Do Visuals Help? Home Learn More Inspiration About the Author
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About the Author
I love to learn! I love to learn and share ideas with others. Math is one of my favorite subjects, and I like to share the history of math stories to anyone who will listen.
My children, and students, have endured the stories of Hypatia, Sophie Germain, Carl Friedrich Gauss, Srinivasa Ramanujan, Ada Lovelace, Alan Turing, and others from history to help personalize the math that they are learning.
I hope to teach the skills, as well as the growth mindset, to students so that they can take what they learn in my class and build upon it in the future.
I am mostly a visual learner, as is 65% of the population. I want to help as many students as possible to not only learn math but to love math.
I love to learn! I love to learn and share ideas with others. Math is one of my favorite subjects, and I like to share the history of math stories to anyone who will listen.
My children, and students, have endured the stories of Hypatia, Sophie Germain, Carl Friedrich Gauss, Srinivasa Ramanujan, Ada Lovelace, Alan Turing, and others from history to help personalize the math that they are learning.
I hope to teach the skills, as well as the growth mindset, to students so that they can take what they learn in my class and build upon it in the future.
I am mostly a visual learner, as is 65% of the population. I want to help as many students as possible to not only learn math but to love math.
Driving Question
My Driving Question has morphed from "How can I Motivate the Unmotivated students in Math?" to " How can a Growth Mindset Influence mathematics achievement?" to " Can Info-graphics Increase Learning In a Trigonometry Unit in a Pre Calculus Math class?"
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Reflections on your Journey- A Long and Winding Road
I did not follow the path that most teachers did. While I am a life long learner, like other teachers, there have been many turns and twists in my "formal" education. I dropped out of my 1st year of community college because I was working full-time and trying to live independently. I went back to school at age 25 when I realized that the opportunities that I found were not interesting to me for any length of time. I earned two 2-year degrees in Electronics and Communications Technology and moved to Washington State and was hired as an Electronics Technician. I worked and moved up the ladder in Washington for 6 years. I loved this job, as it presented daily challenges. I moved back to California and worked a few more years as a technician and then became a "stay-at-home" mom. Which meant that I stayed at home during the day and worked part-time at night. I worked as a tutor to students in the Electronics program and all levels of Math. When my youngest went to 1st grade, I went back to school again, age 45. I earned my Bachelor's in Math Education and started a credential program. I was hired as a high school mathematics teacher and have continued with my professional development ever since. PBL, AVID, and California Mathematics council training/workshops/conferences.
My father became a Civil Engineer, was hired, and worked for over 20 years for the same company. My mother did many different jobs before she had children and after her children were grown. I think that my generation, and the generations to follow, will find that they need to reinvent themselves (like my mother did) and stay on the "learning track" to be able to not only keep a job/career but also, to support themselves. It seems like a life skill to be able to learn and apply your learning to do a better job and also, to keep your job relevant.
My philosophy about education is that I really and truly believe that all people can learn. We are born to learn, and until someone makes us feel bad about it, we keep going. Sometimes, when we are made to feel bad about it, we keep going, but that is a gamble. I do believe that we need reasonable expectations, and clear goals, to achieve our learning objectives; and that teachers need to make those clear to students on a daily basis.
I did not follow the path that most teachers did. While I am a life long learner, like other teachers, there have been many turns and twists in my "formal" education. I dropped out of my 1st year of community college because I was working full-time and trying to live independently. I went back to school at age 25 when I realized that the opportunities that I found were not interesting to me for any length of time. I earned two 2-year degrees in Electronics and Communications Technology and moved to Washington State and was hired as an Electronics Technician. I worked and moved up the ladder in Washington for 6 years. I loved this job, as it presented daily challenges. I moved back to California and worked a few more years as a technician and then became a "stay-at-home" mom. Which meant that I stayed at home during the day and worked part-time at night. I worked as a tutor to students in the Electronics program and all levels of Math. When my youngest went to 1st grade, I went back to school again, age 45. I earned my Bachelor's in Math Education and started a credential program. I was hired as a high school mathematics teacher and have continued with my professional development ever since. PBL, AVID, and California Mathematics council training/workshops/conferences.
