Personal Reflection of EDCP 342A
I think our 342A course really helps me a lot. I have gone through all the blog posts I did for this course. I found my blog seems like a colorful picture, painting my track to maturity.
My first blog post was about my mathematical past. I wrote down my answers for our four questions and I also expressed what kind of teacher I want to be and what kind of teacher I do not want to be. I still believe as teachers we should not only use tests to assess our students. But how to become a good teacher and how to share my passion of learning math with my future students were still two big questions in my mind. Then Skemp’s article gave me chances to go back and base on my own learning experience to think more about instrumental mathematics and relational mathematics. I learned from this article that instrumental mathematics teaching may help students get confidence for math learning in short term within a limited context. But if we consider a long-term learning and understanding, instrumental mathematics teaching will not be helpful at all. I realized relational mathematics could be a direction for me to help my students become life-long learners. Moreover, our math & art project really impressed me. It was the first time I tried combine math and art together to learn the mathematical concepts and enjoy the beauty of mathematics through arts work. This project brought me a new idea. We could try to combine math with other subjects to help students develop the interests of math learning. Then we had chances to take the TPI (Teaching Perspectives Inventor) test. Through my results, I knew myself better. I could see how my teaching philosophy reflect in my test results. I found it was very interesting and I wondered if the results would change or not in the future. Then Eisner's “Three curricula all schools teach” and article from Battleground Schools on math education brought me some new thoughts as well. I got chances to consider how BC new curriculum related to them. The new curriculum tries to ask teachers to make connections between textbook knowledge and real-world applications for students. Moreover, reading through the article from Battleground Schools on math education was very helpful for me. This article provided me the definitions of conservative and progressive education and I started to consider parents' role in math education. Furthermore, David Stocker's Math that matters excerpts made me think more about social justice and the math curriculum. Before going through this article, I felt social and environmental justice would be a good topic in English or Society Study class. And I never thought about how we can apply this topic in math class. But now, I believe social and environmental justice issues could have a place in the math class as well. Then the mini teaching activities helped me find what my weaknesses were and what my strengths were. Math (Un)Fair event showed me a great example of effective math learning activity.
I really appreciate I have chances to take this course. I have to say I learn a lot from our EDCP 342A class and I will try my best to apply what I have learned into my future class as well.
My first blog post was about my mathematical past. I wrote down my answers for our four questions and I also expressed what kind of teacher I want to be and what kind of teacher I do not want to be. I still believe as teachers we should not only use tests to assess our students. But how to become a good teacher and how to share my passion of learning math with my future students were still two big questions in my mind. Then Skemp’s article gave me chances to go back and base on my own learning experience to think more about instrumental mathematics and relational mathematics. I learned from this article that instrumental mathematics teaching may help students get confidence for math learning in short term within a limited context. But if we consider a long-term learning and understanding, instrumental mathematics teaching will not be helpful at all. I realized relational mathematics could be a direction for me to help my students become life-long learners. Moreover, our math & art project really impressed me. It was the first time I tried combine math and art together to learn the mathematical concepts and enjoy the beauty of mathematics through arts work. This project brought me a new idea. We could try to combine math with other subjects to help students develop the interests of math learning. Then we had chances to take the TPI (Teaching Perspectives Inventor) test. Through my results, I knew myself better. I could see how my teaching philosophy reflect in my test results. I found it was very interesting and I wondered if the results would change or not in the future. Then Eisner's “Three curricula all schools teach” and article from Battleground Schools on math education brought me some new thoughts as well. I got chances to consider how BC new curriculum related to them. The new curriculum tries to ask teachers to make connections between textbook knowledge and real-world applications for students. Moreover, reading through the article from Battleground Schools on math education was very helpful for me. This article provided me the definitions of conservative and progressive education and I started to consider parents' role in math education. Furthermore, David Stocker's Math that matters excerpts made me think more about social justice and the math curriculum. Before going through this article, I felt social and environmental justice would be a good topic in English or Society Study class. And I never thought about how we can apply this topic in math class. But now, I believe social and environmental justice issues could have a place in the math class as well. Then the mini teaching activities helped me find what my weaknesses were and what my strengths were. Math (Un)Fair event showed me a great example of effective math learning activity.
I really appreciate I have chances to take this course. I have to say I learn a lot from our EDCP 342A class and I will try my best to apply what I have learned into my future class as well.
Thanks so much for this very thoughtful and detailed reflection, Tiffany! It's been great working together this term.
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