Thus, my primary teaching role is as a guide to help my students structure the time they spend on mathematics to be as engaging and fruitful as possible. Regardless of which method I use at a particular time, I try to engage students in thinking about and communicating mathematics. Questioning is central to my guidance of students work. To help students see math as relevant to themselves, I try to foster their awareness of the mathematics surrounding their everyday lives. Relevance is particularly critical for students who are not math or science majors.
Many students view mathematics as a set of rules made up a long time ago.
I try to foster the view that mathematics is alive, useful, and a means for describing and analyzing the world around them. I utilize laboratory activities in most of my courses because they provide many benefits for the students. The labs involve collecting data to examine relationships such as arm span to height. Data is typically collected during class time prior to the introduction of the mathematics used in analyzing the relationships. Data collection creates a shared background for students, and subsequent material can be related back to this mutual experience.