Course Wrap Up! For Mathematics
This course was a very beneficial experience. I have enjoyed learning how to teach mathematics. I came into the course very afraid of what would be expected, because it had been so long since I did math. I have found a lot of very beneficial games and activities from this course.
I also found the textbook to be incredibly useful. The textbook often detailed misconceptions, activities, and very useful observations that previous educators had witnessed. I loved the textbook because it covered all the bases. It was also extremely useful in showing us how to teach mathematics.
My views on mathematics have changed so drastically. I am still very afraid to teach, but now I feel more prepared. I did not have the skills or knowledge I did before taking this course, and am very happy to have had this experience.
This week in class we played a very fun math game that can be applied to any kind of holiday or special event. We really loved it as a class and I cannot wait to try it out. The game was a strange version of Battleship. The class was supposed to place the little boxes of options onto a grid and then as the grid squares were called out, the students X out the boxes and either gain points or rewards or lose the numbers they have gathered. I thought this was super fun and hope to get a chance to use this in my placement.
This week in placement I got to see another open question where students tried to answer questions about how two cylinders have the same surface area and different dimensions. From this question, I noticed a lot of students struggling to understand the difference between 2D shapes and 3D shapes. The students were attempting to calculate the 3D shape of the cylinder without realizing the surface area meant it wrapped all the way around. They tried to calculate it as two circles and one rectangle. The teacher eventually brought out a soup can to demonstrate. It was awesome to see some students had already created their own manipulative using paper. This helped them a lot.
I am really looking forward to exploring math more and am thankful for the knowledge this course has taught me. I know that I have much more learning to do, but now I am excited instead of scared.
