Education Algebra Essay

Coming into mathematics for elementary educators with my classmates, everyone had some type notion of what this course consists of. For most people math is a very hard and complex subject that requires complicated rules that a person would never use again. A person who has not been exposed to math would say math is just numbers, shapes, and some simple arithmetic. To a serious math student, math encompasses much more than just numbers and geometrical shapes, of course. During math 213 I bought into many misconceptions about math. During Week one I learned about no child left behind act and the pro’s and con’s that are associated with this act. We reviewed the order of operations and learned different meanings to some math terminology. The most exciting teaching strategy I learned in week one was called the pinch card. The pinch card allows the teacher to observe the students, while the students pinch different signs when learning the order of operation. It is a piece of paper that consists of the addiction, subtraction, multiplication, division, exponent, and parentheses symbol. Week two we discuss union, intersection, complement, different properties, commutative, associative, and identity. I learned how to use manipulative to teach different teaching strategy while teaching decimals. I found it difficult to understand some questions off the math homework during week two which help me comprehend how students will feel. Math is not hard for me to understand but I realize I have to stay super focus while in math class or I will get lose easily with the different numbers. Math is not a hard subject and many times I made it harder by not using the problem solving steps which are, explore problem, plan, solve, examine, which are very helpful when understood . My philosophy toward teaching math is to look at math from a logical standpoint instead of trying to figure it out; you will see that logically everything will fall into place. I am not a math teacher however, there is one thing I wish all math teachers would focus more on and that is teaching students to view math logically. While it is very important to know how to work, a problem out it is also equally important for students to learn to look at the problem from a logical standpoint. Math in class 213 made perfect sense and when I looked at math from a logical standpoint along with problem solving techniques I discover it is much easier. Common sense goes a long way when dealing with math problems. I also learned that you will need and use math everyday of your life for the rest of your life. Depending on what you do professionally will determine what form of math you use on a regular basis but rest assured everyone on Gods green earth will use some form of math in their everyday life. Taking this math course made me think about becoming a math teacher. Without math, you cannot check your pay stub to make sure your employer is paying you correctly, pulling out the correct amount for deductibles or that you aren’t paying in to much for insurance or anything else. Without math, you will not be able to budget your income and expenses for the week or the month. Without math, you will have Math is important for our future and it is an important aspect in most jobs. Warehouse workers many times have to take and pass a math test before being hired for job positions. Mechanics use math everyday whether they are pricing parts and adjusting bills or figuring out exact calculations in order to do a job correctly. Construction workers use math to make calculations before beginning and during construction. I have not worked in or heard of a job yet that didn’t involve math at some point even if you work at McDonald’s you have to know math to count the money and give the corrected change. Most often, we use basic math skills without even thinking about it. How sad it would be if we didn’t have those basic skills. Math skills are very important when planning for our financial future and during our everyday life. Without math, you wouldn’t be able to balance your checkbook or many other everyday tasks that are normally taken for granted.