Resource Blog #1

Click here to see the professional blog entry!

While this blog is titled "How to better prepare math teachers for success," I believe that a teacher in any content area can benefit from this good read. The main reason I think that math teachers should read this, is because learning how to explain math problems is going to be a lot more beneficial than just simply knowing how to do them. College students that major in math education focus a good portion of their time taking higher level math classes. While the knowledge of how to do this math is simply amazing, it has to be understood to a deeper extent in order to be able to teach others how to do it.

I believe that this blog is perfect because the tips that she gives can benefit almost every teacher, no matter the content area. One of the techniques that Dr. Baldinger gives to becoming a better teacher, is simply just to listen to your students. It is important to listen to what they have to say, and get a feel for their knowledge and thought process in the classroom. I think that sometimes teachers focus too much on teaching what they need to teach, without fully listening to their students and adjusting based on their knowledge and feedback. 

Listening and truly understanding your content area and how to teach it, are some of the most beneficial traits that a teacher can possess. Anyone can understand how to do math problems, but it takes a special person to be able to teach them. 

Word Count: 256

Chapter 2 Synthesis Post

There was a scenario mentioned in the text that stuck out to me the most. The text read,  "Have you ever noticed how you can drive your car across town to a friend's house, daydream all the way there and still arrive at your destination?" (Subject Matters 30-31). This hit home for me because it happens way too often. When going to a new destination, we tend to have GPS or directions that we are reading or listening to intently. Once something becomes routine, we tend to have our mind on other things and fail to pay attention to small details as soon as we get comfortable. The same thing happens when we read. If we are familiar with a subject or topic, we tend to skim and not read every single word and look deep into the meaning. If there is a reading about a subject we are unsure about, we try to pick apart the reading and make sense of it piece by piece, almost paying too much attention to it. Often times we read things, and nothing gets stored in our brain or memory because of the wording or the content being read. If we have no idea what topic a reading is on, like the cricket one at the beginning of the chapter, it is just in our nature to read the words and be okay with not understanding the context or what the reading says as a whole.

Word Count: 243

Hop on Pop

I read "Hop on Pop" by Dr. Seuss. I loved this book when I was a kid and definitely still do. The rhyming is great and it always makes me laugh. Dr.Seuss books are also so colorful and pleasing to look at which makes them easier and more enjoyable to read. The pictures and rhymes definitely keep people engaged, both the parents and the children.