Desiree Luna
MTH/156
Professor Lee
2/12/2012
As my 1st math class for elementary teachers is ending its time to reflect on all ive learned these last 9 weeks. We focused on many math topics such as algebraic thinking, problem solving, number theory, rational numbers and applications. Many vocabulary concepts and symbols were memorized in these weeks. Of all these topics the most important concept I learned in this class was number theory and set notation. The most difficult skills for me throughout the class were anything involving fractions. All of these concepts learned throughout the 9 weeks are relevant to the characteristics of a professional math teacher. This course has helped me develop my own understandings and ideas to bring fourth to my own class. Of all of the concepts and topics taught in this class I felt that number theory and set notation was the most important. One reason for this is because this was completely new to me. I don’t remember learning this in school or maybe I didn’t learn it. It’s important for me to grasp the concept because I will need to teach this to my students The second reason is number theory and set notation have a lot of vocabulary and a lot of subtopics to grasp, which are all very important. A “set” is a collection of items, which are also called elements. The elements do not have to be numbers. A= {apple, juice, sandwich, chips}. This set describes what I had for lunch today. As you can see each set is named by an uppercase letter such as A. Sets can be placed in Venn diagrams, and can even get more complicated (Set notation,2010). The most difficult skill for me throughout this class was Rational numbers as fractions. I have always had a hard time with fractions in all my math classes especially if the denominator is different. I’m so glad I got to review these skills because it will only make me stronger in this area. There are many models to help students see the actual fraction. An