Summary & Synthesis

The impact of the recent experiences throughout the Tuesday and Thursday blogs have really opened up my eyes to thinking "outside" the box. Many math classes encountered today in elementary school have made way into the old thinking of how math is run. Through this math class I am in, I have had a tremendous impact on the fact that as teachers we need to guide our students into their own thinking and help them to model and demonstrate their prior knowledge in order to build upon their new experiences in math. The thinking in itself in these classes makes known that there are MANY different strategies and skills used to be able to solve ONE problem. This is effective to the classroom because it allows students to pick and choose and experiement with all in order to find out which problem-solving tactic works for them. This is a wonderful idea, because it focuses on the independent child, and their individual needs! The issues that are brought up in the classroom, with the research encountered through Japan and other countries of the region, look at math a completely different way. The U.S. lacks in math and needs certain progress. This class helps explore dicussions through models, student to student interaction, student to teacher interaction, geoboards and many manipulations that will help us to better understand the methods of teaching math.