Skip to main content

7/1/11

Hi everyone! This is the end of my 4th week, and the last month has really flown by. I completed a 57 page manual yesterday which felt pretty satisfying. I was writing a manual about all of the reports that can be viewed using Hy-Vee's software. There are probably 30 or 40 different reports. While I understand how to access and view them, I didn't always understand why an employee would use them or which parts would be the most useful. While I was able to write the manual and give basic instructions, this is an example of how sometimes you can understand the procedures, maybe even sound like an expert, but perhaps miss the application portion of something. This reminds me a lot of my students. We teach graphing and equations of lines and slope. They memorize (y1 - y2)/(x1 - x2) = slope and can use it really well if you give them 2 points. Give them a real life scenario and ask them what the slope represents or what the slope would be, and often just knowing that procedure does not allow them to understand the applications and real life uses. This is something I've thought about long before this externship, but it was kind of interesting to see what that feels like from the point of view of a student who maybe doesn't completely understand past just the basic procedures.

I think I understood math from the procedures. My high school math teachers could show me a formula and how to use it, and I just got it. I don't think that is how it works for most math students and after having this feeling of being able to complete a project but not understand everything important behind is, I really want to be able to give my students that deeper understanding. In 6 weeks it would be impossible for me to reach the same level of understanding as the people who have been using the software for the last 2-3 years, so I understand why I'm not an expert, but I hope that by slowing down our lessons (almost 2 days for every topic) and taking out things that we don't think are essential and enduring, we can give our students that deeper understanding more this year.

Comments

Post a Comment

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...
Post a Comment
Read more

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...
Post a Comment
Read more

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...
Post a Comment
Read more