My vision as a mathematics instructor is to make math as fun and exciting as possible for my students. I also want my students to know that problems can be solved in different ways. I plan to give my students the opportunity to attempt to solve problems in ways they think best. I think that by doing this, I will not be forcing my students to memorize one specific way to solve a math problem and for this reason, I think my students will enjoy math more.
What do you want your classroom to look like?
I want my classroom to be a place where my students feel safe and comfortable. My students should know that in the classroom they can explore different ways to solve problems and they shouldn't be scared or embarrassed to make mistakes or share their opinions.
What type of work do
I want my students to be able to relate the problems they do to real life situations. These types of problems will allow the students to relate to what they are learning and their prior and current experiences can help them solve problems while enjoying what they are doing. Tasks and problems such as these are high level tasks that will also challenge the students to think hard and differently about how they should go about solving the problem.
What do you want your students to accomplish in your mathematics classroom?
I want my students to understand the importance of math without stressing over being right or wrong each time they do a problem. Of course I want my students to be able to find the right answer to the problems, but I want them to know they don't necessarily have to do this the way their textbook says. I want my students to learn to enjoy math while also learning different methods by which to solve problems that works best for them.
I think do a good job in describing your vision and your goals (students will find math enjoyable, etc.) and you also do a good job in describing some instructional approaches that will help connect to this (by having more than one way to solve a problem, students will enjoy math more).
ReplyDeleteOf course, there are still some things to think about...If you present a task in a way that allows for more than one answer, does that mean that students will automatically enjoy math? Why or why not? And, also, what will you as the teacher be doing to help students? If you give them a problem with more than one answer, what will your actions look like in the classroom as they work?