New Insights and Their Implications

Q. What did you learn from your peers, from the instructor, and/or the readings, about elementary school students, and/or about yourself, and the teaching and learning of math and what are their implications to teaching and learning mathematics?

A. The most fabulous piece of information I gain within the first few weeks we've been in class was how to read the South Dakota Content Standards! I was extremely suprised to find that besides just the content standards I've always been looking at for the last two years, there are unpacked standards that (for the most part) effectively define key terms or direction of the standard itself. The content standards themselves do not provide specific information on what to teach exactly. I also was excited to find out that South Dakota Content Standard page provides sample lessons or activities that clearly alligns the standard with the task/activity. This was the most useful information I've learned in a while! :)

I learned that it is necessary to allign tasks in the math field with the standard. This allignment can be even more in depth through the standards at the national level as well, and the focal points book will describe grade by grade what exactly can be done to allign content standards with the lessons.

From a teacher perspective, so far I have been provided with great information to ensure that my lessons planned in the future have purpose and involve students to think at higher levels. It has also became apparant the meaning of "a mile wide and an inch deep". After this class I do think teaching math will be more difficult than I had imagined but I am willing to face the challange ensure my students are comprehending, investigating, and making sense of the math they will be learning and why math is useful and not just hours of completing times table worksheets.