Steps

Although I'm not the best with math (but I'm not completely horrible at it either), I am a little concerned on how to succeed in this class. This class has taken me out of my comfort zone many times when it comes to math, and I think it is because it we are looking at teaching and learning math in a completely different way than I was taught up to this point. As for short term concerns, I am worried about succeeding in this class (I feel a little lost - like I'm not completely "getting" it or thinking outside of the box enough). For the long term, I am very concerned with teaching my students math in this new reformed way. I'm worried that if I do not grasp the topics and concepts enough in this class, I will not succeed in teaching my students math (and will further confuse them instead of help them). I know it is usual to feel uncomfortable at first with something you are not use to, so I'm hoping that in a short while I'll start catching on and feeling more confident in my abilities to succeed in this class and as a teacher.

Personal Concerns and Next Steps

I have a hard time following what we are supposed to do for this class. Many times when I come for class I wonder if I have everything prepared. So far I have had very good luck with keeping up, but at times I think I am missing something. I understand that you have three classes in a row but there are assignments and suggested materials, and its hard to tell what you want prepared. My next step is to figure out your style. I may be over reacting and I just have to get used to how you run the class, but for now I am very nervous that I will miss something. I look forward to class everyday and hope that I am fully prepared. I look forward to the rest of the semester and can't wait to learn more about constructivism in math!

Personal Concerns and Next Steps

I will be straight forward and say that math is my least favorite subject. I have never been good at it and it has ALWAYS been a struggle with me. I have just always found it hard to connect ideas and honestly, just be interested in learning it. I find it very hard to believe that we will use any of this in the future (besides teaching it to other students), so I have always found math as almost pointless. This class, however, is unlike any other math class I have taken. It is more based around "constructivism" instead of instuction and plugging in things to a formula. If I do not understand something in math, it is very easy for me to give up and not try. This has always been a problem of mine with this subject. My steps for this class is to try my hardest to understand what we talk about in class and truely make sure that I am on the same page as everyone else. It is just hard when everyone in the class understands and you are the only one that is clueless. I will, however, make a better effort in approaching this subject with an open mind and will make it a point to come in for help if I truely am still lost in the subject matter. All I can promise is to try my hardest and we will see where that goes. Fingers crossed!

How has this course changed or not changed your perceptions of teaching math?

This course has so far completely changed my perceptions of how I will teach math to my future students. Thus far, I never questioned how I would teach math because I never before saw a flaw in the way that I was taught. However, being that this course requires me to think so much more in depth than I ever had to in my elementary, middle, or even high school days, I have realized that I was probably not taught the best way. I personally like the new way that I am being taught to teach, because I think that it is a better way for my future students to learn. When students need to use their peers and their own mind when learning, I think that the actual learning process is then better than just having a teacher stand at the front of the class and talking about concepts. This new way of teaching will in my mind be better because it allows students to connect concepts instead of just move on front one concept to the next.

New Insights and Their Implication

I thought that this course would be way over my head at the start of the semester, but I enjoy doing activities and problem-solving strategies that are still challenging but still have a relation to teaching elementary students. I am looking forward to the rest of the semester and though the two big projects will be challenging they will be beneficial and a good way for us to stay responsible and hold leadership for ourselves in this class. I have especially enjoyed the 'laft' activity in relation to the optimal mean concept because I had no idea we would be learning about standard deviations and understanding formulas by simply estimating a spot on the 'middle' of the laft where a certain number lies. These situations will help us instruct our future students and be able to find ways of explaining various reasoning strategies and math implications in ways they are familiar and comfortable with. I believe this course will be still a challenge for me but it will be good to be forced to take the type of math we are learning to think about it as if I would be teaching my class someday!

New Insights and Their Implication

Before taking this class, I had heard some pretty interesting stories. I heard it would be one of my biggest challenges so far in my college career. So, I braced myself for quite the adventure. I really really enjoy math and all of the concepts that go along with it. This class is very different than any other math class I have taken in the past. A lot of the learning happens on our own time through reading. I have found this class to be pretty challenging because it is not straight forward like other classes and we are required to think critically and problem solve on our own. My favorite part of class so far was the activity we did last week that involved mean standard deviation with the washers and the sticks. It was a good hands on activity and it was an activity that I learned a lot about. This was an activity that I grasped very well and was able to ask intriguing questions about! I was on the top of my game this day in class! I look forward to the rest of the semester because this math class really teaches us how to get children to think about math in a different way. The class forces us to think like a kid again, and that in itself is pretty fun!

