What has worked; what has not (Prompt #2)

This year has been an interesting new experience.  As I think about the semester thus far, I find both mistakes and successes in the classroom.  I think that the interactive activities I have done, especially with the Smart Board, has been really good.  Also, I find that presenting mathematical concepts in visual ways or more interesting ways to think about it is important.

However, I realized that something that has not worked was giving the students something too hard to quickly.  I was working on factoring, and I realized that many students are not to that level.  I should have gone over pre-algebra concepts.  However, I thought they were at a much higher level.  I also find that students have struggled with the concept of algebra and figuring out the value of a variable.  I realized that students do not understand that 5x + 2x = 7x.  Instead, students get confused on when and how to add the numbers with variables.

As I continue to move along in the semester, I am planning to do activities with algebra tiles.  I think that students will understand this, and they will be able to better understand with hands-on activities like that.  I think I will continue to do my best to keep the students engaged in what they are learning.  I will also think of ways in which I can allow the students to be more interested in learning mathematics.