Abstract
The events of September 11, 2001 provided the author with expanded ways to think about reflective journal writing in her graduate and undergraduate mathematics methods courses. Student journal entries are highlighted which illuminate the relationship among emotions and mathematics learning, the value of community in the learning environment, and the search for pattern and order outside of the mathematics classroom. These powerful reflections offer a view of mathematics learning that is intensely connected to the writers’ lives and provide a grounded linkage to the mathematics learning of the classroom.
Acknowledgements
I want to thank the students for the contributions they made to this article. Their deeply thoughtful reflections have given me new ways to consider teaching and learning mathematics. Without those contributions this article would not be.
Notes
1. All names in this article are pseudonyms.