This week was my first week of student teaching, and hence I have more hours of classroom time than I had in the past semester, and in two more weeks it will be more than I had in the past year and a half. I don't know, I just feel unprepared for actually teaching. How do I pace a unit? How do I assign homework from a textbook? How do I actually see all of my students working when I'm writing on an overhead and the light in my eyes makes it hard to see anybody?
I'm glad I have my cooperating teachers to help me along the way, but I still feel like these things should have been emphasized in my program (not the overhead thing, but the others). How do you actually have time to cover material when periods are only 50 minutes long and students take about 5 to settle down? Classroom management was something we talked about a lot in our classes, but it doesn't help to "practice" them on ourselves since everyone in our program knows how we should act, we need to be in a classroom. I want to be a successful teacher, and I know I will be always learning about how to handle my class.
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Sunday, December 18, 2011
After School Math Club
In November I worked with the president of Matrix (a mathematics club at the University of Illinois) to create and run an after school math club at a local elementary school, Dr. Howard Elementary. This semester of meetings have come to a close and I want to reflect on what I have learned, and what I hope the club will be able to do in the future.
At the beginning of the club I had trouble determining what level of activities I should be doing with the students, since I am being trained in secondary mathematics and this is an elementary school (3rd-5th graders were the members we had). It seemed like the elementary students understood mathematical topics easier and also plainly knew more than what I thought they should at their age (and from my previous experience working with 6th-10th graders). We played a positive and negative number game that worked with adding and subtracting combinations of positive and negative numbers since the students that I worked with at the higher grades struggled with algorithm. The elementary students were very comfortable adding and subtracting the integers accurately.
I learned a lot about classroom management as well, but in the sense of controlling a class of elementary students who want to run around versus the class of high school students who do not want to learn math that will be in my future. I really learned how to lead a club versus leading a classroom, I didn't want to make the students have this time feel like another class.
We did many other projects, which are detailed here. I learned about a project that I wish I was able to do with my after school club called the Reel Math project. It is a project where the students take a problem and make it creative and make a video about it. This would be a great thing for after school, and there are various levels of problems. The student videos also get judged later for a prize.
Has anyone run an after school math club before? What activities did you do? I want to build my arsenal for middle school and high school clubs.
At the beginning of the club I had trouble determining what level of activities I should be doing with the students, since I am being trained in secondary mathematics and this is an elementary school (3rd-5th graders were the members we had). It seemed like the elementary students understood mathematical topics easier and also plainly knew more than what I thought they should at their age (and from my previous experience working with 6th-10th graders). We played a positive and negative number game that worked with adding and subtracting combinations of positive and negative numbers since the students that I worked with at the higher grades struggled with algorithm. The elementary students were very comfortable adding and subtracting the integers accurately.
I learned a lot about classroom management as well, but in the sense of controlling a class of elementary students who want to run around versus the class of high school students who do not want to learn math that will be in my future. I really learned how to lead a club versus leading a classroom, I didn't want to make the students have this time feel like another class.
We did many other projects, which are detailed here. I learned about a project that I wish I was able to do with my after school club called the Reel Math project. It is a project where the students take a problem and make it creative and make a video about it. This would be a great thing for after school, and there are various levels of problems. The student videos also get judged later for a prize.
Has anyone run an after school math club before? What activities did you do? I want to build my arsenal for middle school and high school clubs.
Monday, November 14, 2011
Teacher Certification Tests
This past weekend I participated in the Illinois Teacher Certification Testing at Parkland College in Champaign, IL. The tests themselves were fine (although by the time you get to question 100 you get the feeling that it should have been done 20 questions ago, and you still have 25 questions to go).
I'm very upset with the lack of testing transparency that was provided before taking the exams. This is in response to testing time as well as calculator use. I was told to bring my own graphing calculator for the mathematics test and check to see if it is on the approved calculator list, but there was no emphasis on the fact that the proctor will completely clear the memory on your calculator. It was lightly mentioned before the table of approved calculators. It wasn't in bold. Everything that I had on my calculator was lost, and I had to flash my RAM in order for my calculator to even connect with my computer again.
