MIAA 320 Voyer, Heather

Demonstration of Advanced Practice Reflection

Before starting this class, I always thought of math was a dull, boring subject. My
teachers edition was very scripted giving me directions on how to pose the first question
in each lesson and how to move forward from there in a simple progression. I honestly
didnt put much thought into my math lessons because I knew what day Id be teaching
what. I could see the boredom on my students faces because it didnt take much thought
for them follow these steps and youll arrive at your answer. It was not thought
provoking, simulating, or much of a challenge for some students. For those who
struggled, they always struggled. They tried so hard to follow the steps I had given them,
but it was still difficult for them to understand. But as a teacher, this was comfortable for
me. It didnt require much thought on my part I could teach the steps to solving a
multiplication or division problem. I could make copies of the test provided by the
curriculum company and quickly score it to check for mastery.
This course, MIAA 320, has forced me to be uncomfortable and to struggle. One
thing that stuck out to me from one of the first classes was you (the teacher) cant expect
your students to struggle or be uncomfortable if youre not willing to be too. For my
entire teaching career I have shied away from digging deep into the math because it
makes me uncomfortable. But this course is pushing me out of my comfort zone which
surprisingly, I am enjoying!
When this course began, I was in the middle of dividing with decimals still
following the teachers edition. I did begin changing my style of teaching somewhat that
engaged the students with using base-ten blocks, modeling, explaining, and justifying. At
first my students struggled with the change, but eventually seemed to embrace this new
MIAA 320 Voyer, Heather
Demonstration of Advanced Practice Reflection

way of learning. For the past couple weeks now weve jumped into Fraction Camp. For
one entire class period we just explored the question, What is a Unit?. Without saying
much more than the question, we launched into a class wide discussion where students
were explaining what they believed a unit was and reasoning their whys. Then students
were given a bag with 4-5 items inside. As a group, they had to decide if each item in the
bag was a unit, or not a unit as well as a rationale behind their answer. It was great fun
engaging my students in conversation, as I remained neutral careful not to give the
answer away, while also playing the devils advocate. As the period rolled on, students
were saying things to me like:
o Well, now Im not so sure about my answer because of what so-and-so said.
o Now Im even more confused because I thought I was right.
o Now I kind of agree with this person.
o Id like to change my thinking.
Watching and listening to my students debate and express their thinking was an
eye-opening experience. There were some solid connections to past learning
specifically their third and fourth grade years, the conversation was thought provoking
and forced them to listen to each other in order to respond appropriately. Students that
dont necessarily take risks began sharing, and student engagement was high you could
feel the energy in the class during this exploration period.
Thanks to this course, I am being pushed to not just explore whats familiar to me,
but to think about my questioning techniques and how to truly engage my students in
meaningful mathematics. No longer do I want to be that teacher that just assigns thirty
problems that are straight computation. It is my desire to make my students think for
MIAA 320 Voyer, Heather
Demonstration of Advanced Practice Reflection

themselves and give them meaningful, thought stimulating math that will perk their
curiosity and deepen their understanding.
One quote that stood out to me during the night we presented our articles was,
Your own familiarity with content places a ceiling on where students can go (John
Belcher). This forces me to be familiar with my subject, to have essential questions that
point to the big idea of the unit or year, to think about what kind of questions to ask
during a lesson, and to be pushing my students to be higher-level mathematicians who
will justify, understand the why, make connections, be able to show multiple
representation of information, and solve complex problems. Thanks to this course, I
believe I am on my way to becoming this type of math teacher.