Summary and Synthesis

Eled 330 has had helped me to see a whole new perspective on the way to teach math. I didn’t think that it was wrong, nor did I necessarily think it was right, to teach math right out of the book; I am not sure of how I thought was the perfect way to teach math. Being in class over the last few Tuesdays and Thursdays, has brought some insight to me on how to teach math in the correct manner. I, as well of many of my classmates, grew up learning math right out of the book, rarely doing any activities that were not located in the book. If a student did not understand the math problem, then the class continued with math and the student could receive more assistance from the teacher at a later time; there were not multiple entry points for the diverse learners in the classroom. I never remember math dealing with a lot of problem solving either, more memorization than anything else. Now on the other hand, the correct way to teach math is to involve deeper level thinking that engages students, allows students to relate to the math problems brought to their attention, and has several different entry points for the diverse group of learners in the classroom. Students need to use a variety of strategies to come to a solution and the students should also be able to converse with his or her peers about the problem so they can see how their peers approached the same problem in a different way. The teacher should also not give the students the solution to a problem right away rather give the students time to work alone on the math problem, and then allow them to convene with neighbors. The correct way to teach math, that was just previously described, will take deeper level thinking from the teacher than I thought. Math has always been the easiest subject for me in school and I have always enjoyed it thoroughly, but recently in Eled 330 I have become frustrated because I am not used to the deeper level thinking that we are doing; I am upset that I was unprepared for this due to previous schooling. My hope is that if my students were to take this course, they would not get as frustrated as I did working on some of the math problems because I will have prepared them enough for different math problems that are thrown at them.