TEAC 800
 What is mathematics teaching?
 How is it like/different than other subjects?
 What are similarities and differences between teaching middle school and teaching
kindergarten?
o What is the teacher’s role, the students’ roles; what is the teacher doing?
Discussion of Paley: Talk with partner then table group
Please say something about your reaction to the teaching depicted in "Rulers". While it is about
kindergartners, there are some important teaching principles that we can discern and derive from
this rich vignette. If you are inclined to say that you like or appreciate this kind of teaching,
where she takes children's thinking seriously, then try to articulate what it is that you appreciate
and why. What is the basis of your appreciation?
Small Groups; present big paper
 What are issues that surround mathematics teaching and learning?
 What are issues that surround your own mathematics teaching and learning?
HOMEWORK FOR NEXT WEEK:
Take 20 minutes and observe someone teach something this week. We suggest you identify
another teacher in your building who teaches while you have plan time (this does not need to be
math or a math teacher or your same grade level—just someone teaching something). After your
observation, write some brief thoughts about:
 What is the teaching I just saw?
o What was the teacher’s role?
o What were the students’ roles?
o What did the teacher do?
o What was the content of the teaching?
 How does this example of teaching compare with our class discussion this past weekend
on campus about “what is teaching”? Does it change your answer to “what is teaching”?
Please explain why or why not.
You will post these thoughts on blackboard as part of your first Study Question Response
assignment. See Blackboard (Discussion Board) for the full assignment; the other half will be
questions from the week’s reading.
When seeking out someone to observe, please explain to him/her that you have to watch
someone teaching for a homework assignment. You are not there to evaluate that teacher or
his/her teaching (or classroom management). You are just there with an open mind to observe
what teaching looks like outside of your own classroom.