Math for Elementary Teachers Class Overview

Over the semester, my Math for Elementary Teachers class at MCC has taught me a lot of useful information. I am eager to apply some of the teaching techniques that I have learned. Math has always been my favorite subject, but this class put a fun and interactive twist on the subject.

One of the main focuses in the class was to bring the use of technology into the classroom. At first, I wasn't really sure how this could be accomplished with math, besides using calculators. Three out of our four learning projects required us to use technology to create our project. One of our learning projects was to make a digital map/web of a unit we were covering in class. We also had to create a digital presentation of a certain topic that we were going over in class. The third learning project, was to create a blog, which I have done here. These projects not only let us share our work with other people, but also made us experts on the topics we covered in our project.

The other main focus in the class was to create more hands-on activities to teach lessons. All of our books came with manipulative kits. The manipulatives made the lessons much more fun and is definitely a teaching technique that I hope to someday bring into my own classroom. Our fourth learning project was to create or find an activity in the book and then demonstrate and work it out with the class. The manipulatives were a very useful, and a lot of people incorporated them into their presentations. I found a website where you can go and print off your own manipulatives.

Overall, this class was very useful and helpful. It teaches you how to teach math in different and interactive ways. If you haven't taken this class and plan on going into Education, I would recommend taking it at MCC with Maria Andersen.