Graduation Speech : Literature Review

Problem solving is a skill that students will continue to develop all throughout their lives. In mathematics, problem solving is a skill that required the student to use prior knowledge in order to learn a new concept. Imagine a child’s brain full of red and blue dots. The learners new ideas (blue dots) need to connect with existing ideas (red dots) in order for students become successful in mathematics (Van De Walle et al., 2013, p. 20). By being able to problem solve, students are showing that they have math proficiency that includes conceptual understand, procedural fluency, strategic competence, adaptive reasoning, and productive disposition. In order to achieve math proficiency we have to encourage children to problem solve to the best of their ability, and then help guide them into looking at

ready to the last week of the second part, my ideas and philosophy about teaching elementary students mathematical concepts changed.

After teaching mathematics in a middle school classroom, I recognized my likes and dislikes about teaching math. My biggest dislike about teaching mathematics is the fact that many students have a negative attitude about mathematics and have become discouraged throughout their elementary years. Once a student believes they are not capable of doing math, it is hard to change their belief. Another dislike about teaching mathematics is that during this change to a more problem solving and student-centered teaching technique, students are coming to us from teachers who focus on procedural knowledge instead of conceptual knowledge. “Conceptual knowledge is knowledge that consists of rich relationships or webs of ideas” while “procedural knowledge of mathematics is knowledge of the rules and the procedures” (Van De Walle, 28). While there are a few negatives about teaching mathematics, there are several things I liked about teaching middle school mathematics. I liked how the students were eager to learn the content and were confident in their abilities to share their findings with their peers. Each student has a different background when it comes to mathematics and real world scenarios where they have encountered this content. This provides for better discussion amongst students which I feel is lacking in younger grades. This learning experience, like any professional development, changes your thinking as an educator. Prior to this experience I was nervous about the idea of

Mathematics is perhaps the one subject that students are really happy to be doing, or dreading having to do it. Mathematics is different from lots of other subjects because it involves a student not only having to think about the information that is presented to them, but what information is important to completing a task, and how they will use the important information to find an answer. A student may understand how to solve a task after looking and thinking about the information given, but may not understand why certain steps are taken to getting the answer they eventually come up with. This is a crucial component in mathematics that as a future teacher I need to understand my students’ thought processes and understandings of mathematical tasks or problems.

Math is and has always been my least favorite subject in school. It is a topic that does not come naturally to me and I have always struggled with it. Out of all the subjects, Math is the one I feel very uncomfortable with and my confidence in teaching this topic is pretty much nonexistent. I would go as far as saying that at least 90% of everything and anything that involves Math intimidates me. This is something I frequently worry about, how will my attitude towards Math affect my teaching and my students? One of the things I hope, is that I am not a factor in causing students to not like Math. How can someone who doesn 't like Math, make the students love it? I think this will be one of my challenges, as I do not want to be a negative

I would like to commence this speech by saying that we have all been truly blessed in being given the opportunity to celebrate our graduation with each other in such a manner. Being able to spend our final moments as a class in such an important place is wonderful, and before I delve further into this speech, I want to thank the man who allowed us to graduate from the church, Father Jenik. He’s a great preacher, a charitable bishop, and most importantly, he is a great man.

2. Should I say goodbye then and there with a hug, see how that goes, and then maybe a kiss if I don’t get red-lighted

Congratulations to my fellow graduates and their parents and guardians. The only way out is through and we did it. I am proudly standing here as valedictorian of the first graduating class here at Humanities III. Before I begin, I would like to offer specials thanks to the staff and faculty who have journeyed along with us and kept our heads on straight, especially those who have stuck by us for these past four years.

I started teaching Mathematics at La Quinta middle school back in 1988. my third year teaching The state was trying to revolutionize mathematics teaching in there starting at the middle school level. it was called Renaissance math. cut away from the textbook approach and relied heavily on activities, Cooperative grouping, and somatic units. we spent a lot of time working on Cooperative groupings. Introducing the kids to activities where they had to work together. I got to where I really loved the Cooperative grouping approach, but as you can imagine especially with middle school students it was exhausting to do it everyday.

Math is developing concepts or standards that’s important for teaching mathematics to students from Pre-K to high school. In our changing world, those who understand and can do mathematics will have significant opportunities and options for shaping their future. (NCTM 2000, p.50). The two important tools to be an effective teacher is knowledge of mathematics and how students learn mathematics.

The activities within the lesson plan and sequence have been integrated for the diverse need in student experience and learning. By incorporating activities that promote, verbal, interpersonal, physical, visual and symbolic mathematical thinking students are able to better make connections with the content when learning. Furthermore it allows for variance in levels of learning, engaging and catering for all students learning. By encouraging students to think mathematically we need to engage all aspects of intelligence (Fisher, 2005), therefore by providing students with a diverse variety of activities students are consequently able to find their own processes/pattern/relationship for thinking and learning mathematics.

With the implementation of Common Core, there is a misconception that students are learning ?new math.? However, students are not learning new concepts, just a new way of thinking about those concepts. In this unit, you will explore some effective instructional strategies and approaches to teaching students, way to get them to think mathematically, how to bridge the gap between concrete and abstract and incorporate technology to allow for more instructional time in the classroom.

This paper will explore some of the major differences between traditional math instruction and a problem-based instructional model. These models are defined largely by characteristics such as classroom environment, learning goals, teachers’ roles and whole-group approaches. I will address each of these topics more thoroughly throughout this paper and conclude by sharing some of my personal thoughts and goals regarding these two instructional approaches as they relate to the teaching of math.

. During 6th grade math class, the teacher uses a variety of teaching strategies. The whole class instruction is used to teach new concepts. At this time students look up at the board, listen to the teacher, take notes and participate in whole-class discussions. When cooperative learning strategies are used, each student has a role, such as writing, solving problems or explaining to another student the steps of solving the problems. Quiz-Quiz-Trade is another strategy that engages students. While the music is playing, all the students walk around the room and trade math cards with other students. When the teacher stops the music and says “Hand up, pair up”, students stop walking and find a partner. Each student in the pair solves the

Mrs. Williamson’s methodology falls under both direct instruction methods and indirect instruction methods. Mrs. Williamson presented new material to her Algebra II classes during my observation and she also provided guided and independent practice with the new material. During the first class period, a classroom assignment was posted online and students were to independently practice the material and complete the assignment. Later in that same period, she divided her students into groups so they could