My father became a Civil Engineer, was hired, and worked for over 20 years for the same company. My mother did many different jobs before she had children and after her children were grown. I think that my generation, and the generations to follow, will find that they need to reinvent themselves (like my mother did) and stay on the "learning track" to be able to not only keep a job/career but also, to support themselves. It seems like a life skill to be able to learn and apply your learning to do a better job and also, to keep your job relevant.
My philosophy about education is that I really and truly believe that all people can learn. We are born to learn, and until someone makes us feel bad about it, we keep going. Sometimes, when we are made to feel bad about it, we keep going, but that is a gamble. I do believe that we need reasonable expectations, and clear goals, to achieve our learning objectives; and that teachers need to make those clear to students on a daily basis.
TPACK
While developing lessons, if we can keep that "sweet spot" idea in place, it can improve our teaching. There will be lessons that we do not use technology, but we are moving toward that middle spot, where our content overlaps with our practice and technology to engage all learners, and help make the content accessible to all.
As we have learned and discussed in class, that "sweet spot" is where we want to be as often as possible, but we have to keep in mind many factors. Student population is one such factor, we would not ask a Kindergarten student to use technology in the same way as a high school student, for example.
For my capstone, I have experimented with many new tech tools, and brought many of them into the classroom. For example: online surveys, infographics for instruction, links for students to access, online activities to learn content, and presentations using tech tools.
This program with Touro helped me in the Capstone work by exposing me to a variety of tech tools, with assignments required to use the tools. Some tools are easy for me to implement in the classroom, while others are not so applicable for my content. For example, the Kahoot game was very easy to implement and the students responded extremely well to this game for reviewing material. Of course, some students did not like this, as we know, not all strategies are going to work for all students, so differentiating is easier for me now because I have a greater variety of tools to reach students.
During the program, we share with our Cohort what tools we use and how, which also gave me more ideas and avenues to bring engaging tech activities to the classroom. I now feel like my "tool belt" is full and I will continue practicing and implementing more tech for learning in the classroom. I hope to get more comfortable with a few tools next year, and continue to improve my practice- heading toward that "sweet spot" more often!
While developing lessons, if we can keep that "sweet spot" idea in place, it can improve our teaching. There will be lessons that we do not use technology, but we are moving toward that middle spot, where our content overlaps with our practice and technology to engage all learners, and help make the content accessible to all.
As we have learned and discussed in class, that "sweet spot" is where we want to be as often as possible, but we have to keep in mind many factors. Student population is one such factor, we would not ask a Kindergarten student to use technology in the same way as a high school student, for example.
For my capstone, I have experimented with many new tech tools, and brought many of them into the classroom. For example: online surveys, infographics for instruction, links for students to access, online activities to learn content, and presentations using tech tools.
This program with Touro helped me in the Capstone work by exposing me to a variety of tech tools, with assignments required to use the tools. Some tools are easy for me to implement in the classroom, while others are not so applicable for my content. For example, the Kahoot game was very easy to implement and the students responded extremely well to this game for reviewing material. Of course, some students did not like this, as we know, not all strategies are going to work for all students, so differentiating is easier for me now because I have a greater variety of tools to reach students.
During the program, we share with our Cohort what tools we use and how, which also gave me more ideas and avenues to bring engaging tech activities to the classroom. I now feel like my "tool belt" is full and I will continue practicing and implementing more tech for learning in the classroom. I hope to get more comfortable with a few tools next year, and continue to improve my practice- heading toward that "sweet spot" more often!
Lasting Learning from the Innovative Learning program
I was drawn to the Innovative Learning program because I felt like I needed more instruction in technological resources and also in understanding not only how to implement technology in the classroom but the best practices to do so. This program has helped me find resources and bring new ideas and technologies to my students. It has given me the time and the support to learn and practice. I am living testament to lifelong learning and I do hope to inspire my students to become lifelong learners.
