Making Sense of Math

When asked in class to count grains of sand I immediately thought, there is no way I would be able to solve this problem. I soon realized that it was not the answer itself that the professor was concerned with, but the process. This was the first time that I was forced to think that it is not the answer that is important, but it is the logic you use and the process. In class I really enjoyed the idea of doing math problems with more than one answer or more than one way to get the answer. I will definitely be using this method in my own math class. It was interesting to see the different ways in coming up with the answer ‘five’. The possibilities were endless.

This class caused me to immediately think of an observation day in a grade three classroom. While in the class, I was excited to see actual problem solvers taken place in the classroom. When doing the problem solvers the students had to write their strategy in solving the math problems, their workings and their answers. I really liked the idea of this, unfortunately I did not agree with how the teacher taught the mathematics. I felt she never allowed the students enough time to solve the problems themselves, and I didn’t feel her explanation of the problems were clear and felt many students were being left behind and not really understanding what was going on. This was a substitute teacher, and I felt she was more concerned with getting the work completed rather than an actual understanding going on with the students. She also never accepted different ways in solving a problem. A student solved a problem with subtraction and she said it was the wrong way because he should have used addition. When correcting the problem solvers of individual students, I could tell the students did not understand how they came to the answers and comments were made on their sheets that subtraction can be used but it was the wrong way to get the answer.

This teacher appeared to view mathematics as using numbers to get an answer. The product was what was important and if you practice them enough you will understand. Process and meaning appeared to be neglected .Also given the teacher was a supply teacher, time became an issue of having all tasks completed. The substitute teacher didn’t have the time to follow the student to see where their thinking may have been going.

Math Curse

Math Curse by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith illustrates how you can look at almost everything has a math problem. When students are able to solve real life problems then math would become more meaningful to students. There are many activities you can do with this book. I can see myself using it as a read aloud book in my classroom, solving the many problems introduced in the book through whole class instruction. After being introduced to this book in the classroom, I went to 'Chapters' to purchase it. Unfortunately it was not in stock. I am still in my search to owning my own copy of this book, and using it as a resource in my classroom.

What is Mathematics?

Reuben Hersh’s Talk was ‘beautiful’. I have never thought about math as a philisophical discipline, yet Hersh described it in a way that just made sense. I really liked how he summed it up into one great sentence: The humanistic philosophy brings mathematics down to earth, makes it accessible psychologically, and increases the likelihood that someone can learn it, because it's just one of the things that people do. This is a matter of opinion; there's no data, no tests." As a future teacher, this sentence alone puts a new perspective on how to effectively teach mathematics. His talk helped me sort out some of my confusions and clarify my own personal feelings/experience with mathematics. It helped me to see why I enjoyed problem solving and why I felt inadequate with High School mathematics.

The big ideas about math is that the concepts need to be meaningful and that teaching occurs through social interaction and hands on learning. Students need to be involved and not passive learners. One strategy I liked was where the teacher read the student's body language to measure engagement and altered his delivery accordingly. Also, the idea of the teacher waiting (or shutting-up) to get the students involved was a very effective strategy.

Although Hersh’s Talk caused me to think differently about mathematics he also created more questions for me. I need to know the expected outcomes at each grade level and how can I as a teacher make this meaningful and help the students see how this fits into their lives. I also need to find ways to keep students interested and motivated. More importantly, I belive that I must stay interested and motivated in order to ensure that my students see that mathematics is important but can also be fun.