Geometer's Sketchpad Video

Why use Geometer's Sketchpad in the classroom? -- video

Above is a link I found that shows a video based around Geometer's Sketchpad and why it is useful for learning in the classroom. I enjoy this program and believe it could be put to very good use. The video reviews how it can be useful for shapes, but there are also many other tools it has for students to explore mathematics. Hope you enjoy the video.

Small World Situation

One of my cooperating teachers is Mr. Bob Swan at Escondido High School. We got to talking and figured out that his son and I were in the same K1 class at Rock Springs Elementary School in Escondido, CA. I am always amazed by small world situations that happen in life. I am so glad I ended up where I am today. So, I wanted to share the picture with all of you. I am the cute girl in the pink and blue outfit second row, middle and his son, Matt Swan, is the blonde boy in the top row, middle of the row.

The Need for Collaboration

Sitting here, quiet, in my classroom during this week of CST testing has got me thinking about how collaborating and talking with others should be an essential part of student learning. I sit here and try to think of ideas and work on lesson plans for my up coming units and I get some things accomplished, but I am seldom satisfied with the work I complete. I am not yet positively certain that what I have thought of is the best idea for my classroom.

During my prep periods, today and other days of this week, I do have the opportunity to talk with my cooperating teachers about my upcoming units. During this time, I feel as though I able to accomplish so much more than if I were to just think to myself about the unit plans. I have the opportunity to ask questions, bounce ideas of them, explain to them my thoughts, and hear their thoughts about my suggestions and the unit.

The time I spend collaborating and talking with my teacher, to me, is obviously 10 times more productive to what I am trying to accomplish. I learn much more from talking to them than spending time alone myself. I may have made this point before, but I also are beginning to believe that it is of great importance in the world of learning.

In comparison to what I am doing and what my students are doing in the classroom I teach in, it may be more similar than different. Currently, I am learning. I am learning how to become an effective teacher and about all of the information that goes along with it. My students are also learning. They are learning how to be an effective mathematician and student. The connection to be made is an obvious one. It is extremely beneficial to me, personally, to be able to talk to others about the information I am learning, therefore when students are learning it could also be very beneficial for them to be able to discuss and collaborate with others.

This was just a thought running through my mind as I sit here, hoping my students do well on their CSTs!

CMC - South Conference November 2011

Although it is a long time coming, I feel this is a good time for me to reflect on my very first professional conference! This conference was the California Mathematics Conference, South, in November of last year in Palm Springs. I am not sure what I was exactly expecting from the conference, but I know that it was very valuable for me to attend as a professional math educator. The highlight of the conference was the mass amount of  information (as well as the free stuff like worksheets, whiteboards, and other resources for the classroom). The best part of it all was that it was all information that I could go back and directly use in my classroom. I took many, many notes on all of the sessions I attended and I am just now reviewing them.

Two of the sessions stood out to me the most, and no surprise, it was Dan Meyer’s and Jo Boaler’s presentations.

Dan Meyer’s presentation was titled Why Students Hate Word Problems. He has presented this speech at multiple conferences, which many of you have seen. I believe this may also be on the website TED.com.  He discuss that there are three “acts” to a word problem. His act one is to have a hook to the word problem  to “hook” the students in on the question. This may include visuals, like a short video clip. Act two is about what tools, resources, needed to figure out from act one. His point was about students asking the questions about what resources or information they would need to be able to solve the question. Act three is the final scene. In an example he used about graduation. Something along the lines of: two students names being read every minute, how long would it be until all the names are read? The final scene would be showing a fast forward clip of the amount of time the graduation took. There were many other examples Dan Meyer showed in his presentation, and I am sure most of them could be found on his blog. Some tips or other information he said in his presentation: create a curious sequel that broadens students knowledge and practice, try to provoke a deep burning question in creating these problems, and don’t always look to the text book for good word problems, they are too confusing and do not make sense in a real world situation. Read more about on Dan Meyer’s blog page.

