Summary and Synthesis

Summarize and synthesize of the impact of recent experiences, ideas, and/or issues encountered on the Tuesdays and Thursdays in class thus far from your perspective.

Math in and of itself has never been extremely hard for me. I have always taken for granted that I had a formula that led me to an answer. This class has challenged my view of mathematics. I no longer just randomly apply a formula and spit out an answer. I think about the different things we have done in class. For instance when we found how the area of a triangle connects to the area of a rectangle or how we found different ways to find an area formula for different trapezoids and the algorithm to back it up. While these things were not necessarily difficult, they challenged me to look beyond what I have been taught and look how they connect in my own world. While this may be sad to say, I had never realize the connection between the area of a rectangle and triangle. I was never taught how to or expected to prove my algorithms or answers.

Today in class we were working on fractions. While we did not get far into the lesson, I am already doing things that I would never have thought to do before. While I am still somewhat confused with why we were doing some of things we were doing, I made a better connection with fractions that will hopefully help me understand what my students will have to go through to understand what they are doing. While I am still confused I already know more than just rote procedures!!!