Posts

Mini Lesson Brainstorming

I teach a small-group math class for students with a variety of learning disabilities, and I plan on using word problems and right triangle trigonometry in my mini lessons. When working with word problems that relate to the “real world,” students are given a picture of how a particular concept may be used. Most teachers teach the formula and then list numbers that students must plug in the formula. When a teacher gives the students a word problem, they are required to figure out which piece of information correlates with which part of the formula. Due to the complexity, this may involve me as a teacher spending more time to come up with problems that relate to each student’s life. I plan on using a few types of assessment. I will assign the students a project – to create their own word problem that involves solving using trigonometric ratios, which addresses Principle 1 ( Implementing Inquiry , n.d., p. 2). This assignment will also have a rubric to help guide them through this thin...
1 comment
Read more

Inquiry Learning

Image
1 comment
Read more

Growth

I feel that the goals that I listed at the beginning of the course still stand.   I have already learned so much in this course, but I know that I still have more to learn.   Aside from the technology goals listed in my first blog post, I would like to add a few more.   Not only do I want to learn more searching skills to better help my research, but I would like to be able to teach my students these helpful skills as well.   Because they are a part of the Google generation, I am not sure that they know any other way to search besides simply typing a question into the Google search bar and pressing the enter key.   Instead, I would like for them to comprehend that their search terms actually matter.   As Miller and Bartlett (2012) point out, “search skills are important: subtle differences in the semantic construction of search queries, including the ordering of Boolean operators, the use of synonyms, antonyms and abbreviates can return hugely different re...
1 comment
Read more

Letting Go

Wiggins’s (2014) blog presents an authentic representation of what is happening in schools today. I teach interrelated special education students in a small group setting, and I find myself guilty of probably helping out my students more than I should. Although I do catch myself helping when the students should be working on their own, I feel like the students’ attitudes are also partially to blame. I have seen it more this year than ever before. The students at our school seemed to have become so entitled. They feel like, if they cannot solve a problem, we should be at their beck and call to answer it for them. Sometimes, we play into this mindset, which encourages it. I also feel that a student’s home life contributes to this mindset. For example, if a child’s parents do everything for them, then they expect the same treatment when they get to school. It seems sometimes that this generation has not had to struggle as much through figuring out problems for themselves – especially wit...
2 comments
Read more