Mathematics is one of the tougher subjects to teach. Not necessarily because of the content, but because of the mind set of the students. Many students walk in the door of a mathematics classroom expecting to not understand, expecting to be frustrated, expecting to fail.

Reading and writing within the mathematics classroom offers many things, but one aspect interests me more than the others: reading and writing produces more self-sufficient students. My philosophy of education involves exactly this: making my students more independent, more self-sufficient.

If I can encourage my students to read effectively in the mathematics classroom, I will be helping them to become more independent learners. Instead of having to come to me, the teacher, every time they need help, they will be able to find most the answers for themselves. There is not as much reading associated with math, but simply getting the kids to read the material on the pages prior to their current homework assignment would make a difference. The main concern students have with reading such material is being able to understand what they read I have methods and strategies I intend to model to make this easier. This could make the difference between kids who are just barely wading through it to kids who really understand.

Writing in the mathematics classroom, to me, takes two forms: Assignments that include explaining how they did a certain problem and journals. I believe that the assignments give the students a chance to cement in their own minds what works for particular problems, and perhaps more important, why. Journals are another excellent tool: they give students a place to talk about what math they do understand and what they do not. It is a time to put things in perspective. Sometimes just writing down what they are having trouble with is enough to make it suddenly "click."

I firmly believe that the harder students have to look for an answer, the more likely it is that they will never forget. If the answer is not in their textbook, there is an infinite number of places they can look. By the end of any given semester, I plan to have my students check into many of them.

I truly believe that reading and writing should be a solid component of every mathematics classroom.