New Steps and Personal Concerns

To be blunt, I am terrible at Math, and I always have been. I think a big part of my problem has been, I have never had a "good" math teacher. Teachers have always lectured, lectured, lectured. And expected, me as the student, to understand what they are saying, without providing that extra help and explanation. My personal concerns for the future are that I will struggle when comes to Math. I don't want my students to struggle as I do, and I want them to feel comfortable enough were they can ask questions, without feeling like they will be looked down upon because of their confusion. This class however is helping me to conquer my fear of math, by giving me specific and help skills that can be used in a classroom. I hope to feel more comfortable with the word "MATH" and everything that comes with it by the end of this course.

summary and synthesis

Summary and Synthesis – This class is one of my favorites. I like how we actually get to participate in hands on activities as we are taught to teach. In all my other classes we are simply talked at and told to use these techniques in our classroom but we never get to see them implemented. One issue I have, which is probably just because I like to know things, is how we are given problems but not provided the answers, even after several weeks of working on it. I find it frustrating and a bit discouraging but I know that it is also because I am not used to this way of teaching. I learned a lot. One thing is the names of the strategies that are used and also different ways to ‘attack’ a problem. I also learned that as we are going out into the school the standards are all going to be changing over to the core standards rather than state standards. I have learned that I speak too quietly and am always unsure of my answer, therefore causing me to not get involved very often with the conversation in class. I am one of those people who is afraid of being wrong.

New Insights and Their Implications

I have learned from my peers what it would be like for my student working with their peers in a classroom. One person has the simple easy solution and then we begin to feed off of that and understand the more complex parts of the math problem. I feel like I am always looking for the simple easy solution and it takes more time for me to remember how I solved problems like this back in Elementary/Middle School. Through the methods class I have learned that there is more than one way to find a solution to every problem. A student can use manipulatives, models, drawings, and many other ways to see a problem visually and solve it. As a teacher we can find a way to extend every problem for further learning or gifted students in the classroom. I feel like I have learned many great new strategies for problem solving that I will one day implement in my classroom. I will give the students time to work and struggle on the problems instead of just giving the answers or working through the problems right away.

New Insights and their implications

I feel as though I have already learned new teaching methods in this class. I have learned from the teacher, my peers, the textbook, and our online resources that we have been using. A lot of these concepts and methods that we have been learning are new to me. Alot has changed since I first began learning math. It seems like when I learned math I was taught one way to do it and then we just practiced that method using a multiple of different numbers. We never had to explain why we did what we did or how we got our answer. It was simply just two plus two equal four. The only manipulatives we used were little counting blocks. We didn't have manipulatives for triangles, fractions, etc. Through the new methods that I have been learning in this class, I have learned how to reflect on the math problems and how to explain why were are doing the steps we are doing. I am learning how to explain myself in the mathematical problems that I conduct as well as figuring out alternative ways to do problems. One problem can be expanded up on so much and that can definitely help students understand math much better. By reflecting on problems and explaining problems, students, as well as myself, can better understand the problem and be able to apply that method to other stituations and/or concepts. With a stronger understanding, students will gain much more confidence in their learning. They will want to reflect on their problems and they will become excited when they figure out new problems. I already experienced that within this class. When we were using different shapes to make a hectagon for example, it was exciting to achieve the correct scale factor. I want to implicate a lot of excitement and hands-on learning in my classroom. I want my students to be confident and motivated to learn! I am excited to gain even more ideas from this class and learn more methods that I can implicate into my own classroom someday.

New Insights and Their Implications

I have learned that there are many different ways to teach subjects. Students are going to learn in many different ways, but if we can get students to actively engage in the activities, learning, and classroom discussion than there might be a greater chance that the information will be learned more effectively. I believe this is the case with what we are doing in Math this semester. It is a new way to attack math and one, at least for me, that is very new and uncomfortable. I loved my math teacher and I loved most of my math classes in high school. But seeing this approach to teaching/learning I wonder if I would have enjoyed Geometry rather then dreading it. Like I said above I really thought this new methods was uncomfortable and to be honest I thought it was wasting my time. But I would say the day we went over the manipulative assignment it all changed for me. I began to see the reason and the positive effects of this teaching method. So I guess now i am ready to learn how to effectively teach this way.

Questions and Answers

I wonder if my oldest daughter would feel better about the subject of math if she had an instructor that had engaged her in problem solving?
The process of learning through problem solving that we have experienced in class so far this semester has made it very clear to me why my oldest daughter hates math. Math for her was a struggle because she constantly felt that she was failing by making errors. If she had an experience where she could have applied the knowledge she had (background knowledge) and engaged in a problem solving process where mistakes were supported she may have learned to love math. This way of teaching and engaging students with math makes math a subject that is directly related to their lives and not just something that they either excel at or fail at. The use of math in our daily lives is overlooked in most math classes which makes the learning really not relevant to the students. It is my hope that by taking this class and striving to teach math in an engaging and problem solving way that students like my daughter will not leave my class hating math, but instead feel confident and successful.

New Insights and their Implications

I have learned many thing already in K-8 Math Methods. I learned from my peers, teacher and the book that there are many ideas and concepts dealing withmethods that were new to me. I learned to tackle a problem with many different ways to solve that same problem. We can use the multiple ways to check our work as well. I have learned that a good problem will have many entering points for different learning levels the students may have. I have learned that math can be more fun and interesting instead of cut and dry, question and answer. I have learned how to help my students when they begin trying to solve new problems. I have learned that students do not always need to know the answers, but we as teachers, should help foster the confidence in our students to want to try to solve a problem, with thinking and discussion. The students should be praised for any connections they try to make, instead of being afraid to fail. I have learned about the content standards and aligning my lessons with these standards. I hope to learn even more strategies to use in my own classroom to help my students to become more confident in their problem solving.