LaDonna Troullier

Journal 96.

One of the first things that I learned is the importance of students actually understanding why

algorithm works. Understanding this can really help them with future math problems as they

get more challenging. One important thing that I really learned and will remember for when I’m

a teacher is to ask questions. For example, when teaching division should ask how many 6’s are

in 21 or even ask why cant 6 go into 21 evenly etc. Overall one important thing that I learned is

that drawing out math problems can really help a student understand, and more importantly

anything involved with candy can really get a student’s attention. I really thought the concept

of the “candy factory” was cool and can give real life visuals to students. It is also important

that students come up with more then strategy to a certain math problem. Last but not least I

found it very important for students to write out their steps and understand why they made

those steps. Figure 8 was a perfect example on how Lisa solved that math problem and

explained.

The difference between using and understanding the mathematical concepts is students can list

their steps and memorize them, but when asked “why?” do they really understand it? It is

important to understand why you take the steps you take to divide instead of just doing it

because you know 6 divided by 2 is 3. Students should be able to explain why. No matter what

you do weather its math or not its always best to understand something instead of memorizing

something. This is especially important for me as a future teacher because I want to understand

why math works in certain ways instead of just memorizing it and teaching it to my students.