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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