Emotions in Math and www.wolframalpha.com

1. What did I learn?
From the article reading this week, I learned again how children and adults have strong emotions when it comes to math. It is interesting to see that just because a child is good at math still does not necessarily mean that he/she likes math. It is also encouraging to read that a student who may not be good at math but continues with it, still could end up in a career using math all the time. It is important as teachers to know your students and try to find an area in math where a child can succeed to build confidence. It was also interesting in the article, to see where other children perceive their peers to be good at math and compare that with the reality of their internal perception.

Another interesting discussion we had in class involved remembering that "children have a right to fail," and we also talked about how teaching is also about human relationships.

I also learned about www.wolframalpha.com. Wow! And what an impact this type of website has for teaching. It changes the idea of handing out worksheets for homework.

2. What do I have questions about?
I'm wondering how to incorporate homework and assignments when there are websites, like wolframalpha.com out there for students to get answers and also the "show your work" part can be found.

3. What are the implications for classroom practice?
Again, technology and the web is impacting classroom learning. Now, teachers can say "watch this or research how to solve this" and then lets discuss what we found. Explain your thoughts and thinking will become more involved in assessment if answers to math problems can be easily found on the web.