A lot of the information in The Flat World was very interesting to me especially in Chapter 5 where it talked about New Jersey and Connecticut on how they evolved their educational system for the better. What was disappointing was my own home state of California. I remember growing up while our governator was in charge and how bad our education system went. But how can all of this change. One of the biggest messages I got was to listen. Listen to the students on what they want and what they need in terms of what they want for their futures. Adora Svitak said it perfectly, it should be a reciprocal learning among teachers and students. I should include this in my teaching practice as I work with my students. I should listen to them more or get to know them a little bit better to know what they want to learn and get out of my Math 1 class.
A lot of students in my class are motivated to pursue higher education after they graduate therefore I want to make sure that my class, even though it’s math 1, is preparing them for the future. But there’s obstacles. Not every student has access to a laptop while we are in class or when they are in their homes. Do they all have access to Wi-Fi? I don’t know. I wish I had more projects (big or small) that directly relate to my students where they can analyze data taken from our own community so they can apply Math 1 concepts to this data. That way they can see exactly what’s going on in our community and maybe even think on how they can better the community. To do this though what I need is more time with colleagues to discuss and plan projects that will help our student learning. I am sure that if we are all on the same page we can create amazing projects, homework/classwork assignments or assessments that can get our students ready for the future. Another thing that I can think of that I might need is not just technological devices but new and current software that students can use in the classroom. I mean, we live just a drive away from Silicon Valley and my students can’t even have a class set of devices that will allow them to explore the world of crunching live-time stats of Steph Curry’s three point shots during a game? How cool would that be if high school students can dive in to that world of sports data or any kind of "data analyzation" with technology?
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Purpose of Lesson: Kate Summers, the teacher of this biology class in Hayward, created a Project Base Learning activity for students where these students would teach each other key concepts of Chemistry.
How are students learning: One of the first things that caught my eye during the video is that students were actively collaborating with a partner on this project. A lot of the work was done through google docs or google slides but there was plenty of verbal communication and use of resources like textbooks and internet. Another piece of evidence of how students were learning was the time of their presentations. Chemistry is a subject they will be taking next year, so the simple fact that they were giving their classmates notes on this topic was new to them and they had a level of “mastery” in key concepts of Chemistry if they had to teach the class. What is the teacher doing: Attached to the video is a PDF file of what Kate hands out to her students in regards to the expectations for the project. She is very specific on the items and topics that students need to cover on their lesson like what key words they should teach, they type of visual representation, the handout they will give their classmates and to create an engaging activity for the class. In the video she is also seen walking around the classroom helping students. But it seems that there is more independence among students as they work with their partners throughout the project. Can I use this lesson: I really like the structure of this lesson and it could work in my Math 1 class and even in my AVID class. I like the idea of how students explore key concepts of a subject they will be involved in the following school year. I can do something like this as well where students can look into the world of quadratics since in Math 1 we focus on linear equations. Or since we do look at the Pythagorean Theorem in our current unit, they can explore the basics of Trigonometry, which they will explore next year as well. Here are the following three videos that observed on case studies that demonstrated the use of digital media and technology in the classroom:
Video #1: Collaborative Digital Presentations Enrich Projects Video #2: Tech Buddies: Building Technology Skills Through Peer Teaching Video #3: Tech in Real Life: Students See Devices as Tools, Not Toys Well that is a lot of data put out there for me. It seems to me that the title of this book so far ties in to the fact that there aren’t many resources poured into our public educational system and support given to teachers to develop their practice that this is effecting our students. Our educational system is metaphorically flat. No change is happening. Is it weird that my inner Math teacher is thinking of what kind of 2-dimensional shape best fits this idea?
As a “new teacher”, only in my second year, I have seen how we struggle with large number of students in a classroom while we still have the expectation to teach each and every single student equally but we lack technology in the classroom, so how can we have students build and explore 21st century skills that will help the in college and in their future careers? I feel that this is where the achievement gap among student comes in to play. A problem is that a lot of students still don’t have access to a device at home and aren’t able to complete assignments or look deeper into a project they are working on because the only time to do that is in the classroom. The third chapter, New Standards and Old Inequalities, was a very interesting chapter for me because during my high school years I was right in the middle of the No Child Left behind Act. I remember being one of the first classes that had to take the high school exit exam and how much pressure there was. Curriculum at the time was focused on how to pass this class. That was our main focus. In a Math class it was all about memorization. Now that I am a teacher, I think about my English Language Learner on how they would fair on a high school exit exam. Probably not to well, and the problem with this is that the exam would discourage these and many other students to not even try to perform well in class and possibly drop out. Even though with the newer Common Core Standards, I enjoy seeing my students explore Mathematical concepts and work together to work through tasks using skills like critical thinking, collaboration, inquiry and even organizing their thinking on paper or verbally. Students probably don’t realize that these skills are skills they will be using once they go into the work force or in college. |
Samuel UreñaWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
May 2018
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