May 23

Classroom Curriculum Experience

The student will observe a special education class during classroom
instructional time. At a minimum the student should observe and follow school and professional safety/visitor/confidentiality guidelines. The purpose of this activity is to experience classroom instruction and curriculum for students with disabilities.

Ideally, you will select to observe or arrange to work in a classroom which extends your professional expertise - it may involve a different grade/age level, etc. This applied only to those who are setting up their own observation.

The student will keep a typewritten log of the classroom

Personal Reflection on MD400 Course

During this course I have learned very important lessons. I never used Photoshop, blogging, inspiration, and web design before. Even though this class requires a lot of time, it is all worth spending the necessary time. This is a great opportunity for me to learn how to use technology and create different lessons for my students. I have started to make plans for my summer vacation to prepare lessons using Universal Design for Learning. I have used in the past graph organizers to show to my students how new concepts are connected to one another. But UDL allows showing more than just a graph organizer in black and white. Another important part of this class is creating a personal web page. When I complete this course, I plan to create a web page for my math classes in the near future. Having a personal website is great for me as a math teacher.

Added Value

There are numerous advantages for students to learn and remember what they learned when they learn new lessons through technology. When teachers use technology in the classroom, the lesson becomes more interesting and easier to understand. The teacher can give more information in a short amount of time and students will be able to better visualize new concepts. Technology allows students to access more information that relates to the new lesson. The best way to learn a new lesson is when students are engaged and do their own research. Another important part of teaching is using UDL. For students it is easier to remember when they see connections among new concepts.

Inquiry-Based Learning

I completely agree with an expression used on the article "What is inquiry-based learning?" that is posted on the website: www.thirteen.org. The expression says: "Tell me and I will forget, show me and I will remember, involve me and I will understand." If a teacher does not involve student in the classroom, chances are that students will forget what the teacher was talking about. When students are involved, they will be able to understand and learn concepts and remember them easier. For me as a math teacher, inquiry-based learning is critical and I use it especially when I teach new concepts. For example: when I teach my students how to graph, I engage them first to gather data. Then I ask them to use tables on their graphing calculators to graph their information. They study the data and often they find the type of the relationship and the equation that represent their data. When I start teaching how to graph, they show good understanding of how to graph and what a graph means.

The Standard That I Will Focus On This Semester

The standard that I will focus on this semester is Math Grades 9-12. The content standard six focuses on spatial relationship and geometry. This part of math is very important for students because they will learn basic concepts of geometry to construct, draw, describe and compare geometric models and their transformations. Students will learn haw to solve real-world mathematical problems using geometric models. They will be able to understand plane and three-dimensional geometric shapes. Calculating angle measure, segment length, perimeter, circumference, surface area, and volume of different shapes, will be a great experience for students. It is easer for students to learn and visualize these concepts if the teacher uses digital imagery. As a math teacher I can incorporate images in every geometry lesson.

Universal Design for Learning

In this graphic organizer I have included key concepts of the article on Universal Design for Learning. The most important part of UDL is digital media. There are four aspects of digital media that are crucial for classroom applications: versatility, transformability, the ability to be marked, and the ability to be networked. On this organizer I have included the three key principles of the Universal Design for Learning: Recognition, Strategic, and Affective.
When teachers incorporate digital media into the classroom, each student has more option to learn. This is very important particularly for students with special needs.

Solving Quadratic Equations Using Quadratic Formula

Quadratic formula is one of the most important formulas in Algebra I. This graphic organizer helps students understand how to find the answer and which part of the formula must be calculated first. When students calculate the discriminant (the expression under the square root symbol), they will be able to determine if the equation has two solutions, one solution, or no solution.
1. When the value of the discriminant is positive, the equation has two solutions.
2. When the value of the discriminant is zero, the equation has one solution.
3. When the discriminant is negative, the equation has no solution.

Working With Shelton Bridge

I took a picture of the Shelton Bridge. The base of the bridge has similar triangles and can be used in the classroom to teach very important geometry concepts such as symmetry, right triangles etc.

1. I cut the picture of the bridge in half and saved one layer as a right side.
2. I saved the other half of the bridge as a left side.
3. I rotated the right 180 degrees and put it on top of the left side.
4. The line between the two layers is the line of the symmetry.

Comments to Sara Dexter’s Article

I agree with the author’s ideas in this article. Using technology in the classroom is crucial to enhance student learning. To learn a new concept, students must be introduced to the new concept in multiple ways. Using traditional teaching methods in combination with using technology help students learn and visualize new concepts faster. Students can have a very important role in their learning when they are engaged on collecting information using digital cameras and other electronic devises that can be used in the classroom for this purpose. This is an opportunity for teachers to engage students in their learning process and get feedback how well students are doing.
I certainly like the idea of teachers working together based on the department and grade level. It takes more than one person to bring up new ideas to teaching in the classroom using technology. It is very hard for a teacher to be successful when work alone. In this situation sharing and working together makes all the difference. Another idea of the author is that teachers should have technical support in their schools. Many teachers have basic knowledge how to put a lesson into a power point presentation. But when it comes to working with websites, teachers need support and even constant training. The Internet makes it easy to communicate and share information. To use this powerful tool, teachers must be trained to keep up with changes and updates.