Far too many years have gone by since I had a real, live

(not on-line) post-graduate class. Now, here I am at 58

years old, in the midst of a string of math classes. My brain
no doubt needed expanding, and it has certainly received
that!
I have always enjoyed teaching math to elementary students
during my 36 years in this career. But sixth grade math is
the highest level I have taught, and I was a bit nervous
about handling content for higher grade levels. Well,
truthfully, I still am. However, my confidence in my abilities
has gained considerably. This class has been a thorough yet
quick review of beginning skills and an exciting but slightly
frightening introduction to a few new (or perhaps forgotten)
topics.
My research question for MIAA 350 is: In what ways will my
mathematic instruction change and benefit my students? I
feel that my instruction has changed for the better and am
seeing those changes benefit many of the students. I am
much more proficient at building their skills by starting at an
earlier point on a learning continuum and progressively
increasing the difficulty of that skill. I hear them say, more
and more, Oh, this is so easy! I enjoy seeing them feel
more confident.
An example of this improved instruction would be when I
recently saw how many were struggling with being able to
read analog clocks, scales, rulers, and number lines correctly.
They were especially inaccurate when trying to determine an
amount for an unlabeled tick mark on any of these. Thinking
about how children learn number sense and remembering
different ways that have been demonstrated in class to build
number sense, I have changed the style of practice I give
them to help improve this skill. More details of some of this
are in the third grade Weebly page. Next I will further work
on this skill by giving them a midpoint on a section of a

number line, and have them determine other points based

on that midpoint.
The combination of the discourse class and this content class
has been powerful and will continue to be instrumental in
changing and improving my math instruction.