Week one for Math 1510 was quite interesting. Many things were coming back to me about inductive and deductive reasoning. Here I was thinking that this course was going to be a breeze and show us simple steps about how to teach a child what 2 + 2 is. Boy was I wrong! Every class I take I realize how much goes into teaching students. I did not think that Elementary Math would be this in depth. I am ready to take on the challenge. I have to remind myself, "One thing at a time."
I was surprised to learn the controversy over teaching math to elementary students. I am used to memorizing an equation and I forgot the reasoning behind the equation. Many people argue that the reason students aren't as successful with math is because they are not learning the problem-solving skills. They are only learning to memorize equations. One of the articles we read, "The Mathematical Miseducation of America's Youth". To summarize, this article states that there a few issues that we need to look at in order to improve learning mathematics. These issues are the lack of knowledge, disregard of science, who the scientific researchers are, the myth of coverage, testing, and dilutions and distortions. I would highly recommend reading this article. After I did, I will put forth much more effort in making sure that my students understand their math homework.
I was surprised that we would be keeping a blog for this course. It will be an interesting challenge and as long as I can get this first one posted, I will be satisfied for the day. There is a lot to keep track of but I'm hoping all the different checklists I have created I will get something accomplished. My Math Lab seems fairly easy to navigate and I like how it is organized. If I need help, I can click to be walked through the problem. If I want, I can click to see an example of how to solve the problem. I'm off to brush up on my math skills!
No comments:
Post a Comment