In regards to the morning session, it also wasn't specified that if you only registered for one test then you would have the full 5 hours to take the one test. If I knew that I would not have registered for two tests, in which I had to complete both within the 5 hours. Also, you're given both tests at the same time so you can work on either as you choose, but I feel that this shouldn't be the case. I took both the Mathematics and the Science: Physics tests where each had specific calculator requirements. The mathematics test required me to bring my own graphing calculator to use whereas the physics test required me to use a scientific calculator, a graphing calculator wasn't allowed. I was also specifically not allowed to use a scientific calculator on the mathematics test. This was contradictory because I was allowed to have my graphing calculator the whole time and work on both tests together. Not that you needed it for the physics test (surprisingly), but it still does not show that they planned well for people taking two tests during the morning session.
After testing for 9 hours, I am unhappy with the whole experience. I wouldn't do it again the way that it is set up. I am a proponent for transparency (e.g. "feed up" where you tell your students what is expected of them), and I feel that the practice tests did not reflect the content of the real exams.
Question: How do the teacher certification exams work in your state? If you're in Illinois, what do you plan on doing?
I'm very upset with the lack of testing transparency that was provided before taking the exams. This is in response to testing time as well as calculator use. I was told to bring my own graphing calculator for the mathematics test and check to see if it is on the approved calculator list, but there was no emphasis on the fact that the proctor will completely clear the memory on your calculator. It was lightly mentioned before the table of approved calculators. It wasn't in bold. Everything that I had on my calculator was lost, and I had to flash my RAM in order for my calculator to even connect with my computer again.
In regards to the morning session, it also wasn't specified that if you only registered for one test then you would have the full 5 hours to take the one test. If I knew that I would not have registered for two tests, in which I had to complete both within the 5 hours. Also, you're given both tests at the same time so you can work on either as you choose, but I feel that this shouldn't be the case. I took both the Mathematics and the Science: Physics tests where each had specific calculator requirements. The mathematics test required me to bring my own graphing calculator to use whereas the physics test required me to use a scientific calculator, a graphing calculator wasn't allowed. I was also specifically not allowed to use a scientific calculator on the mathematics test. This was contradictory because I was allowed to have my graphing calculator the whole time and work on both tests together. Not that you needed it for the physics test (surprisingly), but it still does not show that they planned well for people taking two tests during the morning session.
After testing for 9 hours, I am unhappy with the whole experience. I wouldn't do it again the way that it is set up. I am a proponent for transparency (e.g. "feed up" where you tell your students what is expected of them), and I feel that the practice tests did not reflect the content of the real exams.
Question: How do the teacher certification exams work in your state? If you're in Illinois, what do you plan on doing?
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
(The Lack of) Paperless Courses
I remember my freshman year here at the university. The first week of each semester I would be inundated with multiple packets of paper for each course I was enrolled in, these were the distribution of the class syllabi and projects for the semester. It was nice to have everything laid out in front of me so that I could integrate the information into my own calendar and plan accordingly.
My junior year the campus had shifted towards a greener idea with regards to distribution of paper. The syllabi for courses were no longer to be printed out, but instead made available on course websites. This was fine, I still had access to the syllabus whenever I wanted and I could still easily integrate due dates into my schedule. I felt better about taking a step to a greener campus.
I am now in my senior year and courses are still distributing syllabi by email or course website, but the thing that bugs me is homework submission. Shouldn't we take the next step to a greener campus? I am going to take a look at our education courses in specific for this discussion. All education courses that I have enrolled in and am currently enrolled in have a Moodle or Compass website to supplement the course and distribution of materials, which is great so that professors/TAs do not need to print and hand out during class. My gripe is that I need to print out my assignments (which can be in the range of 3-15 pages long) and turn in to my teachers.
