Classroom

There have been many changes to a math classroom in Illinois lately. With the recent introduction of the Common Core Standards, to also having Common Core SMP standards, and NCTM standards it can be intimidating how many standards teachers need to be aware of when teaching math. The Common Core State Standard - Standard Math Practice or SMPs are eight different standards that teachers should be aware of and have included into their math activities. These 8 standards are: Make sense of problems and persevere through solving them, reason abstractly and quantitatively, construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others, model in mathematics, use tools strategically, attend to precision, look for and make use of structure, and lastly, look for and express regularity in reasoning.
There are 4 NCTM standards for math. When I was in middle school, it didn't matter how we came to the answer, as long as we got to the correct answer. The NCTM standards as well as the SMPs want the students to explain their thinking and reasoning and justify as to why their solution is correct. These standards make students who are more aware of their math abilities and know how to problem solve. Even if students get an incorrect solution, they can look back at their work and reasoning to see where they ran into a problem. The NCTM standards are: Reasoning and proof, communication, connections, and representation.
Even though I can see people having difficulty in changing the structure of their class to meet all of these standards, I am glad that when I began my education at Bradley that the common core standards were already created. This way my whole teacher education training has been done using the same sets of standards. Now I have been given the time to really become familiar with these standards before I have to be responsible in teaching them to my students. This will prepare me best when going into my own classroom once I graduate with my teaching license.