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.