Blog 5 - Final Reflection
4.5 years taking classes in the GVSU Math Department. I have taken several classes that at one point or another I asked myself "Will I ever use this again"? Now that I am taking my final math classes in my educational career, I can look back at these experiences and answer that question confidently with a strong "YES!". Taking MTH495 at this point in my math education has taught me so much. It has pulled in topics from prior classes that I thought I had forgotten all about, it has tied together loose ends of understandings, and gone even further into some ideas than I thought was humanly possible.
This class as a whole has tied together a multitude of concepts that I had encountered in my prior math classes, as well as introduced new ideas about math. Not only has this class taught me about these new mathematical concepts, but I've been exposed to them in ways that I can translate to my future as an educator. I appreciate the approach that John had to this class, because there were things that I would read about and have no idea what it was saying, and he would turn around with a game or puzzle that perfectly illustrated the "big idea" of the concept.
I think that this closely connects to how I want to structure my classroom as a teacher. Being a student my entire life, I've felt that feeling of struggle and confusion. I hope to take my experiences in this class, how different mathematical ideas were introduced and how we approached them as a class with my into my future career. A big part of this class I think was building on the knowledge of our peers to get to a final solution. I am a big supporter of working together and collaborating with your peers, so that was something else that I will take from this class and apply it to my future classroom.
Lastly, outside of the formal class discussions, a lot of the choice readings that we had allowed us to explore a topic that we were interested in within the realm of mathematics or teaching. I think that allowing us to explore things that we were interested in ourselves was a great experience and something that I will definitely have to consider when building curriculum in my future classroom. I feel as though this opportunity opened a lot of doors for us as students in MTH495, reading books that we might have otherwise never chosen for ourselves in our free time. Also, hearing the accounts that other people had on their own book opened my eyes to things that I have never heard of, and ended up finding interest in.
Overall, this class was the perfect summary of the culmination of math classes I have taken at GVSU. It brought together many topics that I found confusion in, all while allowing me to experience them in ways that I hadn't before. When my future students ask me "Ms. Nolan, will we ever need this in our lives?" I will be able to answer "YES!".
This class as a whole has tied together a multitude of concepts that I had encountered in my prior math classes, as well as introduced new ideas about math. Not only has this class taught me about these new mathematical concepts, but I've been exposed to them in ways that I can translate to my future as an educator. I appreciate the approach that John had to this class, because there were things that I would read about and have no idea what it was saying, and he would turn around with a game or puzzle that perfectly illustrated the "big idea" of the concept.
I think that this closely connects to how I want to structure my classroom as a teacher. Being a student my entire life, I've felt that feeling of struggle and confusion. I hope to take my experiences in this class, how different mathematical ideas were introduced and how we approached them as a class with my into my future career. A big part of this class I think was building on the knowledge of our peers to get to a final solution. I am a big supporter of working together and collaborating with your peers, so that was something else that I will take from this class and apply it to my future classroom.
Lastly, outside of the formal class discussions, a lot of the choice readings that we had allowed us to explore a topic that we were interested in within the realm of mathematics or teaching. I think that allowing us to explore things that we were interested in ourselves was a great experience and something that I will definitely have to consider when building curriculum in my future classroom. I feel as though this opportunity opened a lot of doors for us as students in MTH495, reading books that we might have otherwise never chosen for ourselves in our free time. Also, hearing the accounts that other people had on their own book opened my eyes to things that I have never heard of, and ended up finding interest in.
Overall, this class was the perfect summary of the culmination of math classes I have taken at GVSU. It brought together many topics that I found confusion in, all while allowing me to experience them in ways that I hadn't before. When my future students ask me "Ms. Nolan, will we ever need this in our lives?" I will be able to answer "YES!".
Yay! I'm glad to read this, as it's my big hope for this course. I appreciate the teaching connections too, and would love to see what this looks like in your classroom.
ReplyDeleteC's: 5/5
Hey Jen! Love this blog! I feel the same way about many things that you wrote about. After all of the math courses I have taken, it was nice to tie them together and be able to say that our future students WILL use what we spent years learning!
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