Week 4 – Mathematical Philosophical Statement – Carolina Ruiz

My philosophy about math is never giving up. I want my students to understand that math is not always going to be easy and simple — which can make us upset, but if they keep trying, they will get better — the more practice a student gets, the more familiar they become with the subject. According to our PowerPoint, “Ability to accept frustrations that come from not knowing” (Barnett 2). Math will not always be as simple as 1 + 1 = 2, so students need to be prepared to face the hardships math throws at all of us. There are dozens of young students who simply give up on math because they do not understand since they are often brought down by ‘wrong answers’, but I do not wish to do this with my students as I have learned in this course that we should never tell our students ‘no’ — even when it’s literally incorrect, but we have to ask about their ideology and how it is that they got there. Simply saying, “No. That’s wrong” can bring a student confidence down and they will end up frowning upon math for their whole educational career. As common core progresses and the words develop, more math is going to be incorporated in our daily tasks/jobs. In other words, children need to become comfortable with math from an early age to keep advancing and going deeper into the spectrum we call math. Being patient with students is key because not all your students are going to understand the topic in an instance — plus some students learn differently than others. Again citing from the same PowerPoint, “Understand the difference between not knowing the answer and not having found it yet” (Barnett 2) this sticks out to me so much because all students need is time and patience to feel comfortable enough to keep trying. That’s why I plan to be open in my teaching. By giving all my students top tier resources to learn and patience, I will participate in the Equity Principle for young math learners.