What is your Mathematical Identity?

What did I learn?

I learned about a geometric tool called a Mira.  I had never seen or heard of one before.  A Mira has a reflective quality much like a mirror.  By placing it on any shape, children will be able to grasp the concepts of symmetry and congruence more easily.  The exercise we were given in class, to trace a child on a swing, using a Mira, would be one that school children would enjoy.  Making math fun is one of the best ways to ensure that what is being taught is actually learned.

Using pattern blocks for fraction addition and subtraction is also something I learned.  When teaching math classes in my son’s elementary school I had often used pattern blocks to teach about geometric shapes and patterns, but I had never thought to use them in this way.   This was a great lesson and I plan to use these manipulatives to teach fractions in the future.

I also learned, from the assigned reading by Leatham and Hill, that we all have a mathematical identity.   The authors’ assert that everyone has a system of dispositions about math that have nothing to do with their ability to understand it.  For example, if someone views math as a subject where they must be an avid “rule follower,” which has a negative connotation,  the person embracing this idea will be less likely to want to continue on in math, even if they had been successful in their classes in the past.    

What do I have questions about? 

How can we, as teachers, prevent our students from saying they’re “just not good at math”?  How can we show them that everyone encounters math in their everyday lives (when they draw maps, place tiles, solve a scheduling problem, etc.) and that they’re most probably good at it?

What are the implications for classroom practice?

The challenge in the classroom will be to determine the relationship my future students have with math.    It will be my job as a teacher to help them become more aware of their mathematical identities to help them realize that one bad experience in math shouldn’t warrant discarding the entire subject.  I will need to learn how to broaden their views about the nature of math, to help them see its value in many different activities and professions.