Skip to main content

6/21/11

Today I've really gotten to harnass my inner English teacher! We've been updating training manuals for the newest version of Hy-Vee's software. We found a very quick and easy way to include Tables of Contents and hyperlinks so that the manuals are more user friendly and easier to navigate online.

I've gone back and forth in previous instances about the role of writing in the math classroom. There's no doubt in my mind that writing about math is an extremely valuable tool, and I absolutely want my kids to be used to writing their thinking and putting explanations down on paper from the very beginning of the school year. I wonder how much emphasis I should put on using proper sentences and correct grammar. If I am only thinking about their understanding of math, then perhaps their grammar and punctuation are not very important; however, if I consider their other classes, the college requirements they will face, and the skills they will need for almost any job, I should definitely use writing about math as another opportunity to strengthen their overall writing and communication skills. They will need to write professional emails even in high school to their teachers. They will need to write essays and business letters to get into college and when applying for jobs, and that probably won't be all. This externship is a perfect example of how you never know when you're going to need to use your writing skills.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Second Chances

I've been thinking about second chances constantly lately. As an adult, think about all the times you've been given a second chance. I am not a perfect wife, but my husband gives me second chances all the time.  I tried to make cookies once with baking soda that was 2 years expired. They didn't turn out so great, but I have had other chances to bake things and I learned a value lesson about baking soda : ) I tried out for my church praise team and didn't make it. It was embarrassing and for a while I didn't feel like singing or playing the piano, but I can try out again and if I don't get so nervous next time, maybe I'll make it. I'm not banned forever because of one audition. I took the ACT twice when I was in high school, and my highest score was the only one colleges cared about.  My first year of teaching, I struggled quite a bit with classroom management. I needed more time and unfortunately first-hand experience to just begin lea...

Thought about mapping activity

I was reading a few teachers talking about teaching their students to use maps and analyse the changes as well as using GPS and geocashing to use latitude and longitude. Correct me if I'm wrong, but you guys are science teachers? Based on that assumption, I was thinking it would be neat to incorporate a corresponding math project involving graphing. Maybe the students first learn about it with the science teachers. They do the project based lesson with maps and GPS. Then they could come to my math class and create their own map including cordinates. They could use slope and find distances between locations on their map. They could even hide their own treasures around the school campus and then trade their maps with other students to find each others' "treasures." They could use the concept of slope to tell students how to find the treasure. Maybe they have to start at a certain latitude or longitude and then go a certain direction with a certain slope, and they woul...

I hate grading...

Right now my kids are taking a test, and I'm pondering grading. If we want future teachers to know what our students got out of our class, why don't we just give them one big test at the end of the semester, and that's their grade? I know we would have to be very careful about keeping everything fresh and constant and using it multiple times so they are prepared and remember it until then, but is that what really matters? I want them to know how they're doing along the way. For that reason I like grading things along the way so they see if they're doing things correctly or not. Couldn't this be done just as easily in a formative way? We could even grade some things and make them track their own progress, but not actually grade or count anything until their test at the end of the year. In this way, we wouldn't be held back by keeping things consistent. Right now we test over everything multiple times. I'm not knocking out system at all, because I've...