Example:
Divanny Rodriguez
TEDU 522.901
September 25, 2014
Mini Reflection Paper #1: Journal Article Report
Issue 1) September, 2014. Teaching Children Mathematics, 21(2).
Issue 2) April, 2014. Teaching Children Mathematics, 20(8).
Issue 3) September, 2012. Teaching Children Mathematics, 19(2).
1) About Teaching Children Mathematics
This is an editorial panel particular interested in articles submitted by teachers. The journal
is interested in posting articles based on the experience of teachers in mathematics to publish
what they have to say. It is to give teachers a voice. The intended audience is educators. The
regular columns are feature articles, problem solve, front matter, math by the month, reviewing
and viewing, etc. This journal is very organized and a good resource. It is published by the
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. The journal is looking to help teachers not only by
informing them about recent issues in mathematics and strategies to use in the classroom, but
also by allowing them to publish and tell their experiences.
2) Problem Solvers
The Problem: Integers: Draw or Discard! Game (Issue 8, April 2014)
This is an activity that I will use in my classroom. It can be used probably for grade 1st
through 4th grade but I will modify it if I decide to use it for third grade and above. The activity
is mostly about helping students understand integers, especially negative numbers. Students will
explore and understand positive numbers before the activity begins but, when playing the game,
they will encounter negative numbers with the negative sign in front of it. Students will start
asking questions about the negative sign meaning and it will learn it. The game is interesting and
will be engaging for the students. The students will be making the choice if they should keep or
discard the cards as they are picking one taking turns. They will have to make the decision
because those negative cards take points away rather than giving the students points toward
winning.
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The questions asked on the activity are simple for me to answer but for students will have
them thinking about the game and those negative integers that we want them to learn. Students
might solve it by grouping all the positive and/or negative numbers, then taking away the
negative numbers from the positive. They could also solve it by taking the negative numbers
away from the positive, and then adding the positives numbers that are left to see what their total
scores are. Also, once the students figure out that the negative sign takes points away, they might
not start keeping those negative cards. I will use it in my classroom because I think this is a good
activity that will help students understand integers and use other important skills. This activity
includes those process standards that we talked about in class. The students are engaged and
discovering the learning. They are thinking all the time and it is important for them to be
thinking all the time. The students have to use what they know and learn the concept if they want
to win.
3) Feature Article
Reference: Finchum, T. R. (2014). Becoming a Leader – Finding my Voice. Teaching
Children Mathematics, 21(2), 100-106.
Summary: In this particular featured article a teacher explores a new teaching strategy to
teach her students since her teacher-centered strategy doesn’t seem to work. This teacher has
been teaching for six years and noticed that her students are not going in the directions she
wants them to go. Her test scores are not as good as she wants them to be. In this article, she
talks about how none of the teachers are getting their students to learn the math concepts they
want the students to learn. This teacher wants to become a better teacher and also become a
leader among her colleagues. Her colleagues were playing blame game when her students
couldn’t get a concept saying that the previous teacher didn’t do a good job teaching them.
This teacher kept thinking how she could do better so an opportunity came up and she
enrolled in the AZ-MTM (Arizona Master Teaching of Mathematics). When this teacher
started the AZ-MTM program her teaching philosophy started to change. Through this
program, she realized what she really wanted for her students. Her goal was for the students
not just to be able to get the right answer but also understand the ideas behind the problem.
She needed to stop teaching procedures but teaching students by helping the students
discover the learning, empowering them. The students needed to build conceptual
understanding rather than learning how to follow a procedure. She started to do student
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centered activities where students started to discovers the concepts and ideas rather than
listening to her lecture them. Surprisingly for her, the students started to understand and learn
once she stopped doing the teacher-centered activities. The students were able to retain what
she was teaching once she started using the students-centered activities. This teacher learned
the importance of empowering the students and tried to pass this learning along to her
colleagues by letting them watch and giving her colleagues the articles she was reading in the
program and information she was learning. Her students were learning and, although it was
hard for her to do the students-centered activities, she worked hard because she wanted her
students to learn and these activities were working.
4) Opinion: This journal is very helpful because give you insight about issues that teachers
faces. It is based on actual facts and things that are happening in the classroom and
challenges that teachers are facing. This journal is relevant to me because the journal can
give me future references of the things that are working in the classroom and what are
some of the challenges that I am going to be facing. I feel reading these articles can help
me have more background on the challenges for students and keep me up to date on what
is or is not working in the classroom from other teachers’ perspective and experiences.
Also they provide activities that can be done in the classroom which is very important so
that I can have different tools and resources to reach out to when I start teaching. I think
these are really good articles to help me realize some of the best practices and learn from
other teachers experiences.
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