Today we did a presentation of math to the rest of the EPS 350 class about math.  We brainstormed ideas about the other students’ experiences in math.  Many people mentioned that they found math to be boring and unrelated to real life.  They mentioned how they had teachers who became frustrated with students who could not “see” the answer right away.

Our presentation was to help dispel some of these feelings that our classmates have towards math.  We showed them how math is changing and is becoming more hands on.  We gave them manipulatives that they could work with and solve a problem.  We also stressed how math is going to be more about the process than the result which allows students a variety of ways of thinking and can help the students be creative with their solutions.

I hope that our presentation helped the other students understand more about math.  As a person who enjoyed math in high school I find it very sad to hear that my classmates did not have the same positive experience.  More importantly, I hope that the new teaching approaches that we have in the new curriculum will help my students to enjoy math more so that when they are in university they have positive experiences to share.