Alexis Flanders
A look into my MAET experience
Category: CEP 805
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Over the past two weeks, my understanding of teaching data and probability has deepened in an important way. I used to think of this content area as fairly straightforward: collect data, make a graph, answer questions. Now I am realizing that while students can often complete those steps, they do not always understand what the…
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Over the past two weeks, my thinking about algebra has started to shift in an unexpected way. I came in ready to focus on content and tools. I am leaving thinking about identity. Algebra, even at the 3rd grade level, asks students to make sense of relationships, patterns, and unknowns. This work builds their mathematical…
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Three weeks ago, if you had asked me how I felt about teaching geometry, I would have said I enjoy it. It’s active. It’s visual. It gives students something to move, build, and at times, argue about. It can feel refreshing after long stretches of number work. However, I don’t think I had fully examined…
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If a child walked up and asked, “What is an angle?” how would I respond? Two rays that share an endpoint.A measure of rotation.A fraction of a full turn. I know those answers. But do I understand what it means to teach that idea to someone? Geometry has always felt like the “last” unit. When…
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Today I created a forced perspective hallway as part of a quickfire activity, and it ended up being much more engaging than I expected. I initially reached the “no color” stage and could have easily stopped there, but I was enjoying the process and decided to keep going. Once I added color and detail, the…
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When my students and I work on spiral review of concepts from previous years, they often question why we go back to “easy” math so frequently. This usually leads to a conversation about building a house. “If I wanted to build a house, where would I start?” I ask. “Would I build it on cotton…
Alexis Flanders 