20th blog - class review

Math class in Teacher's College..... To be absolutely honest, at the start of the semester I thought that this course would be the most difficult. It is math remember, with numbers, calculations, statistics, probability..... A difficult subject to say the least. Yet to my amazement, reflecting back on the course now, I have done a complete 180 from the first class and am actually sad to see this class coming to an end.
Way back on day one, we met our teacher, Professor Antosz. He described the course, he had us making a video and blogging.......... two things that I had never done before. It isn't that I am opposed the trying new things, it is just that, I have to attempt these new projects without any knowledge of how to and relate them to the subject of math!!! I must have been a glass half empty kind of guy on this day!

Let me begin with the blog. Going into the blogging activity I wasn't as positive as I would have like to have been. As I said, I had never attempted blogging before, I didn't know what it consisted of, I didn't know what on earth I would talk about? How would I relate it to math? And how would I do a refection on a reflection??? Well to be honest, if you do not try, you will never succeed! Going back over my blogs, I can see a steady stream of progression. One thing in particular that I reflected on when reading over my blogs, was that I didn't want to edit them. I want to go back and see how I improved from one blog to the next. I want to possibly show my future students the progression I made when presented with a novel task. I feel as though I went in blind and in my humble opinion came out smelling of roses. I am not trying to make any promises, however I can see myself continuing with this blog. Maybe tweaking it a little from directly math related, but I have really found myself enjoying this activity. Much more enjoyable than I originally thought it would be.
Next assignment, make a math video..... A math video? Pardon? Well again, if you don't attempt something you can not succeed. I gave the video portion of this course a lot of thought! I would lay in bed at night with my mind racing about what I would do a math video on. I would get up in the morning, sit at my webcam and begin a thought only to have it not turn out the way I wanted it too. This process repeated for weeks, until I recalled a math trick I had learned eons ago. The trick to multiplying large numbers by 5. As soon as this idea popped into my head the video was complete. I will be showing this video to my future grade school students one day! I might actually have them do the same sort of activity, as long as the technological resources are available. The only trouble I had with this assignment was stressing over what to do a math video on..... once that had been established, the project was a breeze.
In my final reflection, I would like to first say Thank You Professor Antosz. Thank you, for thinking outside of the box when preparing to teach this math course. Though there are a lot of students who are stuck in their routines of how they think University courses should be taught, I really enjoyed the diverse nature of this course. I feel as though I am taking much more away from this course than I am from the others. Thank you for the practical teaching tools you have given me! I am sure to implement all that you have taught!
Sincerely,
Wesley