This is Maggie - Signing Off.

As the semester winds down and we leave ‘ready’ to embark upon our internships, I am left reflecting on what I learned and what I will take with me into the classroom. I am doing my internship in Kindergarten and I am very excited – although a little nervous. I feel that we have learned a lot through in our courses, but I am not confident in my ability to effectively put all of this information into practice. However, one area where I feel most confident is in my application of the math theory we have learned. I think this course effectively allowed us the see the purpose and the practice needed to make math education meaningful and engaging for children.

Throughout my observation days, I did not get to see much instruction. On Fridays, at the observational schools, there were always assemblies, meetings, or presentations. If I were to have on criticism of the Education program, it would be about observation days. I feel visiting schools on Fridays put us at a severe disadvantage for seeing and observing useful teaching practices. However, I did gain a great sense of the organization and discipline that happens during assemblies. Although I loved my observation experience and the school, I still feel that it did not adequately prepare me in ways I would have liked.

My observation of math was limited to worksheets and tests in elementary grades and consisted of the morning routine in primary grades – through patterns and counting. I am not sure in the primary grades the students even recognized that they were doing math. Through this course however, I think I have learned and thought of ways to incorporate math into lessons in ways children will enjoy. I am excited about the thought of bringing my ideas and creativity into the classroom. I think the peer teaching that we are doing in class will be very beneficial to us long-term. I think these presentations provide us with ideas and are though provoking and will allow us to extend the ideas into other lessons.

Through this course and the look at the curriculum, I also understand more comprehensive the layout and the requirements of each grade for the mathematics program. I often feel overwhelmed by the depth of each of the curriculum guides – but through this math course I think I have a better grasp on the math program. I also think the textbook from this book will be extremely valuable to me in years to come. The theory, practice, and activities included in this book will definitely help me out in the future as I begin my career.

In conclusion, I have found this course to be one of the most useful and practice thus far in the program. Many elements of this course have created a foundation for the teaching of mathematics and have taken away some of the angst I have felt towards math that would have once jaded my expectations. I think this course has planted the seed for many us of to approach math (and ultimately all subjects) in a more constructivist, student-centered way. Overall, I think this course was so beneficial as it taught us stuff we are really going to need to know – the real stuff that we are going to see and experience. This is going to be a bumpy ride and you did not try to convince us otherwise and I appreciate that honesty. So, thank you for a great semester and I hope I can one day be the mathematics teacher that you aspire for us to be.

Sincerly,
Maggie