From Jo Boaler’s session called Engaging Disaffected Students in Algebra, there was again too much information to share all of it with you. So, I will share her key points once again. She brought up four teaching principles: 1. Engage students as active and capable learners, 2. Teach reasoning (CCSS Math Practices), 3. Develop collaborative, mathematical community, 4. Opportunity for student voice. She then went on to explain techniques on how we can accomplish this in the classroom. Some of her tips were to same things like “Can you walk me through your thinking?”, or “What I hear you say”. Other information I got from her session was the metaphor of teaching in color as opposed to teaching in black and white. Especially with math, I agreed that it is more about the wide spectrum of understanding and thinking of the students rather than a shear right or wrong way to think about it or answer.

Overall, I would highly recommend a professional conference if you have not been to one! It is great for many things, no matter your content area! 

Too Much To Learn: CP II Reflection Week 3

Another week down, another week closer to my credential, another week of great learning opportunities. There is so much to be involved in and to learn.

This week more than ever before, I feel as though I am getting more of a glimpse to the entire job of a teacher. Teaching is more than just in the classroom. There are meetings upon meetings, professional development opportunities, and always politics.

I am also enjoying talking with one of my cooperating teachers and co-planning the lessons. With his experience and my fresh out of the credential program ideas, it is the best combination for creating student-centered, fun to teach lessons! I can see our students enjoying math (well, as much as they can enjoy math) and learning at the same time.

Another great learning point I’ve learned from this recent week has been that reflecting on lessons are great when you have someone else to talk about them with you. For example, this past Friday we planned a lesson, implemented it, and then reflected on what I could do better or notes to keep in mind for next time. Reflecting and discussing the lesson with my cooperating teacher, teacher to teacher, was very eye-opening. Just as PLC meetings and collaborating with others is a way to see someone else’s point of view about the planning of instruction, reflecting with another person after the lesson is also very beneficial. As I write this, I now think about how I will not have this opportunity when I get my own classroom. It will be just me and me only with the students and no one else to help me reflect on my lesson. It’s really too bad the reflecting with another knowledgeable teacher will just last until the end of this semester.

As you can see, there is so very much going on, as I’m sure it is with all of you teacher candidates out there! I am not sure how I keep it all straight. There is too much to think about and too much to learn. End of story.

If Students Learn More By Doing...

This is a chart my cooperating teacher, Mr. Bob Swan, gave me. I thought all of you teachers out there might enjoy. (Click to enlarge, Sorry if it's a little blurry!)

My First Experience with #EdChat

On twitter, I was able to participate in my first educational chat, also known as #edchat, on February the 21st. I am not completely sure what the topic was exactly. Just as most people have discussed about their first outing on #edchat, it is extremely hard to keep up with the conversation. I was using Tweet Deck and it was somewhat easy on there to stop the chat at a certain point and see a tweet that I was interested in. But then, it was more difficult to catch back up with the conversation. I found one or two tweets that I was able to respond to, or retweet. It was not only very difficult to catch the topic of the entire edchat, but it was also hard to keep up with the many conversations that many people were having. There were too many different conversations with many different people in too little time! These are some of the tweets I managed to involve myself in:

@jonbergmann I agree, I feel teachers do not know why tech is the tool of the future for Ss and that is why we aren't seeing change #edchat


RT @davidwees I agree! I would like to specialize in a couple tools rather than know a little about a lot of tech tools #edchat

RT @tomwhitby: The use of Tech in education is no longer a teacher's choice. The choice of applications is. #edchat

Returning to the Ranch

       Being on spring break, I had the opportunity to return to my Clinical Practice I site, Rancho Buena Vista High School, in Vista, CA. I was very excited to go back and see my students and cooperating teacher considering I have not had the chance all semester. I was expecting the usual "Hello" and "Hey, how are you?" 's but nothing more. As I sat in the classroom waiting for my second period students to come to class, I was anxious of their reactions. Surprisingly, most all students were strolling in as usual and then all of a sudden would have the reaction similar to that of a "OO, Ms. Knudsen! Hi! Are you back to teach us?!", all with smiles on their faces. Most surprising, were the students who were very quiet and showed little emotion in the class when I was teaching. Those students would have the same enthusiastic reaction. Fourth period's class had the same reactions, although, also had to ask me how I was doing, what I was up to, do I like my new students better than them, and so forth. I am very happy about the opportunity I had to meet the kids I met and were able to teach last semester in Clinical Practice I. Although I may never get the chance to see them grow into adults, I will always remember them and wish them the very best.

