Week #3

Hello all, thanks for coming back and visiting my blog, you must really love my math content! This week I will be talking about making mistakes and trying new things in math, as well as teaching math to various learners within our classrooms. 

Making Mistakes:

I believe that it is extremely important as an educator to teach students that making mistakes is okay. We are all human and we all make mistakes… Yes, I know everyone especially students, think teachers are perfect, and always make it known when they are wrong because… WHEN do teachers make mistakes?!? This is something that needs to be viewed as okay, I think that more educators need to teach students that making mistakes challenges your brain to think a new way, especially in mathematics. Students should be given problems and with partners be asked to solve the problems in any way they feel fit. If they make mistakes, so be it, try again, and again until you think you’ve got it!  This will build their confidence, and knowledge within the given subject, as they are able to see their way of solving the given problem as well as their peers, and how each group was able to solve the problem, some even in abstract new ways of thinking. This is demonstrated within the link below, where educators are encouraged not use the phrase not yet! 

Not Yet Link

(Malatesta, 2020)

Teaching Math to Various Learners:

      Math is one of the most important subjects there is to know, it ties into everything, and every day. Therefore, it is important that we as educators understand the needs and learning styles of our students and are able to target questions and problems to them and their ways of learning. For instance, if we know most of our students are visual learners, along with the problem, the educator can also add an image. Moreover, the questions can be phrased in easier or more difficult wording, based on the needs of our students. If the students are understanding a concept, and you feel they need a bit of a challenge, the educator can re phrase questions to make them more difficult and challenging, while keeping the same content. 

    In class this week, we were encouraged to solve problems in partners and see the various ways in which our peers were able to solve the problems. Attached below is both the problem and my partner and I’s response to the problem given. 

(Malatesta, 2020)