New Insights and Their Implications

Before starting this class I knew that teaching math would not be one of the easiest tasks. I especially thought it would be challenging but rewarding at the same time. Since starting this methods class I realized that it truly takes more than just knowing how to do a math problem to teach math. It takes knowing the steps, how you came to such steps, and why you chose to use those steps. As our teacher you told us at the beginning of the semester that this class would be especially challenging to us and that mahy of us may struggle for somewhat of the semester. I believe you are right. I do not think that any of us have been taught math quite like this class, and from the sounds of it many of us still feel kind of lost. Every day that I come to class I learn something new and that really makes me happy. I am tired of sitting through boring education classes learning nothing. If I wanted to waist my money this way I would be addicted to gambling. I am hoping that this class allows me to teach math in ways that teachers have been failing to do for quite some time. Hopefully this method will boost the knowledge of math and the feeling towards math, resulting in better scores and knowledge. I think this class has a great constructivist view, and I am hoping to start seeing more benifits from learning this way soon!

New Sights and their Implications

I have never been a huge fan of learning math, however when I understand how to do a math problem I tend to enjoy it. Before this class I thought of elementary math as adding/subtracting and simple concepts like that. I expected this class to be about how to teach students how to do these concepts and learn facts about math. However, Dr. Reins has a completely different take on teaching math. At first, it was frustrating to learn because I am used to being taught a formula or equation and doing the problem. We were forced to think backwards and try to make connections which is hard for me to do. I do however feel that this is a great way to teach elementary mathematics. If students learn right from the beginning how to make connections and why formulas are what they are, students will most likely understand these concepts and realize how they are relevant in the real world. I hope to take from this class what Dr.Reins is doing and be able to help my students make connections on their own in math.

New Sights and Their Implications

My experiences with have been more so up and down. I catch on to some things in math easier than others. Basically math and I have never been a good match. But I have learned recently that when teaching math to the elementary school students is that we need to have the them see the connections. Like seeing how mean can be describe differently than just adding up all the numbers and then dividing by that number. Teaching the students about mean absolute deviation, standard deviation, also even using median, and mode. I may not be explaining this well but all these things are connected to each other one way or another, but it does depend on how you present these areas to the students. Also this class is making you think on the other side rather than what you already know based on what you were taught. This kind of thinking is hard to do and does make learning a little confusing until you catch on. The important thing is to ask for help when not fully understanding what it is being taught. It is interesting to learn from a different view point that can help students better compared to the way most of us have been taught in the past.

New Insights and Their Implications

I have disliked Math ever since I was a little kid.  I have dreaded every math course because they are always alike; completing problems out of the book or worksheet.  However, this is the first math class that I find somewhat interesting.  It requires us to use metacognition and deeper thinking.  This is a challenge for almost everyone because it is so much different than what we are used to.  My head was spinning the first couple of days but after I believe that I am now beginning to fully grasp that all mathematics connect to one another.  This new concept will help me become a better teacher and hopefully allow my students to understand mathematics better.  

New Insights and Their Implications

Math has never really been my favorite subject ever. So when I signed up for this class, I was a little hesitant and really didn't want to have to take it. I wasn't really sure what we would be doing and just expected everything to be out of the textbook and not really doing problems and activities in the classroom. I have learned a lot of different fun activities you can do with your classroom dealing with math. And the input from other classmates really helps me to understand a concept I maybe wasn't too certain about. That is an aspect of this class that I do like. Not everything is done by the teacher, he expects us to do the work and even go up to the board like today and explain ourselves. My favorite activity to date is the one we did with mean. By first having to figure out without any math what we think the mean is and then putting the washers on them and hanging them up to see where it was even. This is something I learned a lot from and was fun to work on too. Sometimes some of the stuff we do in this class are way over my head, but continually doing activities like that, I think should really help with my understanding of math so I can teach it better to my students.

New Insights and Their Implications

Math has always been a subject that I have struggled with. I think it is in large due to teachers making me memorize formulas and ways of solving problems, but not putting any meaning behind it. So far in this class we are learning the process of math problems and the reasons why we get the answers we do. Explaining how we come up with methods of solving problems is helping me understand why and how we come up with the correct answers. Learning this in class will help me to teach my students, so they can understand the process of math and hopefully have a better time learning it than I did!

