As teachers of mathematics, we are tasked to teach many skills besides teaching actual mathematics. We have much more work to do with mathematics, and we have to teach strategies in order to ensure that our students are grasping the content. Teaching mathematics is a rewarding experience, in fact, we are teaching skills, abstract thinking, and teaching our students to persevere through challenging problems. As teachers, we have to persevere through our planning, and ensure that we are devoting some time to teach our students these skills while we are teaching the content. Through word problems, we will teach these students the fundamental skills necessary to succeed in the real world. Emphasis has been placed most on standardized testing; however, we do not teach the math content for assessments, but to develop valuable skills that become necessary in the real world. When we teach mathematics, we teach skills that are universal across all content areas. We have to take the time out to ensure that we are meeting the needs of all students.
Every student is unique, and we have to acknowledge each student’s individual strengths, weaknesses, interests and dislikes. This leads to differentiating instruction, so that we can design our lessons geared towards meeting the needs of all students. By getting to know how our students think in a mathematics classroom, we can also learn about the students’ interests. One crucial aspect of teaching is getting our students motivated. For example, when I introduce the unit of quadratic equations, I would use basketball as a representation of what a version of a quadratic looks like.
Motivating students is a crucial objective that all educators have every day when they step in the classroom. As mathematics teachers we have to design activities that will enable students to learn. One way to motivate students is by giving real-world applications. If students work to demonstrate mastery, they will have been able to apply various methods such as analyzing, interpreting graphs and data, among other skills.
Integrating technology in mathematics will help model various concepts in mathematics. We give students visual representations of mathematical models in various contexts. We use technology to give students various modes of representation. Throughout the course of the year, we teach our students how to use a TI-84 calculator so that they can be successful on a standardized test.
My ultimate goal as an educator is to get students to understand mathematics, and make it interesting, attainable and relevant in interactive ways. By creating interactive activities, we allow our students to learn the content. I intend on making my classroom an inquiry-based environment so that students work together to learn the content, and own their learning. As teachers, we assess students on a daily basis, in a variety of ways. As stated we are responsible for creating active learners and independent thinkers. Lastly, it is important to engage our students, and motivate them by creating engaging activities that will help students understand the content. With engaging and motivating activities, we as teachers can continue teaching students how to use skills learned in the content in other content areas such as English, Social Studies and Science.
Every student is unique, and we have to acknowledge each student’s individual strengths, weaknesses, interests and dislikes. This leads to differentiating instruction, so that we can design our lessons geared towards meeting the needs of all students. By getting to know how our students think in a mathematics classroom, we can also learn about the students’ interests. One crucial aspect of teaching is getting our students motivated. For example, when I introduce the unit of quadratic equations, I would use basketball as a representation of what a version of a quadratic looks like.
Motivating students is a crucial objective that all educators have every day when they step in the classroom. As mathematics teachers we have to design activities that will enable students to learn. One way to motivate students is by giving real-world applications. If students work to demonstrate mastery, they will have been able to apply various methods such as analyzing, interpreting graphs and data, among other skills.
Integrating technology in mathematics will help model various concepts in mathematics. We give students visual representations of mathematical models in various contexts. We use technology to give students various modes of representation. Throughout the course of the year, we teach our students how to use a TI-84 calculator so that they can be successful on a standardized test.
My ultimate goal as an educator is to get students to understand mathematics, and make it interesting, attainable and relevant in interactive ways. By creating interactive activities, we allow our students to learn the content. I intend on making my classroom an inquiry-based environment so that students work together to learn the content, and own their learning. As teachers, we assess students on a daily basis, in a variety of ways. As stated we are responsible for creating active learners and independent thinkers. Lastly, it is important to engage our students, and motivate them by creating engaging activities that will help students understand the content. With engaging and motivating activities, we as teachers can continue teaching students how to use skills learned in the content in other content areas such as English, Social Studies and Science.