Tweet the Text Reflection Post

I enjoyed teaching our class about "Tweet the Text." I had my reservations about this method before Hannah and I began working on our lesson because I am very old-fashioned in my pedagogical thinking. The wide use of technology in classrooms is so crazy to me, but I think I'm coming around. During Hannah's and my collaboration, I realized the versatility of this strategy and was excited to share it with our class. I think our class's participation went well during our activity, and I think Hannah and I worked well together. During the presentation, I was afraid I was talking too fast so I tried to slow it down. I was also worried about being boring and reading straight from the slides so I was also trying hard to paraphrase without leaving out important details. Delivering lectures and being able to think on the spot are things that I need to work on,  so I am grateful for this opportunity. I also realize that I wasn't clear enough in directions on what I was looking for during our "Tweet the Text" activity, but I've learned from my mistake and won't overlook a detail like that again. Overall, I think the lesson went well, and I've definitely learned how much preparation will go into each lesson I teach my future class.

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Translating Words into Math

An important skill in math is being able to translate English into mathematical equations. Students are usually really upset about word problems, but in real life applications, it's how people use math the most. When problem solving at work or with money, the equation isn't going to be handed to you. Knowing how to do the arithmetic is only half of the challenge; the other half is creating the equation from mathematical symbols by knowing what they mean. One activity I would want to do with my class is have at least a class discussion about translating English to the language of math with some kind of brainstorming and worksheet. After completing a blank worksheet on their own, I would provide them with a version of the list found at: http://www.purplemath.com/modules/translat.htm

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Just read the textbook

I love reading our textbook. As a math teacher hopeful, the section on pages 188-189 got me thinking about what I would need to do to ensure that my students could understand their textbook. The symbols used in math are very discipline specific, so spending some time at the beginning of the year or at the beginning of each new unit, talking about the symbols and what they mean could be very helpful for students. Converting English words to mathematical equations is an extremely important skill for application of mathematics, and brainstorming what brainstorming what symbols each word stands for would be a fun class activity. Not having enough time to cover every topic really spoke to me, because I never want to settle for anything less than the best. When it comes to teaching, less is more and having in depth knowledge of important topics will be more helpful than knowing a lot of random facts in the long run for students. The list on pg. 179 is going to be a great tool I will use to determine the importance of material I want to teach my students. Thinking and application are tested on standardized tests, and there is not much value in covering every single topic as some teachers find out the hard way. Another central theme I was reminded of yet again is relating the information to other topics within other disciplines or within a student’s personal experience. This is one of the main criteria in the selection filter list and reinforces topics better than any other method.

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Resource Blog #2

Math is a special subject that does not use the English language in the way that other subjects do. In an effort to integrate literacy into my mathematics class, I want to step out of the box and incorporate other subjects into math. One project is to have students conduct research and write a short paper or create a presentation about important mathematicians. This would reinforce the essential skills of reading, writing, and verbal communication in another discipline. A great website that I found is: http://www.storyofmathematics.com/ It has the history of mathematics in chronological order and a list of important mathematicians that I could use to assign students a topic for their project. There is a wealth of information on this website that I would love to incorporate in my class to show students a different side of math they've never seen.


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Help for Struggling Readers

When a student doesn't understand what he or she is reading in class, it doesn't always mean there has to be an elaborate intervention. This is a comforting fact and made me more excited to be able to share reading strategies and mathematical knowledge with my students when I become a teacher. While a school wide initiative teaching students and teachers many tools to strengthen reading skills is very exciting, think alouds, worksheets where students reflect on reading, and having students come up with questions are amazing ideas that any teacher can do. Not being a strong reader is rarely acknowledged as the reason why a student is struggling, but this chapter opened my eyes to even more ways it can affect classroom participation and academic achievement. As a math teacher, teaching students to tackle words problems will be no easy feat, but might be one of the most important skills they will need to learn. As demonstrated in the chapter, it is not enough to know the arithmetic, a student has to be able to decipher the problem in order to solve it. Open discussions and having visuals available are simple steps that require little effort but can make a huge difference in helping students understand the dreaded word problems.

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