Mathematics Philosophy When I was younger, I did not enjoy math whatsoever. It was my worst subject in school. I passed all my math classes with the help of many tutors and late night studying. Even in my college career, I had to find tutors. Math was the thorn in my side all my life. I still have trouble with math, but I have learned to respect math and the skills that I have learned. During my elementary school years, we did not explore math with manipulatives or fraction strips. It was all paper and pencil. Although, now I have explored those amazing manipulatives and I understand things that I did not know when I was younger. Fractions, I remember were the absolute worst thing ever, now that we have (can make) fraction strips I comprehend the purpose of fractions.
Understanding that math was/is my worst subject comes great responsibility to myself and my future students. I will not let my future students dislike math as much as I did/do. Children should embrace each subject and like at least one thing from that subject. Of course, we all have our good subjects and our bad, but I want my students to think, "Math?! Ok, lets do this!" I want my future students to have a positive outlook, not only in math but in their education. I want all students to strive to be the best that they can be. I believe that we are all learners. If a student found a new way to solve a problem, I would want them to show me and then we can teach the class together. I am going to include manipulatives in my teaching, especially math because it helps those struggling students understand the concept better. We all struggle in many areas, but I want to pick those students up when they are struggling. I want my students to walk out of my classroom and say, "I finally get it!" With a little bit of encouragement my students will understand math!
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Working with Struggling Mathematicians
I believe that it is essential to work with each individual student. As I stated before, I had trouble with math and I know that I am not the only one who struggled. I will make it a priority to work with each student that is having trouble with math because I understand their frustrations. I worked with two amazing students, Annie and Calvin (names have been changed). To learn more about how I worked with these two amazing students click on the following link, Assessment Profile
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Teaching with Manipulatives & Children's Literature
Teaching with manipulatives is essential especially when teaching math. Everyone learns differently, with manipulatives it taps into each style of learning. When I taught my weekly plan that dealt with fractions, I used fraction strips and a piece of string. It was great to see the students interact with the fraction strips. The students thought is was 'cool' to see that I brought in my fraction strips that I made this semester! Also, I strongly believe in teaching through children's literature. Children (and adults) loved to be read too. Recently, I was in class and my teacher read this book to the class called, Math Curse. I have never heard about this book before, but I fell in love with it. I decided to read the book to my class and they enjoyed hearing and answering the questions that were in the book. Click on the link to see what I taught. Multiplying and Dividing Fractions!
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Teaching with Technology
Technology is essential for classroom learning. Children know more about technology than most adults. I find that technology advances the child's learning environment. I used a technology component in one of my math lessons that I taught. I used what is called a Gizmo. A Gizmo is an interactive tool that can be used for whole group, small group and individual learning. To learn more about the Gizmo click here. To access my math lesson plan using the Gizmo click here Math and Technology
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