As I had mentioned in my master plan, I wanted to discuss what the current math classroom looks like. Now, I want to say that this is not a reflection of all math classes. I'm sure there are some very amazing things going on in several different math classrooms throughout the country, but I would like to speak from my experience. I have been in many math classrooms, both as a student and as an instructor and they have all be essentially the same. Information, guided practice, homework time, information, guided practice, homework time, information, guided practice, homework time...
Don't get me wrong, this lesson structure is an important part of mathematics. As we've all learned, you need to learn the basics first. That's not necessarily the problem.
What is the problem is that I think there's a lack of a.) passion b.) understand what mathematics is. I think we (math teachers) dive right in. Heeeeerrreeeee's math! And students start attending classes and "doing math" without understanding what math is. We know that math is useful for being an engineer and buying groceries but...what else?
For English or art or anything that is not science or math, we describe them as our culture, our history, as something more than just "buying groceries" or "being an engineer".
In class, we've been discussing meaning and giving meaning to what we are teaching. We have not given the right kind of meaning for mathematics, we haven't even told students what mathematics is.
We have to treat mathematics as passionately as we treat Shakespeare, as we treat great American Literature, as we treat anything else.
When I think back to mathematics classrooms, both as a student and a teacher, I think of dry and kind of boring and I LIKE math.
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