This course has been one of my favorite courses of nine this term in the program. I especially liked the seminal work in mathematical education literature that we read throughout the course. The one I will remember most fondly as I enter my teaching career is our very first one, "Relational Understanding and Instrumental Understanding" by Skemp (1976). The distinction between these two ways of understanding cannot be unseen when teaching and I hope to foster relational understanding wherever applicable. Furthermore, I found the three assignments useful for improving my math teaching. The first microteach had me thinking about my general teaching vibe. The second microteach had me thinking about timing in teaching. The third assignment, the development of a unit plan, was the most useful because I will put it into practice during the long practicum. The unit plan was one of my strongest assignments in any course this term where my assignment went from 300 words in the brainstorming stage to over 4000 words in the completed draft. I am excited to teach these classes after spending so much time building my own excitement in developing them.
The main idea I have faced in this course is how my learning experiences have shaped my (starting) teaching strategies. I especially reflected on this notion through listening to our wonderful guest speaker in the latter portion of the course. I am comfortable to teach in ways I was taught, and in ways I have developed over the past few years in TA and ESL-instructor roles. I strive to continue to tweak my strategies through engaging with PD, literature, and colleagues.
I have three suggestions to make this course even better in future years, especially if it is to be fully online again. I will describe them in the "red/yellow/green traffic light" formative feedback format. Red: I enjoyed writing the blog, but the only feedback I got throughout the term was when a post was incomplete. I would have liked to receive acknowledgment for some of the work I completed prior to the end of the course. Yellow: We had some opportunities to connect with other blogs, but I would have liked more opportunities to develop discussions on other posts. Green: I liked the math party as the the final class. I hope this continues for future students in this terrific class for future math teachers. It was great to foster the creative and the artistic throughout the activities in this course, and the closure in the last class was a testament to that.
Thanks for a good course, and for your thoughtful comments here, Jeff! I am really glad you enjoyed the class and the readings, and I appreciate your suggestions (and the red/yellow/green light format) very much.
ReplyDeleteI am so sorry that I didn't get back to you with more feedback on your blog posts during the actual course! I had thought I'd responded to people fairly equally, but on days when I planned to write a response to your current blog posts, the posts had often not appeared yet. I hope that the feedback now is better than nothing, and makes up for the lack of synchronization. I also appreciate the idea of having more interaction with classmates via your blog posts, and will plan to do that in upcoming iterations of the course. We will continue to have a math party at the end, and I'll try some approaches that are more party-like and less show-and-tell if we end up fully online again. Thanks again for your engagement and good work, and enjoy the rest of the holidays! Hope to see you in the new year.