My Greatest Learning

What was your greatest 'learning' this semester with regard to teaching children mathematics? How has your thinking shifted?

Without a doubt, my greatest learning this term has been that mathematics is no longer about drill-and-practice and is now about creativity,  using manipulatives, and going down several different avenues to find the answer (or multiple answers) to a problem.

I have to say that at the beginning of this course, I was truly expecting to be sitting in rows, learning our multiplication tables, and making up worksheets of math problems to add to our portfolios for our students to complete. Boy, was I wrong! Through this course, I learned a lot about using different methods of solving a problem. One of the biggest things I learned was about the different ways of representing numbers and equations. I feel that this really clicked for me when we cut up our fraction papers.  Coming up with different ways to represent numbers made me think; "Wow.. this would have really consolidated my learning as a kid."

I also now think that it is incredibly important as teachers not to tell our students if it is "right" or "wrong". Students should be encouraged to explore all avenues on the way to solving a problem. Just because you came up with one answer does not necessarily mean it is right or wrong... just like any problem that we face in life, there may be other solutions! I have already started employing this strategy in my work as an ABA therapist. Whenever the child that I work with asks me "Kristen.. what's that? " I have started asking "Well.. you tell me!" Sometimes they do not come up with an answer at all, but I can see the gears going that they are certainly thinking about it! 

The bottom line is that as teachers, we need to allow our students to think of mathematics as a different way of thinking. Why should it matter if you can recite your times tables in a split second? It is much more important that students know where the answer came from, and how they can look at the problem to see all of the different answers. 

To conclude, I would like to say thank you, Mary, for an excellent term! I have learned so much about this different way of thinking not only in Mathematics, but in teaching in general! I wish you all the best in the future. :)