I want to become a middle or high school math teacher. I just

Try focusing your lessons on why something is the way that it is (proofs) rather than telling your students how to do a plug-&-chug/memorize an algorithm. Puzzles and thought experiments can be good diversions that may not necessarily be math but can still develop skills necessary for math. Glad to hear you are interested in teaching. The world needs more passionate math teachers for the younguns.

yo nigga this shit aint ever gonna be used in my life bro, stop forcing me, let me be myself bitch

>>8243505
In my experience, kids are intimidated by math, and social and domestic pressure takes precedence over theory and rhetoric.

What struggling kids need most is security and confidence. It's simple to see but most people don't give a shit.

Trying to be quirky,profound,instilling a sense of urgency to learn, none of that will work. Don't try to be a friend either.
You live in a different world from them.

Show them you're going through the motions just like everyone else.
Show them that school and college is just another thing to get through. And whatever you do, don't pretend like it matters to anyone.

>What things can be done to facilitate a healthy math-friendly mindset within kids?
Give them problems that actually interest them. And ramp up the difficulty in a fair way. Teach them to generalize, simplify, work through examples etc.

>What recurring themes have you noticed in your own education that drove kids away from math?
Poor motivation for problems

>What positive experiences have you had from your best teachers?
Clarity, enthusiasm, problem sets that have a mix of applying things seen in class and developing new ideas

>What negative experiences have you had from your shittiest and most boring teachers?
If teachers are boring you won't learn anything in class and then when you go to do the work you have to go over every detail again

>What was the turning point that made you like math?
Proofs in first year of college. Routine calculations from kindergarten to grade 12 felt mindnumbingly boring, easy and pointless at the same time.

File: cHj17xJ.jpg (66KB, 620x465px) Image search: [Google]

66KB, 620x465px

>>8243531
>Try focusing your lessons on why something is the way that it is (proofs) rather than telling your students how to do a plug-&-chug/memorize an algorithm

That's exactly my philosophy.

For instance I believe that beginning number theory (mostly relating to prime numbers) should be taught alongside algebra. When kids start factoring quadratics they literally have no idea why they're doing it, or what it even accomplishes. Showing them how factoring relates to composite and prime numbers and build on the number system.

I want to establish an approach that doesn't separate math into all these discrete categories, and show how they overlap into one large mathematical system that can be used to measure, predict, and construct

I also want to put a focus on applications, primarily computer science, physics, and engineering. I don't think purely pure maths is good because math is ultimately useful as a tool, and they need to be shown HOW it can be used as well, and where all of these different mathematical structures come into play. That way I can hope to weed out the "why are we even learning this?" questions that pervade every class I've been in.

Ayyyo op Aja fucking sucks


Nah its great album. Home At Last is the best song

>>8243505

Why don't you instead just find out where each aspect of mathematics that you teach apply to real life?
Wouldn't that answer their questions and motivate them to learn math?
Why do you think that their curiosity as to where in life mathematics is relevant is poisonous? Do you seriously want to suppress their natural inclination to ask questions which actually fosters analytical thinking?

>>8243560
Well said, though I'm going into pure math, but I can see why applications would be especially useful in a high school setting.

>>8243823
>Why do you think that their curiosity as to where in life mathematics is relevant is poisonous? Do you seriously want to suppress their natural inclination to ask questions which actually fosters analytical thinking?

That's not what I meant. I originally wrote, "I'm never going to use this" as opposed to "When am I ever going to use this?"

I meant it more in that kids see math as pointless, and thus turn away from thinking about it. I'd love nothing more than for them to express curiosity and think about how a person could use math in their everyday life.

Sorry about that. Definitely not how I meant it to come across.

>>8243800
>Nah its great album. Home At Last is the best song

That was the first song I heard from the album, and the reason I got into it in the first place. But I'm more partial to Black Cow myself.

>>8243825
I don't mean to dog on pure maths, because that's actually where my interests lie as well. I've said before that if, by the time I finish my BS, I'm still going strong and still have the fire to learn inside, then I may continue on and get my master's and maybe teach community college instead.

I think there's a lot of interesting discussion that can come into play with algebra, geometry, and calculus, but I may end up wanting to work with a little more advanced stuff (I especially find number theory and combinatorics interesting) so I may find that more rewarding to teach. But as of right now, I think high school teaching is where my interests lie.

Sure OP make them do proofs. Also make sure they know every trigonometric identity possible. If you're gonna make them do number theory why not introduce real analysis alongside algebra 2? You can teach however u want. Fuck the strict regulations at public schools.

File: 1461520752755.jpg (298KB, 1156x1600px) Image search: [Google]

298KB, 1156x1600px

>>8243961
>Sure OP make them do proofs.
Definitely, but I gotta go beyond trite memorization of the steps of the proofs, which is how the presented proofs were when I was in algebra.

>Also make sure they know every trigonometric identity possible.
I'd be more interested in helping them establish a method for coming up with these identities themselves. I just want to make sure they actually understand why the identities work. My shitty precalc teacher made us recite the proofs out loud back to him when he taught us. Awful teacher, and a completely pointless exercise. Trig proofs are beautiful, and they need to intuitively understand how they work by talking about the geometric interpretations of them. Memorizing them comes easily after seeing what the proofs actually mean.

>why not introduce real analysis alongside algebra 2?
I don't know if you're joking or not, but I don't think it's a bad idea to touch upon some topics from real analysis. The introductory chapters of Spivak do a lot of nice algebra 2-level analysis that was completely foreign, but fascinating to me when I first encountered it.

>You can teach however u want. Fuck the strict regulations at public schools.
I probably will. I've always been good at getting away with doing things my own way. A lot of the way I think about math actually falls in line with a lot of the new common core stuff (not those shitty meme worksheets everyone always posts, but the standards themselves.)

http://www.corestandards.org/Math/Content/HSA/introduction/

Math is extremely hard for some people. Not everyone is talented at math as you are. Proofs are harder and more abstract than performing calculations. Making math harder than it already is will drive more people away from it. You need to severely reduce your scope to top performing students and preferably teach only honors level classes. Please don't scare away normies bro; some students don't even finish precalculus in high school.

>>8243823
Because telling kids "if you're an engineer youll use this" doesnt help, becuase kids dont want to be engineers. Showing applications doesn't work, from experience.

>>8243505
I really enjoy the philosophy of Better Explained. I think focusing on the why is better than the how, because intuition and understanding creates lasting skills, whereas learned skills do not create intuition and understanding. However, if you go to any kind of public school, your favored curriculum will be strangled and you will be forced to make kids hate math, because otherwise you'll be fired. Be fucking careful when trying to outdo the system.

Another thing, I don't hate worksheets or rote problem solving. I think those kind of repetitive, boring tasks are necessary for learning. Just make sure you give them enough time to understand and apply the material before hitting them with a page full of problems. Make a game out of it. See who can do it the fastest. Offer rewards. Get kids engaged. Competition is the best way to make things interesting.

>>8243505
>I want to become a middle or high school math teacher.
t. pedo