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My LearnersThis study was conducted in a 7th-grade math classroom and focused on 4 traditional math classes and 1 accelerated math class and included a total of 165 students from August 2019 until March 2020. The average class size for each class period was 33 students per class and the class length was 43 minutes three days per week and 74 minutes one day per week. The classes were face to face instruction from August 2019 to March 2020 and mathematical topics including operations with rational numbers, proportions, probability, statistics, basic algebraic equations, and geometry with a focus on circles. The majority of students entered the classroom with below basic skills as measured by both the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s (2020) Mathematics Inventory Test (MI) and California Department of Education’s (2020) California Assessment for Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) scores.
SITE Model PresentationLogo Rationale
To the right is the logo I designed for this program.
The first step of the process was to just explore different key words on a Google image search in order to find inspiration from the images that popped up. I was most inspired by a design that was a lightbulb with a brain on top. From then on I knew what I wanted to do. I had painted a large brain a year ago to be the centerpiece of a fixed and growth mindset bulletin board. I had painted one side of the brain in different shades of grey and the other side full of color. As this was a prominent part of my classroom, I chose to use it when creating the top part of my brainbulb. In my logo, you will see 6 colors of the rainbow on the right and 5 different shades of grey on the left. The left side of the brain represents a fixed mindset, traditional math teaching styles, and a dumbing down of the curriculum. I wanted it to be dull and bleak and have nothing really going on inside to visually represent my beliefs regarding those methods of teaching. The right side of the brain represents the opposite of the left side. There is learning going on which is represented by the various math symbols and equations in the brain. It is also lit up and colorful. The reason I chose to represent this side of the logo with bright rainbow colors was two fold. One, I wanted it to visually look more appealing and joyous. And two, I wanted to used all of the colors to represent inclusivity. Too often our minority students are left behind or disenfranchised from the way we teach. Students of any background can be successful and it's time to stop saying they can't. If they can't be successful in your class, perhaps it's the teacher, and not the student, who needs to adjust and figure out a way for them to be successful that does not compromise the students education. |
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