Math reflection- Jamie Blankenship

      As a teacher, my vision for my mathematics instruction is for it to be for each student in my classroom. Rather a student thinks they're "good" or "bad" at math, I want my type of instruction to reach all of my students. I don't want anyone to feel like they are being left behind or that I don't care about them not getting it.  I want to set aside time each day to provide extra help for students who need some extra support, just like I was given in 5th grade. This year was a year when my teacher really focused on helping the students who weren't "getting it," which completely transformed my attitude about math. I want to model my math teaching after that particular teacher in a way where I am will support students until they understand and feel confident. I think I will be able to do this by providing students with a lot of experience with math, and experiences that are different. I don't just want to teach one way and say, "That's it. I hope you understand." Rather, I want to give students plenty of experiences and ways to explore what they are learning.
       After taking this class and being exposed to the CGI method, I definitely want to incorporate that method in my classroom. I want students to explore math and to understand that there isn't just one correct way to do a math task. I want students to have the opportunity to figure out what works for them and to do the tasks in that way. I really want to strive to create higher level tasks for my students. In my elementary school classes, I was most always doing a huge packet of the same problems over and over again. If I didn't know how to do one of the problems, I was completely out of luck. This always discouraged me. In my classroom I want to use and create meaningful math tasks that students really learn a lot from so that I don't have to stand at the front of the class and constantly be talking at the students. I really want the students to find math to be  more interactive and engaging than I ever did!