       As I was sitting in the classroom watching my old cooperating teacher teach, just as he did last semester, I felt filled with joy. The students reactions alone were amazing. It is very difficult to explain the feeling I had in that moment. Although I can say, It truly is the greatest feeling when you have made just a small, positive impact on your students' lives. I am very fortunate and proud to be a teacher!

     

Linear Systems & Word Problems Lesson

Last week, my cooperating teacher and I created a lesson for our students about system of linear equations. The lesson was actually one that I video taped for the TPA, and I very much enjoyed going back and watching in order to reflect over the lesson. After watching, I feel as though I should video tape all of my lessons in order to fully reflect! There are things I saw in the video that I didn’t quite remember when just thinking about the lesson.

Here is an overview of the lesson:

- Class: Algebra II A, majority of students are in the 11^th and 12^th grade.

- Content Standard: ALG2 2.0 Students solve systems of linear equations and inequalities (in two or three variables) by substitution, with graphs, or with matrices.

- Language Standard: Listening & Speaking: Participate in Social Conversations

- Learning Goals: Cognitive: After students are exposed to multiple examples of systems of linear equations, Students will be able to (SWBAT) evaluate a word problem involving a system of linear equations as demonstrated by a group poster. (ALG2 2.0) Psychomotor: After students fill out a graphic organizer, SWBAT write three problems incorporating systems of linear equations as demonstrated by a final group poster on one of the problems. (ALG2 2.0) Language Development: After students practice with solving a system of linear equations, SWBAT discuss different methods of how to solve a system of linear equations with peers as demonstrated by a group activity in which students solve word problems using different methods. (ELD, Listening & Speaking, Cluster 5)

- Agenda:

1. Direct Instruction. I review three problems using the three different methods on solving a system of linear equations (graphing, substitution, elimination). Students fill out graphic organizer.

2. Students get into groups to create three word problems and solve them

3. Groups choose one of the problems they created to write on a poster and follow a rubric given to them to complete the poster

4. A student from each group presents their group’s poster to the class

- Assessments: Throughout the period, I monitor student learning and progress on tasks. I also score the posters based upon a simple rubric. The following class period, students took a quiz on the questions students created as a formal assessment on what they have learned.

- Resources for lesson: See the following Google document for more lesson details: Lesson Plan Resources

I was very pleased with what my students had accomplished and learned in this class period. It was my cooperating teacher’s and I goal for the students to understand how to solve a system of linear equations through real life situations, rather than to simply only learn about the computations. In reflection of the structure of the lesson, we originally planned to trade problems and have other groups solve the problems and make a poster of what another groups problem. However, this was a much too time consuming task for students to accomplish within one block period. Also, watching the video, I only lectured for no longer than 20 minutes. I found myself not stopping to allow students to soak in the information I was presenting to them. Although they had already seen all of the information once, I should have stopped to have students reflect and ask questions to each other during the time of direct instruction. I saw the need for even during a 5 minute lecture it is important for all of the students to be involved in such a way that lets them interact with others while critically thinking about the information they are processing.

Also, considering this was the first time students were formally working on a task in groups, my cooperating teacher and I quickly discovered the need for cooperative learning groups! Students need to have many chances to learn how to work in cooperative learning groups and to interact with others.

Reflecting on the assessments, I was impressed with the work my students showed on the short quiz. As a whole, students were able to understand the word problem given to them and be able to set up how to solve the problem. Students seemed to need more individual basic practice solving systems of linear equations, an opportunity we were not able to give the students before or within this lesson. Of course there were many other little features about the lesson I have noted about for future lessons with my students and also if I were to do this lesson again.

