Teaching math can be a grueling task for many, but not for a certain high school math teacher. Megan Patterson, a beloved high school teacher, was born in 1990 right here in Illinois and is currently working at a very small high school that only consist of around 250 students. This high school is a private school and is also a Christian school, which is why it is named Westminster Christian high school. This is her story of how she became a great high school math teacher. Math is a subject that can make both student and teacher want to pull out their hair. Trying to get a concept that is simple for a teacher, but may be agonizingly painful a student is just one of the many difficulties of teaching math. One could say that an individual might …show more content…
Just as like all college students, Megan conducted many pranks and gags. One of her favorite memories from college is the time she stole a stop sign. Her college every year would have a service day where the students would give back to the community. That particular year Megan was assigned to clean up a local YMCA. As her and her friends where doing yard work at the YMCA they saw a stop sign laying one the ground. They could not take it then, so they waited till it was dark to go back and steal the stop sign. It was like a scene from Mission Impossible. They drove up to the YMCA jumped out of the car and grabbed the stop sign. Stuffing the large stop sign into Megan’s compact car was an ordeal its self, but it eventually all worked out. Megan’s own words, “That was one of the many reasons college was so …show more content…
She is married and has a child on the way very soon. She wants to be the everyday stay at home mom, but just like many other families out there, money is an issue. To be financially stable she must keep working. That is not such a bad thing for Megan because she loves her job. Plus, she has learned many things from teaching that can transfer over to being a great mother. For example she has learned the value of being patient and being flexible with students when they do not understand. Also, she had discovered that having a positive attitude can make life a whole lot better. Megan’s advice for other going into the teaching career is to “take your practical’s seriously. That is a time where you can learn the most.” Overall Megan has had an amazing journey in becoming a teacher. She has the stories of a lifetime, gained the value of family and now has a baby on the way. Facing challenged has made her a stronger persona and equipped her for the future. She still has a lot to overcome, but the future looks bright for one of the greatest math teachers, Megan
Van de Walle, J., , F., Karp, K. S., & Bay-Williams, J. M. (2010). Elementary and middle school mathematics, teaching developmentally. (Seventh ed.). New York, NY: Allyn & Bacon.
I sat with her every other day for the first four months of the past school year, and gave her specific expectations and examples to ensure extreme clarity. This teacher became one of our most requested staff members this year, due to her successful implementation and the step-by-step planning of the newly adopted Common Core State Standards. She truly respected the time that I took to work along her side, even though I hadn’t taught Language Arts or History at the Middle School level. The wealth of instructional strategies that I provided, alongside her content knowledge served her Steadiness Personality and Behavior style that is motivated by cooperation and sincere appreciation.
While children can remember, for short periods of time, information taught through books and lectures, deep understanding and the ability to apply learning to new situations requires conceptual understanding that is grounded in direct experience with concrete objects. The teacher has a critical role in helping students connect their manipulative experiences, through a selection of representations, to essential abstract mathematics. Together, outstanding teachers and regular experiences with hands-on learning can bestow students with powerful learning in
Yanik, H. B., Helding, B., & Back, J. M. (2006). Students' Difficulties in Understanding Fractions as Measures. 28th Annual meeting of the North American Chapter of the Internation Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (pp. 323-325). Merida, Mexico: Universidad Pedagogica Nacional.
Wu, Y. (2008). Experimental Study on Effect of Different Mathematical Teaching Methodologies on Students’ Performance. Journal of Mathematics Studies. Vol 1(1) 164-171.
The purpose of this essay is to form a deep understanding of three mathematical concepts, numeracy, number sense and place value. As a teacher understanding the definition of these concepts is vital to deliver an authentic math experience. Both numeracy and number sense are linked directly to place value, with place value giving deeper meaning to both. Thus a teacher of mathematics must seek out computational activities that build from student’s pre-base-ten cognitive development allowing them opportunities to bring their prior learning into the classroom to further investigate mathematical problems. Social context is also important to any teacher, but plays a multimodal role within the math classroom.