What is the point of printing out our assignments if we have Moodle or Compass, both which support document submission. Our teachers need to embrace the technology they are trying to teach us to use in their own courses. They should be willing to allow us to upload our assignments to these sites and be able to use a commenting tool in a word processor or in a PDF viewer (because really, they only comment in margins anyway). This would be a great next step to a greener campus here in our own education department.
One of my C&I professors is already embracing assignment submission on Moodle. The first year of my secondary education program my professor had us print out our assignments to bring to class to talk about them as well as upload them to our Moodle page under an assignment post. It turned out that we didn't get around to talking about our assignments the majority of the time, so now we do not bring printed assignments to class anymore, but he encourages us to bring our laptops in order to see a digital version if we are to discuss it. My professor chooses to disseminate assignment grades via email and not through the Moodle grading system, but this is a step in the right direction. If my other education courses this semester supported Moodle/Compass uploading, I would have saved 35 pieces of paper + ink so far.
A question: How do you feel about becoming a paperless course? What would this mean in terms of planning and grading?
My junior year the campus had shifted towards a greener idea with regards to distribution of paper. The syllabi for courses were no longer to be printed out, but instead made available on course websites. This was fine, I still had access to the syllabus whenever I wanted and I could still easily integrate due dates into my schedule. I felt better about taking a step to a greener campus.
I am now in my senior year and courses are still distributing syllabi by email or course website, but the thing that bugs me is homework submission. Shouldn't we take the next step to a greener campus? I am going to take a look at our education courses in specific for this discussion. All education courses that I have enrolled in and am currently enrolled in have a Moodle or Compass website to supplement the course and distribution of materials, which is great so that professors/TAs do not need to print and hand out during class. My gripe is that I need to print out my assignments (which can be in the range of 3-15 pages long) and turn in to my teachers.
What is the point of printing out our assignments if we have Moodle or Compass, both which support document submission. Our teachers need to embrace the technology they are trying to teach us to use in their own courses. They should be willing to allow us to upload our assignments to these sites and be able to use a commenting tool in a word processor or in a PDF viewer (because really, they only comment in margins anyway). This would be a great next step to a greener campus here in our own education department.
One of my C&I professors is already embracing assignment submission on Moodle. The first year of my secondary education program my professor had us print out our assignments to bring to class to talk about them as well as upload them to our Moodle page under an assignment post. It turned out that we didn't get around to talking about our assignments the majority of the time, so now we do not bring printed assignments to class anymore, but he encourages us to bring our laptops in order to see a digital version if we are to discuss it. My professor chooses to disseminate assignment grades via email and not through the Moodle grading system, but this is a step in the right direction. If my other education courses this semester supported Moodle/Compass uploading, I would have saved 35 pieces of paper + ink so far.
A question: How do you feel about becoming a paperless course? What would this mean in terms of planning and grading?
Friday, October 14, 2011
Using Twitter in the Classroom
I see a lot of tweets in #edchat and #edtech about using twitter in the classroom and specific ways to use twitter, but how does this actually look like in a classroom? What programs are used to show these tweets? What do you specifically do with twitter that makes it a unique tool in the classroom?
I wanted to find the answers to these questions because I feel that twitter can be very useful in a class where students are very likely to have a cell phone (a regular cell phone can still support text-message based tweets to their twitter account).
I encourage you to watch the following video about twitter in a large classroom: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WPVWDkF7U8
Right now I will explore the following question:
What programs are used to show these tweets?
Tweetchat.com looks like a promising place to view chats in close to real time for displaying chats or participating in them at home (away from the classroom).
EduTweet is also pretty cool, it looks like it would serve like a clicker system in a classroom, the students post a tweet with a hashtag specific to the question (e.g. #math231q1) and the teacher can search this tag and EduTweet will generate a chart with all of the different answers provided by the students. I think this would be good in a math classroom for numerical answers, or even for a multiple choice prompt.
