Summary and Synthesis

So far this semester's Tuesday and Thursday classes have opened my eyes to a different way of teaching. One thing I have always wondered about was how am I going to teach math to my students so that they are able to understand it in a better way than I was. This class has given me a new way of thinking and has produced me with some new ideas about teaching math. For instance working on one quality problem with extensions can help a student become more confident in their math skills. The trick is to make sure the task is meeting a standard and is at the appropriate level for the students. Another thing I have learned is that the teacher needs to stay out of the way of students learning. Students learn by making mistakes and as a future teacher I will try to balance the line between encouragement and support and taking over. I remember reading some article where the teacher taught his entire class by asking questions like; what shape is this? and how would you find the area? Asking questions helps students make meaningful connections to them that will develop into quality math skills. The recent experiences I have had in this class has encouraged me to become a more quality teacher and I am excited to see what else I will learn.

Summary and Synthesis

In class so far this semester, we have been exploring geometry and new ways to discover how to scale shapes to a larger size, find the area of a triangle with out the formula and making observations about triangles. I would have never thought about teaching math in the way we are learning to problem solve and determine and justify answers with out the answer given to the students. Students get to work through the problem with out a formula. I think that it is a good way to get students problem solving and remembering how to do math problems.