We were very impressed and happy about this lesson! We are very anxious to create more lessons involving cooperative learning groups and student-centered learning. We would also be glad to have more feedback or comments on this lesson.

EDSS 531: The Reflective Practitioner

This semester’s course work has gone way too quickly. Although at a glimpse I may feel I have learned very little from what we have accomplished this semester in coursework alone, I am glad I have this opportunity to thoroughly reflect on what has come of this semester. This semester was very different than last semester. Last semester there was a very steep learning curve in figuring out the basics and what teaching was all about. This semester seemed to have a greater emphasis on technology. Specifically through EDSS 531, the most important take away I feel I have learned is about being reflective.

Through the activities, readings, and discussions in this semester, no matter the topic, there was always a portion that asked us to reflect. The assignments were to reflect on our biases, upon an aspect of our educational philosophy, or on which teaching model we would align with our philosophy. I feel I have learned more about how and why it is important to reflect rather than the specific information I have reflected upon. Learning how to reflect has been a struggle for me. The process has taken great amounts of time to just begin to be a good reflective practitioner.

In relation to specific assignments, the beginning of this course asked us to reflect upon ourselves and other such things like our biases or how we meet student’s needs. This gave me a chance to learn about the importance of knowing who I am and how it affects me as an educator. Then we were able to write about our educational philosophy. The assignment gave me the opportunity to think about my beliefs as an educator. From there, I was able to compare and think about my beliefs about who I am now, my philosophy about teaching, and how I can work to become into the practitioner that fosters that philosophy throughout my teaching. Lastly, we then experienced different teaching models in class. I then reflected on how what I have recently learned, teaching models, can be applied and used within my philosophy.

In conclusion, I do feel I have learned about what to reflect on and how to reflect in different situations concerning different topics. I have learned that reflection is one of the most important aspects of teaching. Before this semester, I was only thinking about how to teach and what others expected of me to be able to do in the classroom. I was looking at others opinions and philosophies rather than my own. Therefore, instead of comparing with other professionals or teachers, I have learned to reflect upon myself. I am trying to make myself better in every aspect in order to meet my goals. I am truly hoping to continue this reflective aspect into my teaching as a permanent tool to continually help me become the best teacher I can be.

CP II Week 2: Why be Reflective?

After reading this week's post from our CSUSM EDSS 530 blog (blog link found to the left), I thought about how I am being reflective and the benefits from becoming this reflective practitioner. In thinking about the last two weeks on Clinical Practice II this is what I concluded:

As I reflect on the last two weeks for CP II, I think about how slow they have actually seemed to have gone and how much further I still have to go before I am able to have my very own classroom. Although we normally associate slow moving with boring, this was not the case. My first two weeks of CP II have been very eventful, interesting, and filled with learning (student and teacher learning that is!).

Reflecting on my actual teaching and my experience with my classes and cooperating teachers, I have had a very interesting experience. First of all, I want to say I am very much enjoying this semester. My two cooperating teachers and my three different classes could not have been more different. This being said it is amazing how they are so different. The differences fall into all categories including teaching strategies, characteristics of whole classes, homework implementation, personalities, individual students, technological opinions, and the list goes on. I have seen this as a great benefit to me as a teacher, a profession, and as a person. There is so much to learn from all of my experiences and I have greatly enjoyed trying to find myself and where I fit within these opinions.

Within these past two weeks I feel I have been the most reflective upon my own teaching, what is best for students learning, what is best for my students, my personal views about what is best, and so forth. Although there is so much to learn, there is also so much to keep straight and think about just in the past two weeks. After reading this weeks post on our CSUSM EDSS 530 blog, more than ever before I have found more purpose for scheduling a time and having a place to reflect upon my educational experiences. I hope to stop by my blog and reflect more often throughout these next 8 or so weeks in order to do this. I hope I am able to find professional myself and where I fit within this world of education, and hopefully you are able to follow me along this journey as well. Thanks for reading and stay tuned to further blog posts about me and my adventures in CP II.