TweetDeck is used in the above video as the facilitator of the twitter discussion. I think this is nice because you can set up columns and show multiple discussions at once so the students can view these all at the same time whereas I think the others are limited in this sense. You could ask the class a question about one thing and then a second thing without removing the first question's feed so students can refer back to it if they want.
Do you have any other ideas of programs that can be used to facilitate the use of twitter in the classroom?
I wanted to find the answers to these questions because I feel that twitter can be very useful in a class where students are very likely to have a cell phone (a regular cell phone can still support text-message based tweets to their twitter account).
I encourage you to watch the following video about twitter in a large classroom: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WPVWDkF7U8
Right now I will explore the following question:
What programs are used to show these tweets?
Tweetchat.com looks like a promising place to view chats in close to real time for displaying chats or participating in them at home (away from the classroom).
EduTweet is also pretty cool, it looks like it would serve like a clicker system in a classroom, the students post a tweet with a hashtag specific to the question (e.g. #math231q1) and the teacher can search this tag and EduTweet will generate a chart with all of the different answers provided by the students. I think this would be good in a math classroom for numerical answers, or even for a multiple choice prompt.
TweetDeck is used in the above video as the facilitator of the twitter discussion. I think this is nice because you can set up columns and show multiple discussions at once so the students can view these all at the same time whereas I think the others are limited in this sense. You could ask the class a question about one thing and then a second thing without removing the first question's feed so students can refer back to it if they want.
Do you have any other ideas of programs that can be used to facilitate the use of twitter in the classroom?
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance
Throughout my calculus discussion twice a week, I definitely see the difference in my quality of questioning of the students whether or not I prepare the lesson well ahead of time or I go off a generic lesson plan for the day. I think my students learn more on these days when I prepare questions for my students as well as an introduction to the topic.
Upon reflection of my questioning with my students, I notice that I go very quickly, wanting my students to come to conclusions faster than they are (or rightly should), mainly because I am time limited and the class is set up into groups where I need to circulate and facilitate understanding. If I stay too long at one group, another group can get stuck and not progress through the day's investigation. I'm not sure what to do about this because the students are supposed to be getting through the entire worksheet each class period, but if I allow for more processing time the students may not get to the topics they must cover that day. I believe this is a common problem in all classrooms which must teach to a test, or follow strict guidelines.
I'm going to have an informal midterm ICES (Instructor & Course Evaluation System) form so that I can see what the students want changed before the end of the semester, when the formal ICES forms are distributed. I will be only teaching this course at the University for this semester since I will be student teaching next semester, so it is valuable that I do this ahead of time, too
What questions do you think I should include in this evaluation form?
Upon reflection of my questioning with my students, I notice that I go very quickly, wanting my students to come to conclusions faster than they are (or rightly should), mainly because I am time limited and the class is set up into groups where I need to circulate and facilitate understanding. If I stay too long at one group, another group can get stuck and not progress through the day's investigation. I'm not sure what to do about this because the students are supposed to be getting through the entire worksheet each class period, but if I allow for more processing time the students may not get to the topics they must cover that day. I believe this is a common problem in all classrooms which must teach to a test, or follow strict guidelines.
I'm going to have an informal midterm ICES (Instructor & Course Evaluation System) form so that I can see what the students want changed before the end of the semester, when the formal ICES forms are distributed. I will be only teaching this course at the University for this semester since I will be student teaching next semester, so it is valuable that I do this ahead of time, too
What questions do you think I should include in this evaluation form?
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
First Day of Observations
Today was the first day of being in my new classroom for the semester. It was very eventful day to say the least. Many challenges ahead.
I promise I will blog soon. I want to talk about differentiated assessment in conjunction with differentiated instruction. In the mean time, I want to point you in the direction of this blog post: http://realteachingmeansreallearning.blogspot.com/2011/09/differentiated-assessment.html
I promise I will blog soon. I want to talk about differentiated assessment in conjunction with differentiated instruction. In the mean time, I want to point you in the direction of this blog post: http://realteachingmeansreallearning.blogspot.com/2011/09/differentiated-assessment.html
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