Blog

Chapter 1

“Your memory system is much more reliable than your thinking system, and it provides answers quickly and with little effort.”

• This quote shows the fact the people tend to rely on their memory rather than actually having to think simply because it takes less work. People avoid thinking when they can and just use their memory instead. Most people can relate problems to things they have already solved , so they just do whatever has worked in the past so that they don’t have to think of something new.

“Working on problems that are of the right level of difficulty is rewarding, but working on problems that are too easy or too difficult is unpleasant.”

• This is important because it emphasizes the fact that even though people don’t seek out the opportunity to think always, they still want to be challenged to an extent. Successfully completing a challenge will feel rewarding, but if its too challenging then people will feel discouraged and want to give up. This is similar when things are too easy. People will feel that they don’t need to do the task because it is too easy or simply because they will get bored from it.

“It’s naive to pretend that all students come to your classroom equally prepared to excel; they have had different preparations, as well as different levels of support at home, and they will therefore differ in their abilities, as well as their perception of themselves as students.”

• Teachers need to recognize that not all students come from the same background or have the same motivation to learn. Its important to adapt to each student and encourage them each to think in a way that will benefit their own learning.

Chapter 9

In general, I think that technology could be beneficial in the classroom. It provides students with resources that can meaningfully help them with projects and other classroom activities.

I believe that technology is a tool to utilize rather than a crutch that students rely on. Students can use it to generate ideas, research topics and fact check. It is a great tool when coming up with ideas for a new project or finding research for a paper. As technology is becoming a growing tool in and out of the classroom, students should become more familiar with it and know how to use it in ways that will help and support their learning.

Technology can also have negative consequences in the classroom. Students are likely to take advantage of this technology because it seems like the easy way out. They use it to do all the work for them rather than to use it as an assistant. Its easy to simply copy and paste something that the internet spits out, but nothing is actually being learned by doing that. The misuse of technology can end up significantly hurting students in the long run.

Chapter 8

This chapter talked a lot about natural intelligence and gained intelligence and how intelligence is malleable, meaning it can be changed or improved. It also talked about growth mindset.

We understand that the students playing our game are at different levels in the content they are learning and their understanding of the content. This is why we have created cards at varying difficulties. Some of our cards include easier problems that they should all be able to solve on their own, based on the information that our collaborating teachers provided us. Following that, we have cards that are at a higher difficulty that students may find more challenging. Another twist that we added to assist students that may be on different levels are group cards. These cards have problems that should be challenging for students to solve, though they get to work with and collaborate with other players to solve the problem. This will allow students at higher levels to assist lower level students through the problem. In addition to our card difficulties, we will also provide example problems and an answer for all students to reference. All of these factors will ensure that the game is challenging for students, yet rewarding through problem solving and collaboration.

Chapter 7

With our group being the math group, we understand that not every student enjoys math or is good at math. This is why we are trying to shape our project around students of different levels. We are making different levels of problems to solve based on what they have already learned and what they know. We are also giving example problems in our game handbook that students can reference if they get stuck. This will all help students on that are on different levels of their math journey to manage or game and the problems we are giving them. We are aiming for our game to be challenging, yet not too difficult to the point that the students are becoming discouraged and are no longer enjoying the game.

Chapter 5

This chapter talks about how important practice is to students learning. Students practice to gain competence and to improve. Our game incorporates lot of practice. Students will practice topics and skills that they should have learned a while ago and that they should be pretty strong in. This will help them recall content, such as their basic math facts and multiplication facts, that they already know and help them improve on those skills. In our game, students will also practice content that is a little newer to them or things that they have just learned this year. Practicing these skills in the game and relating them to real life examples will help the students to understand them more and get better and better at the skills.

Chapter 4

In this chapter, Willingham talks about how students understand abstract ideas.

