Adam Rodrigues - EDUC 450B Blog

 One thing that made me stop while reading this article was the idea of using intractable problems to students in order to stimulate their interest and engagement. Although Renert was specifically referring to this as a possible technique to teach an intuition for large numbers for the purpose of sustainability education, I believe that this technique could be very broadly applicable. Another point that piqued my interest was Renert's proposal to move away from an algebraic and linear focus in secondary mathematics, to "qualitative visual reasoning and descriptive analysis" (as he puts it). Although this would be a difficult task, I think that there are great benefits to shifting focus, or at least extending our current curriculum to build other mathematical skills that are arguably more suited for modern application.  Personally, I think one small thing that we can do as math educators is to help students recognize the critical role that advanced mathematical methods pla...

Wow! There are no words in English that can fully describe my feelings upon reading this beautiful reflection. Yes, the words through which the ideas were conveyed to me were English words, but the ideas themselves—the experiences of being in the world around us—described by Dr. Kimmerer were real, vivid, and universal. I love to slow down and listen to my surroundings when I'm outdoors, and I find it fascinating that Potawatomi has words to directly describe the experience of life and connectedness that are truly natural. In some sense, one could say that the language is both precise and accurate in this particular ability. My thoughts on mathematical/scientific terminology in the classroom and beyond: I think the importance of precision and accuracy are the fundamental reasons why we have developed such rigorous mathematical and scientific terminology. When teaching mathematics and science, we must be precise so that definitions, propositions, procedures, and results can be repro...

  My kind of reflection ...     Despite the fact that "On Becoming a Reflective a Teacher" was written in the 1980's, it still speaks to me in 2020, in what I would consider a personally profound way. The style in which Grant and Zeichner write their article challenges the reader explicitly, and it is clearly targeted at new teacher candidates, such as myself. Moreover, many of the ideas presented in the article are concerned with the cores principles of teaching (which I don't think have changed drastically over the years, even if methods have) and they cut through to me in a personally meaningful way. For example, the proposal of  wholeheartedness   as an essential characteristic of reflective thinking in teaching particularly resonates with me for several reasons. For one thing, I intuitively agree with the idea that teachers must be fully committed to critically analyzing and improving their practice in order to become more effective teachers. I have al...