Welcome to my blog, I hope you enjoy it and find it useful !
To get started... a little about myself:
I am a new teacher candidate, who hopes to teach both math and chemistry, so yes writing is not my forte.. you will have to bear with me though as I do believe I still have useful, thoughtful ideas to share. The purpose of my blog is to share with you my learning process and thoughts on how to teach math. I will explore many different views, and how one way of teaching is not always the best. I mean, can you imagine if we only learnt a single way throughout all of school? Oh how boring that would have been. I also hope to explore the many ways students think, especially when trying to connect the abstract formulas we use in math, to the concrete examples of where it could be used. I find many people think math is useless after they have learned basic algebra, but that is not true at all! The logic of math problems and the problem solving skills you learn are useful in so many scenarios in life. For example, I work as a waitress, and the number of times my coworkers cannot figure out how many people can fit at a table without counting each and every chair, or whether or not their reads at the end of the night make sense, kills me! If they just took the time to think it over logically, or did some simple algebra, it would all be easier. However, due to many different scenarios in their lives, they have come to the conclusion that they are not good in math, and therefore, have no confidence in themselves. My number one goal as a teacher, especially in math and chemistry, is to instill a confidence in my students that allows them to enjoy the learning process of subjects they may have been previously told they are not good in, and allow them to see how math really is related to the real world.
In our class today, we had to look over the high school math curriculum. What I found most interesting was the way learning goals and objectives were written. I had assumed that the goal would always just be to be able to get the correct answer using the modules you teach. However, it contained so many different verbs! Yes, the correct answer is always good, but the curriculum planners also want those answers shown in many forms. They want students to be able to describe answers in words and sketches, connect answers to the real world, justify why its the answer, and even define what their answer means. I believe this is an amazing thing! It makes students think of there answers as more than just numbers and following a formula. It makes them need to see why they are getting the answers they're getting, and use critical thinking skills. Lastly, it allows students who may not be able to understand formulas, to be able to express there answers in a different form which may make more sense to them. Personally, I believe this is a major step in the right direction, if teachers actually pay attention to word details they're given.
Great post to start with! I like that you were able to express your main goal so clearly"..to instill a confidence in my students that allows them to enjoy the learning process of subjects they may have been previously told they are not good in, and allow them to see how math really is related to the real world." Having a goal like that clear in your head will really help as you plan your lessons and think about your interactions with your students.
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