What is math? If you had asked me that question at the beginning of the semester, then my answer would have been something like: “math is about numbers, letters, and equations.” Now, however, thirteen weeks later, I have come to realize a new definition of what math is. Math includes numbers, letters, and equations, but it is also so much more than that—math is a way of thinking, a method of solving problems and explaining arguments, a foundation upon which modern society is built, a structure that nature is patterned by…and math is everywhere.
In my early teenage years, maths was my weakest subject; studying maths was like a torture with some embarrassments. Until year 11, I attended a private maths class, my maths was swiftly improved,
Kirova, A., & Bhargava, A. (2002). Learning to guide preschool children's mathematical understanding: A teacher's professional growth. 4 (1), Retrieved from http://ecrp.uiuc.edu/v4n1/kirova.html
As a secondary subject, society often views mathematics a critical subject for students to learn in order to be successful. Often times, mathematics serves as a gatekeeper for higher learning and certain specific careers. Since the times of Plato, “mathematics was virtually the first thing everyone has to learn…common to all arts, science, and forms of thought” (Stinson, 2004). Plato argued that all students should learn arithmetic; the advanced mathematics was reserved for those that would serve as the “philosopher guardians” of the city (Stinson, 2004). By the 1900s in the United States, mathematics found itself as a cornerstone of curriculum for students. National reports throughout the 20th Century solidified the importance of mathematics in the success of our nation and its students (Stinson, 2004). As a mathematics teacher, my role to educate all students in mathematics is an important one. My personal philosophy of mathematics education – including the optimal learning environment and best practices teaching strategies – motivates my teaching strategies in my personal classroom.
A somewhat underused strategy for teaching mathematics is that of guided discovery. With this strategy, the student arrives at an understanding of a new mathematical concept on his or her own. An activity is given in which "students sequentially uncover layers of mathematical information one step at a time and learn new mathematics" (Gerver & Sgroi, 2003). This way, instead of simply being told the procedure for solving a problem, the student can develop the steps mainly on his own with only a little guidance from the teacher.
In addition to the teacher teaching concepts in a way most students can understand, Burns also claims the best way teachers can prevent and reduce math anxiety is to “immerse children in doing mathematics by involving them in activities, explorations, and experiments in which they use mathematics and, by doing so, learning mathematical concepts and skills” (69). Instead of standing in front of a class lecturing, math teachers could approach teaching with a hands-on approach. For example, a third teacher is teaching her students how to add
She believes some of the challenges contemporary families are facing are the economy, healthcare, loss of employment, lack of basic necessities, and broken homes. Despite these challenges, schools and families can work together to make schools stronger by creating a positive learning environment and show the student that they are there to help the student in any way possible. She also states that it is important for the teacher and parent(s) to be on the same page and support each other in regards to learning styles and techniques.
Devlin believes that mathematics has four faces 1) Mathematics is a way to improve thinking as problem solving. 2) Mathematics is a way of knowing. 3) Mathematics is a way to improve creative medium. 4) Mathematics is applications. (Mann, 2005). Because mathematics has very important role in our life, teaching math in basic education is as important as any other subjects. Students should study math to help them how to solve problems and meet the practical needs such as collect, count, and process the data. Mathematics, moreover, is required students to be capable of following and understanding the future. It also helps students to be able to think creativity, logically, and critically (Happy & Listyani, 2011,
Throughout out this semester, I’ve had the opportunity to gain a better understanding when it comes to teaching Mathematics in the classroom. During the course of this semester, EDEL 440 has showed my classmates and myself the appropriate ways mathematics can be taught in an elementary classroom and how the students in the classroom may retrieve the information. During my years of school, mathematics has been my favorite subject. Over the years, math has challenged me on so many different levels. Having the opportunity to see the appropriate ways math should be taught in an Elementary classroom has giving me a