This past week in Mathematics took me back to when we followed algorithm's to do simple math problems (ie. addition and subtraction). What was so mind-blowing was how we did those math problems with the algorithm's like 'borrowing from your neighbour to subtract' and adding from right to left and learning each number as a single place value and as opposed to t's actual place value. If I could explain my mind in last week's class it would be "mind-blown" and my reason for it is simple because it was.
When I first learned mathematics these are the tricks that stuck with me till this day and I remembered it because we were told to remember and memorize how we solved for simple math, but this week we were taught why we do it in certain fashion. For example adding simple math with it's place value's can help students understand and speak in terms of place values. I can admit that I am not one who confidently know's her place values and I can imagine if I had more practice understanding it and doing my addition with place values would help me tremendously. I believe how we got taught simple math was easy and convenient without much understanding and talking about it.
A key point I enjoyed from Dr.Deborah Loewenberg's video is 'solving problems in more than one way.' When doing math growing up I always found one answer and thought one answer was the only way you can do math. When I needed guidance to solve answers I was guided down the path the teacher wanted to me to go down and when I did not understand where they were going I got frustrated and only viewed the answer as having one possible way to solve. But we need to listen to our students and as the teacher I think we need to be more prepared to help foster the students development in their way of understanding problems.
Looking forward to having my mind-blown again in Mathematics this week!
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