I Survived the Semester: What Did I Learn?
If my blog title doesn't give you the hint, I am a FUTURE math teacher. That is, I am a current education student. That being said, I am still learning math teaching strategies as I go throughout my college career. So, as this semester has been going on, I have been taking a course called "Math Activities for Secondary Teachers." This class is designed to help us learn standards, such as Algebra, Trigonometry, Geometry, and Data and Probability. In addition to doing "dailies" to show our understanding, we do SBARs (Standards-Based Assessments), in which we exercise our standards-based knowledge. Finally, we have also been reading an excellent book called Mathematical Mindsets by Jo Boalar. I highly recommend this book to anyone who hasn't yet read it, it is fantastic and has completely changed my mindsets in regards to many things.
So, now that I have summarized what my basis is for "what I learned," I will be doing something a little different.
A KWL is a "Know-Want to Know-Learned" chart, which I will be using the show what I have really learned throughout this class. I will also use this chart to implement how to use it with students at the end of this post. (So, skip down to the end if you're not too enthralled with my math course experience).
Note: Normally I would format this in actual chart. However, to be quite frank, I don't know to do that on Blogger. So, I will just make nice bold headings to show my transitions in ideas :)
KNOW
When I came into the course, I knew the following things.
WANT TO KNOW
I wanted to know how to do the following when I came into the course.
Let me also note here that I learned some things I didn't know I even wanted to know. I also, sadly, am still unclear about some things. I will address those later.
This was my KWL for my mathematics course. Now, let me briefly discuss how I, personally, would use a KWL in my own classroom.
I would use a KWL both at the beginning and end of a unit. For example, if I were to begin a unit on quadratic equations, I would have students tell me what they already know. So, if they all knew the quadratic formula, for example, I would know that I wouldn't have to spend too much time on that. Then, at the end of the unit, I could do it again, to see how effective my teaching was and what I should change. This is beneficial in both aspects since it allows students to tell me what they know, making it easier for me to develop plans for them, and it allows students to give me feedback on my teaching. I think KWLs promote improvement and higher-level learning, so I would definitely utilize this type of chart in my own classroom.
I look forward to being able to utilize things such as a KWL and what I learned in my math course in the future. For now, I'll continue to think critically and like a future math teacher, and will continue to improve to help my future students.
So, now that I have summarized what my basis is for "what I learned," I will be doing something a little different.
A KWL is a "Know-Want to Know-Learned" chart, which I will be using the show what I have really learned throughout this class. I will also use this chart to implement how to use it with students at the end of this post. (So, skip down to the end if you're not too enthralled with my math course experience).
Note: Normally I would format this in actual chart. However, to be quite frank, I don't know to do that on Blogger. So, I will just make nice bold headings to show my transitions in ideas :)
KNOW
When I came into the course, I knew the following things.
- How to factor/solve an equation/use synthetic and long division in aid of factoring
- The log-base formula
- Different types of equations and how they looked (i.e. trigonometric graphs, rational functions, polynomial functions, quadratic functions, etc.)
- How to find asymptotes, zeroes, y-intercepts, holes, etc.
- Pythagorean Theorem, various trigonometric rules (such as sin^2(x)+cos^2(x)=1)
- Forms of equations such as y=mx+b, y=ax^2+bx+c, y=a(b)^x, etc.
- Various volume and area equations
WANT TO KNOW
I wanted to know how to do the following when I came into the course.
- How to present mathematics lessons in a way that is clear and engaging to students
- Different ways to teach mathematics
- How to combat the mentality of teaching for the test
- How to cultivate passion (not just in mathematics, but in general) in children
- How to make math fun!
- Statistics (pretty much any application of it)
- The A,B,C,D in sine and cosine graphs and what they mean, and how to find them by looking at a graph or at an equation
Let me also note here that I learned some things I didn't know I even wanted to know. I also, sadly, am still unclear about some things. I will address those later.
- How to present mathematics lessons in a way that is clear and engaging to the students
- Different ways to teach mathematics
- How to combat the mentality of teaching for the test
- How to cultivate passion (probably most for just math, though) in children
- How to make math fun!
- Statistics (thus far we haven't learned too much, so I can't really say how much I learned thus far, since we are still finishing up our lessons on that)
- What conic sections are
- Law of sines, law of cosines, and applications
This was my KWL for my mathematics course. Now, let me briefly discuss how I, personally, would use a KWL in my own classroom.
I would use a KWL both at the beginning and end of a unit. For example, if I were to begin a unit on quadratic equations, I would have students tell me what they already know. So, if they all knew the quadratic formula, for example, I would know that I wouldn't have to spend too much time on that. Then, at the end of the unit, I could do it again, to see how effective my teaching was and what I should change. This is beneficial in both aspects since it allows students to tell me what they know, making it easier for me to develop plans for them, and it allows students to give me feedback on my teaching. I think KWLs promote improvement and higher-level learning, so I would definitely utilize this type of chart in my own classroom.
I look forward to being able to utilize things such as a KWL and what I learned in my math course in the future. For now, I'll continue to think critically and like a future math teacher, and will continue to improve to help my future students.
Nicely done, and with your usual level of honesty. The only suggestion I have here is to make the paragraph breaks an open line to help with clarity. And I like your thinking about how to use a KWL going forward.
ReplyDeleteC's: 4.5/5
Hey Michiah! First of all, I really liked the formatting on this one. I think the KWL chart is a great way to get some ideas across: you share some prior knowledge, celebrate some things you learned, then look to the future. Great work on that! I honestly don't have a ton of suggestions (hard to argue with experience :), and I think you did a great job. I especially agree with the "how to make math fun!" point in your WL categories. Fun read!
ReplyDeleteI like the way you organized the post. It was easy to follow along with. I'm glad that you were honest with what you felt the class fell short in to you. Check out this video https://www.khanacademy.org/math/algebra-home/alg-trig-functions/alg-constructing-sinusoids/v/trig-function-equation
ReplyDeletefrom Khan. I watched this a few years back to understand simple harmonic motion. Sal is a life saver.
Michiah,
ReplyDeleteI really liked your post. I think that doing a KWL is a great way to wrap up a year filled with lots of learning about teaching and math. I think that we covered a lot of teaching materials, and it is really cool to see where we ended up at the end of the semester. I do agree with you as well about the conic sections. Great last post!