Monday, May 24 class

The grid assignment was a lot harder than I thought it would be. None of my answers were in the correct grid, the closest I got was that two of my numbers were in the correct row. When we were trying to decide whether the first box was 1 or 5, I was convinced that Problem 5 was the easier problem because adding up two piles of different colored bears seemed easier than having a person give you bears to add to your pile. It turns out that Problem 1 was the easier problem because it is explicitly said to combine/join the bears, so that the student understands to add. Nowhere in Problem 5 does it say to add and this is why it is a harder problem. I was surprised to find out that Problem 5 is actually in the 3rd row, and not right next to Problem 1. After becoming more aware of the assumptions I was making, it became slightly easier to look at the problems objectively. When we came up with the categories/row names, it became more clear why problems were harder than others. I'm excited to find out the real placement in the grid!

Wednesday, May 19th class

It was interesting to hear about Dr. Shih's life. I also was surprised how much I learned in the first day. Learning about how students think is not usually what we learned about in past methods class but I can definitely see how it will be helpful in Math. Even simply putting the problem
11
-7
__
on the board was enough to get me thinking: Why have teachers taught us the way that they have? Why did they emphasize the "rules" rather than teaching us the reason for why certain methods work?

When we were going over the ways to solve the cheese word problem, it was weird that the first strategy that came to mind was to subtract. Nowhere in the problem does it say to subtract, yet that is what I thought of. I think this is why I have always hated word problems; Teachers always taught me to look out for "key words" and to rearrange the problem instead of taking it face value.

I'm excited for the next class because it is really interesting to see how students' (and our) minds work.

Math Autobiography

Hello, my name is Stacy Bato. I would say that I have a pretty strong background in Math. I went to a magnet high school which emphasized Math and Science. I enjoy Math even though I'm not the best at it. I'm nervous to teach Math because I have never taught it and I've only taken content Math classes at UNLV. I hope that I learn a lot in this class about Math and teaching in general.