Semester 1 Professional Growth

Consider the learning you have done during your first semester as an M.Ed. learner.

1.  Think back (or revisit) the “Principles of Children’s Learning” or “Belief Statements” that you wrote at the beginning of this journey.

 a. What specific principle or belief do you most rely on as you interact with students each day?
 b. In what ways has this helped you reframe anxiety-producing problems into productive, solvable problems (maybe even opportunities)?

Of the five beliefs that I wrote about at the beginning of the semester, the one that I feel I rely on most heavily on a day-to-day basis is the following:  

I believe that the objectives for each lesson should be clearly addressed each day.  

At the start of each day's lesson I address what we hope to accomplish by the end of the period.  It is typically to complete an objective for the day's lesson, such as "Graph and transform quadratic equations" or "Algebraically analyze rational functions." I had always done this as a way to introduce the day's topic, but recently our school's administration has asked that all teachers beging their lessons in such a manner.  

I believe that this action has helped to turn anxiety into productivity in the following three ways.  First, and foremost, it states, in simple terms, what the students should expect out of the day.  They know right away what it is we will be doing for the next 68 minutes.  By introducing the day's topic at the start of the lesson I have already instilled in the mind some sense of what is to come.  Second, it helps me to be more prepared in my daily planning.  The lesson targets for the day allow me to know not just what's going on that day, but what is coming in the future.  I have always felt that the weeks when I have my lesson plans for all my classes for the entire week organized from the beginning tend to go the smoothest.  Lastly, it helps me to make changes and adjust for the future.  By knowing what the lesson objects are for each day, I can easily look back  and determine if anything needs to be adjusted.  Were there too many targets for that day?  Should I change the order in which I teach certain lessons so that the lesson targets flow more seamlessly?  Having my learning targets ready allows me for a greater amount of meaningful reflection.

2.  In what ways has your Semester 1 learning impacted your interactions with colleagues?

The most prominent way in which my Semester 1 learning has impacted my interactions with my colleagues is my ability to share ideas and insights that I have gained throughout the experience.  After the Spring Conferences presentations, I was excited to go back to the members of my department and share some of the ideas involving technology that some of the presenters shared.  Their insight into what worked (and in some cases didn't work) was great to hear, especially the presentation I attended related to a flipped classroom.  It is an idea that I have toyed with for a while, but have yet to really jump into.  It was great to be able to hear the presenter's experiences, triumphs, and challenges so that I could better gauge if it was something I wanted to pursue.  

3.  What new nugget of learning (or insight) has impacted your practice most?  What are you doing differently as a result of this learning?

The insight that has probably impacted my practice the most is the newfound necessity to manage my time in a different way.  I had been a busy person before I enrolled in the Saint Mary's University M.Ed program, what with a full-time job, a coaching position, and two kids under three years old.  The demands of the job alone can be stressful enough what with the time required to plan lessons, create the necessary materials, and grade any homework or assessments.  The demands of the family are just as severe.  Adding the coursework requirements of the M.Ed program have required me to budget my time a little differently as I have an additional amount of work that was previously not there.

4.  What are you still wondering about?

I am excited about what is to come!  The Review of Literature has me a bit nervous, but I am looking forward to the challenge!

Data Collection Analysis

Posted below is a link to a Google Document detailing my three data collection tools.

Here is the link.

Golden Circle

Simon Sinek’s TED talk focused on what he called the Golden Circle of Why, How, What and the importance that businesses work “from the inside out,” meaning that they convince the world that they are buying not what they make, but why they make it.  The same is true for teaching.  I make a concerted effort from the beginning of each school year, and again at the beginning of each trimester, to show students that I am more that just what I do.  Too often it seems that students just see their teachers as a person fulfilling a role.  “That guy’s my English teacher.  She’s my music teacher.  He’s a math teacher, I think.”  To teach “from the inside out,” in my opinion, begins with showing students that you do truly care about their education, their experience, and their overall wellbeing.  I teach from the inside out by injecting as much enthusiasm into everyday as I possible can.  I like to believe that the students are having fun when I’m having fun, so I try to have as much fun as possible, while still tackling the major concepts of the day.  I want the students to believe that the reason why I’m doing what I’m doing as a chosen profession is just happenstance; I am doing what I do because I like it.  It’s enjoyable for me.

        I teach a lot of Geometry.  Like, a whole lot.  Every term I’ve taught at my current school I’ve had at least one section of Geometry.  Geometry, more than any other math course, focuses heavily on logical thinking.  Not just, “Can you solve for x,” but “What is the reason that you’re doing what you doing in the first place and can you justify why you’re doing what you’re doing?”  Heavy stuff, believe me.  Student complaints always increase greatly when we start doing geometric proofs.  If, then statements.  Logical thinking skills.  It’s not surprising for two reasons:  First, it’s different than anything they’ve had to do ever in their scholastic careers and that makes any endeavor more difficult. Second, they’re high schoolers and logical thinking is not their forte.  What I try to do is instead of focusing on what we are doing, is to focus on why we are doing it.  A geometric proof is an exercise in logical thinking and a great way to get students to see connections between seeming disparate ideas.  A geometric proof is an excellent way to help students draw conclusions from given or inferred information, something they will all have to do in their lives outside of high school.  It’s not always successful.  I would say that most of the time, students see geometric proofs as horrific rite of passage that every student must pass through to say to the world, “Hey, I took Geometry and I didn’t die!” But, every once in a while I’m able to convince students that what we are doing is more than just the sum of its parts.

        My communication with my students is (hopefully) evident by my passion for what I am doing.  As previously mentioned, I try to teach everyday with as much enthusiasm as possible.  I do my best, as we all do, to stay in as much contact with parents as possible, especially the parents of students that are struggling more than others.  If parents see that you are communicating with them on a regular basis there is a greater chance that they will see that your passion for teaching is more than just a job with a modest paycheck.  With my colleagues, I try to engage in as my lesson planning conversations as possible.  Our PLC time has given us some time to accomplish that, but not as much as necessary.  I know that I could sit and talk for hours about the best way to teach biconditional statements as definitions to Geometry students, and it’s those conversations that convey to my colleagues that I’m here to do the best job I can because I love what I do.