To be a great teacher that keeps up with the changing times in education you must always be looking to better your self through professional development. As a rookie teacher I plan to use at least two resources to better my teaching and thinking. I work in a high school setting and meet once a week with the whole Algebra team. These meeting are great to find out how other teachers are assessing their students, teaching the material, and resources they are using to meet the students needs. For the last 2 years I have been studying education but feel my real growth has been in my student teaching placement because I am able to work very closely with so many teachers. Through out my career I will meet with my fellow teachers formally and informally to discuss the material, students, and teaching styles so that I can better myself.
The other resource I will use will be blogs and TED talks like http://wildaboutmath.com/. This blog shows great ways to relate math to real world life and make it come alive with technology. Being able to see where math is going and how other teachers teach it is a great way to learn and implement these strategies in my classroom.
Saturday, April 14, 2012
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Curriculum Materials and Resources
In the math department I work in we use CPM (College Predatory Mathematics). We use the book and relate the standards to each chapter. As a department we felt that the book does a great job of spiraling the material and relating the standards to the curriculum was the best way to implement standard based testing. In my math program we have a hand full of resources. We have math tiles, multiple class sets of graphing calculators, and access to ipads. All these tools are used on a daily bases to implement the material and concepts from the book.
My math department does not use the district or its resources to teach or implement math concepts in the classroom.
As a math department we take time to walk students through the CPM website at the beginning of the year. The purpose of this is to show students that their is other forms of information that can help them practice the material they are learning in class. The book website also has a large amount of supplemental information that our department adds in to help students understand the material. There are a few other virtual materials my math department uses and that is teacher blogs. On these blogs the teachers lay out the material covered in class and class projects.
My math department does not use the district or its resources to teach or implement math concepts in the classroom.
As a math department we take time to walk students through the CPM website at the beginning of the year. The purpose of this is to show students that their is other forms of information that can help them practice the material they are learning in class. The book website also has a large amount of supplemental information that our department adds in to help students understand the material. There are a few other virtual materials my math department uses and that is teacher blogs. On these blogs the teachers lay out the material covered in class and class projects.
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Video of Closure component
In this lesson the class was working on noticing quadratics that could be factored multiple times. For my closure I tried to relate factoring to laundry. You have to sort the dark's and the lights before you separate into load sizes. The point I was trying to get across was to notice that sometimes you have to sort or factor a few times to get it to the smallest product. It could be as clear as mud, but it seemed like a few kids that were lost got a hold of the concept.
Strengths- I think the volume of my voice, relationships with my students, and trying to relate the concept to a real life scenario are my strengths in this closure. The volume of your voice can be a great tool when your trying to get students attention. I also believe when I related this concept to real life you could see the students start to get excited and wake up. I know they may not all have been talking about math but they were discussing laundry and all I can hope is that the concept of factoring more than once stuck in their head or at least next time we talk about it they can relate it to the laundry.
Evidence of learning- Being in the class when I taught the lesson I could see that students were getting it because they were excited to explain to me why one problem worked and another didn't. From watching the video I can see the excitement in the students rise when I related it to something they knew. You can see students writing down the information and talking about it which builds their understanding of the concepts.
Engagement- I think a few times in the video I had 100% engagement. It didn't last long but I tried my best to prompt those students back on task. I would have to say it was the best I have see all year.
Varied abilities- I knew that if I just talked about laundry I would lose about 1/3 of my class. That's why I decided to draw the horrible pictures on the board to give a visual representation of what I was talking about. I know some of my students learn better with a visual prompt.
Supporting learning- After I related the concept to the laundry I walked around the class to help any students who were still not understanding the material.
Challenge- I may not have done a great job of describing how the two ideas really connected. In my mind it made perfect sense. I just don't know if I was able to portray that clearly. I also had thought about that all kids have not done their own laundry, but I felt safe with the idea that they have seen laundry done. Another challenge was keeping the kids on task when they wanted to talk solely about the different laundry styles. But overall very small challenges.
Revise- The only thing I would do differently would be to take a deep breath and make sure I was connecting the two concepts correctly. I got really excited and I think I rambled a little. More practice would be another revision.
