Happy New Year and welcome back to the Alge-blog! This is my first blog of the second semester, and I am excited to get into it! Unlike last semester, we are starting the first few weeks by participating in professional reading, where each group member is responsible for certain roles in analyzing and sharing information on textbook chapters. This week, I was the illuminator, which required me to draw an image or graphic organizer relating to chapter 1. What stood out and what I learned During our group discussion, we talked about the importance of group work and exploration in a math classroom. This allows students the opportunity to have agency over their own learning and identify patterns themselves before being introduced to hard rules and formulas. This strategy allows students to gain a deeper understanding of why a problem is solved in a certain way. Specializing: Using specific examples to try to figure out a problem Generalizing: Moving from specific examples to a gener...