The growth that the students in my integrated math class showed throughout the year was immense. They went from not showing much concern over mastering skills or concepts to showing commitment to and even some enthusiasm for learning math. Seeing the change in their confidence as mathematicians made me realize the importance of balancing computational skills with conceptual understanding and real-world scenarios. 

Through experimenting with different lessons and projects, I also realized that my students felt most confident when they mastered the computational skills first and then explored the conceptual and real-world side of the content second. Going into this year, I wanted to teach my students math in the opposite order. From watching my students grow over the year, I learned that I needed to reconcile their actual needs with my preconceived notions of their needs in order to facilitate any sort of real learning. In addition, I came to understand that I didn’t have to give up the idea of discovery-based, real-world learning; I just needed to be more intentional about how I implemented and structured those activities so that my students had the confidence to engage with them.