Final Reflection Week 12

 

Final Reflection

We have now come to an end in our first year mathematics course. I must say, I feel like I have come a far way since the first class back in September. I remember entering day one, and we were instructed to write on the Smartboard one word that describes the way we feel towards math. The word I chose was “challenging”. I started becoming really comfortable with mathematics in grades 11 and 12, though I did not major or minor in the subject for my undergraduate degree. Therefore, I was rather nervous entering the course, not remembering formulas and terms. However, it did not take long to get more comfortable with math again. Although there are still some challenges I face in the activities, like the one during week 11 “co-operative group activities,” where we went around in groups of 3 to solve problems at different stations (such as number charts, blocks and stick figure stations).

In addition, I enjoyed the digital word problems that we had to create. It was a fun way to think about math in your everyday life. I really enjoyed looking at my classmates’ word problems, as I found 3 right away that I could relate to. I was happy to see that Shannon had found my math problem relatable as she had commented saying she had just finished painting her basement. It was nice to see that not only could I relate to what my classmates posted, but that there was at least one classmate who could relate to my world problem. Also, although we were instructed that you couldn’t create a word problem on something that has already been done, I found that everyone was very creative and had a wide range of math topics covered. I was really impressed with what the ones I read had come up with for their problems.

Overall, I am very pleased with this course. Leaving this course, I am not afraid in terms of my capability to teach mathematics. Also, I look forward to the class next year, although the setup will be different as it is said to be six weeks rather than twelve. I wish that we could all be in the same class again next year, to see how we have all grown after we teach math in the New Year. It would be interesting to see how comfortable the entire class felt towards it, and how they feel about math after teaching it. Furthermore, I felt that although we were a fairly quiet bunch in terms of classroom discussion aloud, we were given the instruction needed in order to become more comfortable in this subject before our teaching block begins. The Great Games definitely helped along the way because rather than just reading out of the textbook (which was also very helpful and I will never get rid of that textbook), the games helped to make sure I knew what I was doing for that particular unit of math that we were studying that week.