Algebra Closure from Anna Haley on Vimeo.
Strengths- I think the volume of my voice, relationships with my students, and trying to relate the concept to a real life scenario are my strengths in this closure. The volume of your voice can be a great tool when your trying to get students attention. I also believe when I related this concept to real life you could see the students start to get excited and wake up. I know they may not all have been talking about math but they were discussing laundry and all I can hope is that the concept of factoring more than once stuck in their head or at least next time we talk about it they can relate it to the laundry.
Evidence of learning- Being in the class when I taught the lesson I could see that students were getting it because they were excited to explain to me why one problem worked and another didn't. From watching the video I can see the excitement in the students rise when I related it to something they knew. You can see students writing down the information and talking about it which builds their understanding of the concepts.
Engagement- I think a few times in the video I had 100% engagement. It didn't last long but I tried my best to prompt those students back on task. I would have to say it was the best I have see all year.
Varied abilities- I knew that if I just talked about laundry I would lose about 1/3 of my class. That's why I decided to draw the horrible pictures on the board to give a visual representation of what I was talking about. I know some of my students learn better with a visual prompt.
Supporting learning- After I related the concept to the laundry I walked around the class to help any students who were still not understanding the material.
Challenge- I may not have done a great job of describing how the two ideas really connected. In my mind it made perfect sense. I just don't know if I was able to portray that clearly. I also had thought about that all kids have not done their own laundry, but I felt safe with the idea that they have seen laundry done. Another challenge was keeping the kids on task when they wanted to talk solely about the different laundry styles. But overall very small challenges.
Revise- The only thing I would do differently would be to take a deep breath and make sure I was connecting the two concepts correctly. I got really excited and I think I rambled a little. More practice would be another revision.
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Routine- Intro. to new topic
I am introducing how to find the equation of a line when given a line parallel and a point, a line perpendicular and a point, or two points on a line.
Have to love Video taping with an ipad. By the way vemoe is terrible when transporting data from an ipad to the site. It is also terrible form large videos.
A few strengths that I saw after watching my video was that I gave students plenty of time to work on the assignment. I also had the students teach the information and then I took the time to re-enforce their teaching. I also picked students to work on the problems that I thought would not know how to answer it so as a class we could work through their mistakes. All three students did a great job.
As I walked around I noticed students working on the problems. They ones I saw that were stuck I stopped and helped. I was able to get to all the students in class today.
I felt that all the students were engaged to start the lesson. As the lesson dragged on I started to lose the kids who got stuck and the ones who finished early. Somethings to work on for next time.
During this lesson I tried to make a connection with each student to see where they were in the assignment. I also gave the students who needed the extra time to finish the assignment the time they needed. This caused some of the problems I saw with students not engaged.
I tried to support learning by having students work through the problems on the board. I also had them explain it so they could get used to understanding the process and how they saw it. By having the students explain the process of the problems allows other students to hear it from a different style of instruction.
My biggest challenge was giving students all that time to work on the assignment when I knew there were students who would be done early and other students who would not know what to do and start losing interest in the assignment. I need to find a happy medium where the students who get it and the students who need more time to work get it.
Next time I give this lesson I will take the time to assign more problems and then slowly work through them on the board. This will give me advanced students more problems to practice and harder more advanced thinking problems along with giving the slower working students the time to finish the basic questions from the assignment.
Have to love Video taping with an ipad. By the way vemoe is terrible when transporting data from an ipad to the site. It is also terrible form large videos.
Untitled from Brandon Bennett on Vimeo.
Untitled from Anna Haley on Vimeo.
A few strengths that I saw after watching my video was that I gave students plenty of time to work on the assignment. I also had the students teach the information and then I took the time to re-enforce their teaching. I also picked students to work on the problems that I thought would not know how to answer it so as a class we could work through their mistakes. All three students did a great job.
As I walked around I noticed students working on the problems. They ones I saw that were stuck I stopped and helped. I was able to get to all the students in class today.
I felt that all the students were engaged to start the lesson. As the lesson dragged on I started to lose the kids who got stuck and the ones who finished early. Somethings to work on for next time.
