Joe Goncalves' Reflection

Throughout the course of the semester Math 355 really opened my eyes to the world of teaching. In the beginning the class was rough, never having taught before there were definitely obstacles in the way that I had to overcome in order to succeed as the educator in the classroom setting, from lesson planning to understanding what is helpful insight versus giving them the answer simply because they are confused. As time passed during the semester things slowly became better for me in the sense of during the classroom periods where we would discuss techniques and learn concepts that we may have covered but going more in depth in the topic and realizing that it can be solved multiple ways showed me how when being an educator you should be prepared in knowing that one question could be solved using different methods because in the classroom every student thinks differently and works differently.

As far as what I’ll take away from the class is that as the semester progressed I started to really think about if I could be an educator for my career, and as the semester progressed I was able to find my answer. The answer is yes, I feel that I could be an educator for my career and be happy doing it.

The course showed me just a glimpse of what teachers deal with on a day to day basis, and yet when in the classroom I not only felt comfortable but also a sense of fulfillment when working with the students and seeing their reactions when they finally understood what was being taught, and their reactions of me wanting to push them further so they could understand the material even when we weren’t there. It also showed me that I really wanted to teach high school rather than any other grade because high school is a turning point in a lot of these kids lives and being able to change them through educating is something amazing and shouldn’t be taken for granted.I really couldn't be more thankful for the course as it solidified that the goal that I was working towards, of being an educator was indeed the right path for me and my future and that I can really spend the rest of my life teaching not just math but teaching them about life by making those personable connections and showing them that education is fun.