One of the strategies he talks about in getting students to understand these ideas is by using concrete, familiar examples. Concrete examples help students relate the new content they are learning to things they already know. These concrete examples, though, need to be familiar. It is useless to provide concrete examples if they don’t relate to something the student is familiar with. In our game, we will use concrete, familiar examples to help students understand the math problems they will have to solve. The overall theme of the game is related to having a career, making money, building a business and overcoming difficulties. To do this, students will have to solve math problems to make money, make their business successful and overcome challenges. All of these things are something the students are relatively familiar with. They can relate these surface ideas to the math problems, which are from content that they have already learned.

Another strategy Willingham talked about was making problems with different surface content but have the same strategies to solve them. This helps students relate problems to each other and transfer knowledge. They will recognize that they have seen problems similar to the one given to them and realize they can use the same strategy to solve. This can be used in our game because we will give the students different challenges to overcome but the way they solve it might be similar to a previous problem they solved. The surface structure will help them remember their deeper knowledge and strategize how to problem solve.

Chapter 3

• “Memory is the residue of thought…To teach well, you should pay careful attention to what an assignment will actually make students think about (not what you hope they will think about), because that is what they will remember.” (p.58)
  • This can be applied to our game because we will have to think about what the students will gain from our game. There are definitely things that we want them to learn from this game, but there are also the things that they will think of on there own.
• “The human mind seems exquisitely tuned to understand and remember stories— so much so that psychologists sometimes refer to stories as ‘psychologically privileged,’ meaning that they are treated differently in memory than other types of material. I’m am going to suggest that organizing a lesson plan like a story is an effective way to help students comprehend and remember.” (p. 71)
  • This will be important for our game because our game is based off of real life. The students will be building their own buisness and relating the game to things they actually know, therefore they will be able to remember it better.
• “Discovery learning has much to recommend it, when it comes to memory. If students have a strong voice in deciding which problems they want to work on, they will likely be engaged in the problems they select, and will likely think deeply about the material, with attention benefits. An important downside, however, is that what students will think about is less predictable.” (p.87)
  • This one is also important because our game will have lots of choice to it. While some parts of the game will be chosen for them or selcted at random, many parts the students will actually get to chose themselves. This will make the game more engaging and fun for them.

Chapter 2

Here are the three quotes I found most important from Chapter 2.

• “The advantage [of chunking] is obvious: you can keep more stuff in working memory if it can be chunked. The trick, however, is that chunking works only when you have factual knowledge in long-term memory.”
  • I found this to be a big idea because it emphasizes the importance of chunking. It talks about how you need background knowledge, and it needs to be meaningful knowledge for it to be useful.
• “Not only does background knowledge make you a better reader, it also is necessary to be a good thinker…thinking critically and logically are not possible without background knowledge.”
  • Critical thinking is very important in learning, though one cannot think critically without background knowledge. This factual background knowledge is important in piecing things together and making them make sense.
• “That’s because when you have background knowledge, your mind connects the material that you are reading with what you already know about the topic, even if you’re not always aware it’s happening .”
  • This essentially says that the more you know, the more you can learn. With more knowledge, you can use that to connect to the new things that you are learning.

This is my personal teaching philosophy as of December 2025.

One of the most impactful skills an educator can have is the ability to build strong connections with their students. I believe that students learn best when they trust and know their teachers.

 When teachers actually take the time to get to know their students, it can make all the difference in their students and their motivation to learn. It shows the students that you care about them. Not just in the classroom, but also in their personal lives. Some students may be shy or reserved, causing people to think that they don’t want to talk to anyone, but I’ve learned that it’s good to ask students questions. This gives them the opportunity to share what they want. Asking them simple questions such as “do you have any siblings?” or “how is your day going” opens up a window for students to share as much or as little as they feel comfortable sharing. No matter how much they give you, you are still showing them that you care and want to listen to what they have to say. The more you engage with your students, the more comfortable they will be in your classroom. 

Students pay attention to things more than some may realize. They notice when teachers genuinely care to know about what’s going on in their lives. Once they see that you care, they will start to trust you more and hopefully open up more in your classroom. And as soon as they do that, they will be more willing to learn and engage in the class. 

Overall, I believe that the more students trust you as a teacher and the stronger connections they have with you, the better they will learn.