Math Interviews: Reflections

I found the responses from all the teachers are varied. The teacher I interviewed was my grade 4, 6, and 8 teacher. I remember him most for caring about the students and his discipline. Since he taught in the middle school, he would teach math and science to the students. Thus, he uses games as an incentive for students to keep on task and for classroom management. I now see that Bus Driver is a game which engages the whole class, even the struggling students. It helps the struggling students practice their multiplication tables and gives them an achievable challenge or goal. Bus Driver also makes math fun.

For the students we interviewed, I found it interesting the math and logic puzzles and challenges were the highlights of the students instead of any particular curriculum subject. They seemed have problems with concepts that were similar. For example, after plotting out y = x^2 for the student, we asked the student to plot y = 1/(x^2). He plotted out 1/x. He seemed to mix up the concept of reciprocal and inverse also. I would be clear on definitions and make sure I do not use the wrong terminology. I would not use the term, take the inverse of 6 when I mean take the reciprocal of 6.