|
Rafael Garcia Avila Garcia Home Learn More Standards Inspiration About the Author |
About the Author
My name is Rafael Garcia Avila, and I am a mathematics teacher at Valley Oak High School in the Napa Valley Unified School District. I graduated from UC Santa Cruz with Bachelor’s in Mathematics in June 1999. Subsequently, I started teaching at Napa High School with an emergency credential as I attended Sonoma State University’s teaching credential program. Sixteen years later, I transferred to Valley Oak High School which I consider the best hidden secret in the district. After realizing that I needed to change the way I taught and with the advice of one of my colleague and also a member in this Master’s program Julie Lovie, I decided to get my Master’s of Education in Innovative Learning with the support of Napa Learns at Touro University of California.
Mathematics is considered one of the most complex subjects that our students encounter as difficult to work with and understand. I became a math teacher because math was and has been my most favorite subject. It has been my intention and goal to help students be able to understand and work with math instead of fearing or hating it. Thus, this year I started teaching with computing and robotics in my Math II classes. Specifically, I have investigated student engagement in the mathematics classroom with computing and robotics and the effects of computing and robotics with respect to attendance. Given this was my first year teaching computing and robotics in math, I learned plenty about how to incorporated in a more efficient way for next year.
It is imperative to change and improve our practice as educators since our youth do not learn the same way we learned or the way that students learned five years ago. This is my drive to change how I teach and will be implementing new methodologies in my teaching that will enable students to learn in a more modern way. Flipping my instructions will give students the tools to be team players, effective workers and successful in anything they pursue. The TPACK model is essential to drive this new and innovative way of instruction. TPACK incorporates all of the following: I have been looking and working with innovative resources, attending multiple teacher training during the school year and in the summer, provided experiences for students to be engaged and attend school, change or update my objectives to incorporate coding and robotics, and finally, changing the attitude of comfort and anger to a growth mindset and innovative outlook to teaching and learning. Using new tools, instruction methods, a new mentality and rich lesson plans will give students a new outlook to learning mathematics.
Mathematics is considered one of the most complex subjects that our students encounter as difficult to work with and understand. I became a math teacher because math was and has been my most favorite subject. It has been my intention and goal to help students be able to understand and work with math instead of fearing or hating it. Thus, this year I started teaching with computing and robotics in my Math II classes. Specifically, I have investigated student engagement in the mathematics classroom with computing and robotics and the effects of computing and robotics with respect to attendance. Given this was my first year teaching computing and robotics in math, I learned plenty about how to incorporated in a more efficient way for next year.
It is imperative to change and improve our practice as educators since our youth do not learn the same way we learned or the way that students learned five years ago. This is my drive to change how I teach and will be implementing new methodologies in my teaching that will enable students to learn in a more modern way. Flipping my instructions will give students the tools to be team players, effective workers and successful in anything they pursue. The TPACK model is essential to drive this new and innovative way of instruction. TPACK incorporates all of the following: I have been looking and working with innovative resources, attending multiple teacher training during the school year and in the summer, provided experiences for students to be engaged and attend school, change or update my objectives to incorporate coding and robotics, and finally, changing the attitude of comfort and anger to a growth mindset and innovative outlook to teaching and learning. Using new tools, instruction methods, a new mentality and rich lesson plans will give students a new outlook to learning mathematics.
Reflections on My Teaching Mathematics Journey
My passion for teaching mathematics started at a very young age of my learning path as I attended an elementary school in Guadalajara, Jalisco in México. My journey to achieve this goal started after graduating from high school as a volunteer tutor for two years for Napa Valley College's Educational Talent Search (ETS) Program. Subsequently, I was hired to teach a five week summer program for ETS's sister program Upward Bound. This teaching assignment consisted of creating and implementing a curriculum of teaching high school math as a preparation preview course. Then, nine months after graduating from college with my Bachelors in Mathematics, I started teaching at Napa High School with an emergency credential as a substitute for a teacher who had to leave due to family reasons. Sixteen years later, I made the decision to change my placement and transferred to Valley Oak High School (remember, the best hidden secret in town). Now, I am finishing my third year with many instructional plans and a full toolbox of innovative tools and methodologies.
It has been more than 19 years since I started my teaching career and it has felt like a blink of an eye. I have to admit that many things have changed rapidly and unbelievably. When I started as a teacher, I was a dreamer who wanted to change the world (now, I still want to change the world and help my students be successful). Then, I became complacent with my methods and teaching and didn't see past my nose nor did I look outside of my classroom. Also, I became a follower and did as directed by administration and state mandates. This killed my teaching creativity, put my teaching methods in a comma, took away my "passion" and "ways" to help students learn this complex subject called mathematics and it destroyed any advancement I made in learning how to reach my students to be successful with mathematics. Finally, learning mathematics became the "norm" (boring). As a result, I kept teaching like the good old days and learned very little about how to use new methodologies, gadgets, and modern technologies. Now, I am ready to turn things around and teach my students mathematics in a more meaningful way than I have before.
It has been more than 19 years since I started my teaching career and it has felt like a blink of an eye. I have to admit that many things have changed rapidly and unbelievably. When I started as a teacher, I was a dreamer who wanted to change the world (now, I still want to change the world and help my students be successful). Then, I became complacent with my methods and teaching and didn't see past my nose nor did I look outside of my classroom. Also, I became a follower and did as directed by administration and state mandates. This killed my teaching creativity, put my teaching methods in a comma, took away my "passion" and "ways" to help students learn this complex subject called mathematics and it destroyed any advancement I made in learning how to reach my students to be successful with mathematics. Finally, learning mathematics became the "norm" (boring). As a result, I kept teaching like the good old days and learned very little about how to use new methodologies, gadgets, and modern technologies. Now, I am ready to turn things around and teach my students mathematics in a more meaningful way than I have before.
Lasting Learning from Touro's Innovative Learning program and Cohort 16!
Thanks to the Touro Master's program, I have learned new ways to implement lessons, new and different forms of instruction and a different vision to do what is right for my students to learn math and for their educational futures. This is how transliteracy has changed me and my teaching of mathematics. Furthermore, this year, starting to teach C-STEM Computing and Robotics in mathematics has also upped my game of instruction with new transliteracies. This and my other teaching methods will continue to engage my students to learning mathematics.
Thanks to the Touro Master's program, I have learned new ways to implement lessons, new and different forms of instruction and a different vision to do what is right for my students to learn math and for their educational futures. This is how transliteracy has changed me and my teaching of mathematics. Furthermore, this year, starting to teach C-STEM Computing and Robotics in mathematics has also upped my game of instruction with new transliteracies. This and my other teaching methods will continue to engage my students to learning mathematics.
Napa Learns is another entity that has been instrumental in my learning in Touro's Innovative Learning program. My appreciation for Napa Learns' financial, educational and psychological support cannot be expressed simply with words. Napa Learns has enabled me participate in this program, to learn how to improve my skills and to innovate my practice. I cannot wait to see the results of changing instruction and the learning that will continue to take place!
Click on the picture above and select from the drop down menu under Master's Blogs.
|
Click on the picture above and select from the drop down menu under Innovative Learning.
|