As a future teacher, I have the chance to impact the lives of many young children and to leave a lasting impression. Having positive and engaging instructional material that is student-centered will help leave this positive impression.
When teaching mathematics, it is essential to develop a profound understanding in the learners as all other subjects/ topics develop off of math skills. To create this deep understanding, it is my job as the teacher to detect students' prior knowledge of math and to fill these voids. Before beginning a new instructional topic, all students should be on the same level of prior knowledge so that no student is already behind before beginning. To fill the knowledge gaps, it is necessary to spend an appropriate amount of time reviewing topics mastered in the previous grade level.
Once the gaps are filled, students will begin to learn new material through hands-on materials with manipulatives. Using manipulatives in math helps transfer math problems from the concrete to abstract aspect. Creating students who can see the conceptual transfer from one aspect to another is developing math skills to help them in future classes where they cannot use concrete materials.
I recently taught a math lesson on bar graphs using the Concrete, Representational, Abstract (CRA) strategy during student teaching. While doing this, students took given information and used concrete and representational objects to "represent" provided information. After this, they took what they "represented" in three-dimensional objects and abstractly graphed them. While doing this, one of the students noted how the created graph represented the information they had. Having the students notice this showed me that they understood what the lesson was about and that each step of the strategy was significant in its way.
Recently, the ways of teaching have changed, and technology has taken over. In the past year, we have learned about many new technologies: Zoom, Google Classroom, Jamboard, Kami, Whiteboard.fi, Reflex Math, and the list continues to flow. Many of these sites allow the teacher to see how the students problem-solve through the question with live feedback as you can see what the student is doing, and it allows the teacher to pinpoint what the student needs help with. These sites also allow for fact fluency practice where students are actively engaged through the lesson, using technology, and having fun.
Above all, it is vital to create students who have a conceptual understanding—having students who can use and relate math topics to other school subjects and be successful with it. This is so vital because math is often the basis of everything else. Similarly, as we need water to survive life, we need math to survive school.
It is essential to differentiate instruction types that are used to meet all the needs of each student. All students do not learn the same, and it is essential to use multiple instructional methods so that all students are engaged and interacting through lessons.
As a future teacher, if I can address all the classroom needs and create engaging lessons, the students will see the beauty in mathematics.
When teaching mathematics, it is essential to develop a profound understanding in the learners as all other subjects/ topics develop off of math skills. To create this deep understanding, it is my job as the teacher to detect students' prior knowledge of math and to fill these voids. Before beginning a new instructional topic, all students should be on the same level of prior knowledge so that no student is already behind before beginning. To fill the knowledge gaps, it is necessary to spend an appropriate amount of time reviewing topics mastered in the previous grade level.
Once the gaps are filled, students will begin to learn new material through hands-on materials with manipulatives. Using manipulatives in math helps transfer math problems from the concrete to abstract aspect. Creating students who can see the conceptual transfer from one aspect to another is developing math skills to help them in future classes where they cannot use concrete materials.
I recently taught a math lesson on bar graphs using the Concrete, Representational, Abstract (CRA) strategy during student teaching. While doing this, students took given information and used concrete and representational objects to "represent" provided information. After this, they took what they "represented" in three-dimensional objects and abstractly graphed them. While doing this, one of the students noted how the created graph represented the information they had. Having the students notice this showed me that they understood what the lesson was about and that each step of the strategy was significant in its way.
Recently, the ways of teaching have changed, and technology has taken over. In the past year, we have learned about many new technologies: Zoom, Google Classroom, Jamboard, Kami, Whiteboard.fi, Reflex Math, and the list continues to flow. Many of these sites allow the teacher to see how the students problem-solve through the question with live feedback as you can see what the student is doing, and it allows the teacher to pinpoint what the student needs help with. These sites also allow for fact fluency practice where students are actively engaged through the lesson, using technology, and having fun.
Above all, it is vital to create students who have a conceptual understanding—having students who can use and relate math topics to other school subjects and be successful with it. This is so vital because math is often the basis of everything else. Similarly, as we need water to survive life, we need math to survive school.
It is essential to differentiate instruction types that are used to meet all the needs of each student. All students do not learn the same, and it is essential to use multiple instructional methods so that all students are engaged and interacting through lessons.
As a future teacher, if I can address all the classroom needs and create engaging lessons, the students will see the beauty in mathematics.