New insights and implications

Math was never my strongest subject. I believe it is because I was taught to plug numbers into formulas without ever knowing the why or how of math. Throughout this course thus far, I have gained the perspective that math can be figured out without just being handed a formula. For example, today (9/22), we learned how to find the area of a triangle without just being handed the formula and told to plug in the numbers.

New Insights and Their Implications

Math has always been a subject that has come easily to me. Throughout my education, I have memorized formulas, and use them correctly to find the answers. After starting this class, I have found out that formulas are not everything. There needs to be a reason for the formula and an explanation for why. I understand that everything connects to each other. This class had made me think of different ways to solve problems, and sometimes it may take more work for me to understand because I am not used to this kind of concept. However, through learning these new concepts, I will be able to teach children at a younger age. When the concept actually comes up in later grades, they already have some understanding and it will be easier for them.

New Insights and Their Implications

Math is a subject that has always taken me a little more time to grasp than it may have for some others. I was never a bad student in math, I just had to work harder than some other people who, I felt, just 'got it.' Within the first few days of taking this course, I began to realize why I did not immediately understand the new concepts that I was taught in school. We were always supposed to memorize formulas, that all looked similar to me, and were never told why the formulas were that way. We just had to know them. I realize now that math was difficult for me because I struggled to make connections from one concept to another in higher math education. I have learned in this class that these connections are what gives a person the ability to truly understand math. The implications of this simple concept are huge. Learning how to help students form these connections will likely help me to become a better teacher in the subject of math, and will help my future students to become more proficient in the subject as well.

New Insights and Their Implications

I came into this class expecting to work out of the textbook or with worksheets, completing various math problems while also discussing how to teach these types of problems to K-8 students. It has been a little bit of a frustrating transition to thinking of math problems in this way because it is totally out of my comfort zone. I am a math person. I love math and I have always been relatively good at it, but this class makes me rethink that all together. It makes me realize that I really only learned math on a single level. So far, I really like this way teaching math. I am also a SPED major, so I am also thinking of how this type of teaching would help SPED students. Though it's tough for my brain to switch gears, I am really enjoying this new way of thinking about math problems.

New Insights and Their Implications

When I first started this class, I assumed it would be how to add/subtract, multiply/divide, and maybe go into fractions and decimals. I have learned that math is much more than the simple concepts I learned when I was in school. Learning math is so much more such as doing projects and activities that attract learning and intensify the potential to retain the information learned. When Dr. Reins was doing the lath project, I sort of tuned out thinking it wasn't really a math activity. When he went into more detail and showed what we learned in mathematical terms, I completely understood. I am now looking at this class with a different eye looking for the hidden message in a fun activity.

Personal Concerns and Next Steps

I have always been fairly good at math. Sometimes I would need a little extra help to understand something, but I was in accelerated math during high school and elementary school math was simple for me. In this class, it is hard for me to understand the project base method. I get confused at first, but after doing different problems, I am starting to understand this way of teaching. I know teaching through project base will help many students; it will just take some time getting used to. If I keep working hard in class, I feel as if I will understand how to teach my students, by the end of this class.

New Insights and Their Implications

So far it has been quite interesting to learn about how to teach students math. A lot is stressed on how to connect, how to understand, and how to implicate, rather than how to come to the correct answer. Math can certainly be a hands on activity; which I think could help the students a lot. More hands on learning can create an enjoyment of math in students. This can also help students understand math. Math can be a lot of abstract thinking rather than right or wrong.

New Insights and Their Implications

So far in this course, I have learned how to create activities that students will enjoy to help them learn more about math. I never would have thought about using some of the demonstrations that were given in class to develop the concepts we have talked about, such as the mean or scale factors. The math classes I was exposed to offered little hands on activity and more worksheet or practice problem format. This seemed to be ok, because I was interested in math, but I could not imagine doing that day after day if I did not like or understand math. These are great tools for getting all students interested in math and developing knowledge that they can use later in the class or in the following school years.

Questions and Answers

Before this class the role of the teacher seemed to be the all knowing that would provide steps for the students to take to accomplish a goal. I know see that the questions are just as important to as the answers and that what students learn while getting the answers can be more valuable in the end. If students questions themselves during the learning process and focus on how they are going about the process of getting the answers they will end up with an answer and a better understanding of how they got their answers. This new process of asking questions to help student find answers, though takes time and hard work, is an exciting process that i truly look forward to implementing in my class.