During this lesson I tried to make a connection with each student to see where they were in the assignment. I also gave the students who needed the extra time to finish the assignment the time they needed. This caused some of the problems I saw with students not engaged.
I tried to support learning by having students work through the problems on the board. I also had them explain it so they could get used to understanding the process and how they saw it. By having the students explain the process of the problems allows other students to hear it from a different style of instruction.
My biggest challenge was giving students all that time to work on the assignment when I knew there were students who would be done early and other students who would not know what to do and start losing interest in the assignment. I need to find a happy medium where the students who get it and the students who need more time to work get it.
Next time I give this lesson I will take the time to assign more problems and then slowly work through them on the board. This will give me advanced students more problems to practice and harder more advanced thinking problems along with giving the slower working students the time to finish the basic questions from the assignment.
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Video of teacher Warm-ups
Teaching Video
In this video I am explaining a problem from the homework that my students had trouble with. I try to answer questions about homework problems proceeding the warm-up everyday. This allows my students who did the homework to check their answers and the ones who didn't still have a chance to see how its done.
After watching the video I was able to see that I did a good job walking around the classroom. What I was looking for was students who had the information down on their papers. Making sure students are take notes is essential to learning. I noticed that the next day when we talked about the concept of change in x and y my students seemed to answer the questions I was asking. I made sure to ask the same question multiple ways and call on different students to see were the learning had occurred. Looking at the film I noticed that I had a group of students not engaged in the lesson. The next day I took the time to ask them if they had seen this material before and they said they did. This allowed me to structure my teaching and questioning for future lessons. One of the challenges I observed was that I was not clear on all my questions. I also feel by stating my questions in complete sentences I could possibly get more participation. I also feel by calling on students would take away from the same students calling out the answers aloud. I learned that my students were able to make jumps from one idea to the next if they are given a base of information. I feel by asking shorter questions I would be able to get more students involved and be able to assess their understanding better.
In this video I am explaining a problem from the homework that my students had trouble with. I try to answer questions about homework problems proceeding the warm-up everyday. This allows my students who did the homework to check their answers and the ones who didn't still have a chance to see how its done.
Untitled from Michael Gaudern on Vimeo.
After watching the video I was able to see that I did a good job walking around the classroom. What I was looking for was students who had the information down on their papers. Making sure students are take notes is essential to learning. I noticed that the next day when we talked about the concept of change in x and y my students seemed to answer the questions I was asking. I made sure to ask the same question multiple ways and call on different students to see were the learning had occurred. Looking at the film I noticed that I had a group of students not engaged in the lesson. The next day I took the time to ask them if they had seen this material before and they said they did. This allowed me to structure my teaching and questioning for future lessons. One of the challenges I observed was that I was not clear on all my questions. I also feel by stating my questions in complete sentences I could possibly get more participation. I also feel by calling on students would take away from the same students calling out the answers aloud. I learned that my students were able to make jumps from one idea to the next if they are given a base of information. I feel by asking shorter questions I would be able to get more students involved and be able to assess their understanding better.
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Pre-Test Alg. 1
Take this TEST.
Summary Responses
This tool is an easy and fast way to get students data on a test. After reviewing the data from this class (math methods) I would make sure to de-emphasize the equation of a line and its parts (slope and y-intercept). Every student on this test was able to identify each of these parts. I would make sure to hit the concepts of finding the y-intercept mathematically, finding slope from 2 points, and how the slope of a line compares to perpendicular slopes. Knowing this information would allow me to structure my lessons and main points of instruction. By doing this you will be able to cut down on students disengaging from the lessons because they already know the material. I plan to use this tool in the future for its accessibility to raw data.
Summary Responses
This tool is an easy and fast way to get students data on a test. After reviewing the data from this class (math methods) I would make sure to de-emphasize the equation of a line and its parts (slope and y-intercept). Every student on this test was able to identify each of these parts. I would make sure to hit the concepts of finding the y-intercept mathematically, finding slope from 2 points, and how the slope of a line compares to perpendicular slopes. Knowing this information would allow me to structure my lessons and main points of instruction. By doing this you will be able to cut down on students disengaging from the lessons because they already know the material. I plan to use this tool in the future for its accessibility to raw data.
Saturday, November 5, 2011
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