Love the Book!

I have been reading through Chapter 1 of our textbook and have enjoyed it immensely. My experience with Math has been largely negative, and people who know me well tell me I have a Math phobia. In the early part of the Chapter, the writers state: "If minds are not actively engaged in thought, no effective learning occurs" (Van de Walle, Lovin 2006). This was what I recall a lot of my math experiences consisting of. In grade 3 I remember (with dread), doing "Math Minutes", in which the entire class was timed while we did a sheet full of multiplication questions. There was no time to think or engage, all I was required to do was regurgitate the answers that I was supposed to have memorized. Unfortunately I was not terribly good at memorizing things, so I often cheated off the girl who sat next to me (ahhhh, big confession!). But all this to say, that I never really experienced any math class in which I was "actively engaged" with what I was doing or that allowed me to experiment with "problem based tasks" (2006).

Another thing I noticed about what I was reading is that a lot of what Van de Walle and Lovin advocate as being good ways to teach math can apply to any subject that is taught in the classroom. The idea of a "Mathematical Community of Learners" and the four principals that are needed to help this flourish (see page 6) are applicable to any subject.

Anyways, those are my random thoughts...