Error Problems

During the first two class periods when we did errors, I didn't understant the benefit I would get from it. As we went on and discussed within our groups and as a class, I realized taking notes and remembering strategies would benefit me and my students. I struggled with math and alot of the errors made and shown were similiar to what I used to do. I never had a teacher, until my tutor in high school, who could teach it to me in a differerent way. I didn't think it was possible really, and it also scared me to teach it in a different way for fear of what parents, administration of other kids would think/say. I saw the importance of learning/understanding the concepts versus just memorizing the rules, because without proper use, they mean nothing. I would assume that the errors made are common among students and through the different approaches we talked about, I believe they would help. One of the most beneficial parts of this extended activity was working through a problem as if I were the student. I got to see how they approached the problem and how confused but hard they were trying to get the answer. Effort was not lacking in these problems and usually the large concept wasn't lacking either, it was commonly just apply rules correctly that threw them off. The second thing that benfited me was practicing the strategy as a class or individually so we could really understand how to perform/teach it and know when to use it. After these discussions and this activity in total I am that much more confident to teach math and teach it in a way that kids understand for grades to come.