Educators engage in professional learning.
During my 491 practicum, I enrolled in a workshop series for intermediate math teachers. During this series, I learned about math programs that I can use online. These math programs included manipulatives. I liked this approach because kids are so tech-savvy these days it may make math less scary for them if they get to explore using these manipulatives on the computer. I also learned about a website that had extending questions to concepts that the students were learning about. I really liked these as they make the students think and practice the mathematical skills without doing questions over and over again. One big take away that I got from the workshop was to connect math to real life. For example, many students already know what percent is due to technology. If I introduce percent as showing the power bar on a cellphone, students will already be more engaged as they already recognize what percent it.