New Insight and Implications

Throughout the time I have been in this class I have enjoyed learning new ways to create connectedness within teaching math. I now see how important it is that students know why they are learning new math skills and where they will use them. Throughout school my teachers did a great job building from one topic to the next but I still struggled with the why question. I always loved math because it made sense to me, but I didn't know why I needed to know the information. Making story problems that are real life situations that need a solution answers that question for students. After the house project, though it was very time consuming, I understood why area and nets are needed. I remember sitting in class dreading the project, but I would rather have my students do that then sit and do area worksheets. As a teacher thinking of good projects that meet standards and are practical is a great use of my time and the students.

Summary and Synthesis

Since my last post, I have learned a great deal about teaching mathematics. My whole life, I have understood mathematics through minimal implications, connections, and relevance. I was taught mathematics in chunks instead of a whole. This teaching methodology is completely off base and needs to be changed. Through this course, I have learned that mathematics needs to be planned in a cohesive manner so that students have an in-depth knowledge of topics that can be used to have full understanding of future concepts. One way that I learned this topic was from the mean activity. It opened my eyes to see that one simplistic concept in mathematics can connect to more complex concepts that will be taught in the future. I also learned this from the most recent LPU. The students who completed doing the LPU did an excellent job at describing the reasons of WHY we divide fractions the way we do and what the purpose is of it. Doing this, placed relevancy of the topic to my life. Since the last blog, we have also learned about area. Area to me, has always been an easy concept because I was given a formula and numbers were plugged in and I received an answer. Through the teaching methods used in this class, I have learned that area is much more meaningful and that it has a great deal of knowledge behind it that can relate to other concepts such as volume. I have encountered some learning issues in this course. My issues arise from not understanding the material in the way that it is presented. This is not the instructors fault, nor my fault. This problem is directly derived from my past teachers approaching math education in chunks. Now that I am learning mathematics in a holistic approach, I am slightly confused because I have never seen it approached in this manner. This teaching method makes sense, it will take work on my work to make sense of the content.

Summary and Synthesis

The past few weeks in math have brought more clarity into the focus of the class. I really enjoyed the student led teaching session on Thursday. I felt the lesson was very student-centered, and the pattern blocks shed some light into the fraction work. The paint project, though tedious, was a real life example that aided the classroom in learning about nets. I definitely feel less lost in the class the further we get into the curriculum, though I wish I had some indication of where I stood, grade-wise in the course.