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.