Summary and Synthesis

So far this semester, I have been very interested in this course. I really appreciate all we are learning about different technology options to enhance our students learning and the appropriate amount and time for incorporating technology into lesson plans. I am also really looking forward to the lesson study portion of the class. It is something that I, as well as a majority of the class, have not had previous experience participating in. I think it is going to be a wonderful way to gain insight on students' learning styles and how to create good, interactive lesson plans. The interactive aspects of lesson plans is very important, and I really like that we are learning a more active approach to teaching/learning mathematics. I feel that a majority of my education throughout high school was very textbook, lecture, and solving problems with pen and paper, so learning more effective and interesting methods of teaching math has been very beneficial to me. While I understand that every style of instruction has its own place in the classroom and the redundant practice of certain problems with equations may be necessary, I really enjoy learning to take a broader view of problem solving and learning to find similarities between various, seemingly different, types of problems. Finally, this course has already taught me alot about problem solving in general. I have always considered myself pretty good at solving math problems, but I had never given any thought to the actual process I was taking myself through in solving the problems. To really teach problem solving to students, I feel I need to reflect more often on my own problem solving strategies and the actual process I am using to solve the problem and learn.