Bare Bones Teaching Philosophy

As a future high school math teacher I want to build a classroom environment where abstract thinking and positive social skills are developed. It is my goal to help students become more proficient in math, lower their anxiety, and promote interest in future studies. I want to encourage students to analyze and challenge how they perceive both their learning ability and conditions outside the classroom.

IUSB #2 Growth and Development

During their high school years students are cognitively moving to abstract thinking. In personal development adolescents are trying to develop an identity through the use of conflict, exploration, and commitment to their findings. As a teacher I can help them practice these skills in the classroom. Proper lesson plans and learning environment can help them practice these skills.

Students need to practice developing abstract skills and social skills. Under my supervision these cognitive and personal skills can be performed in three steps: working on individual homework problems, working on group problems, and having groups develop problems and answers. To develop more social skills, teams will change after each assignment. This type of classroom environment will allow the students to develop their cognitive and personal/social skills. These lesson plans will help students develop abstract ways to look at problems; instead of using rote memorization. Interacting with their fellow students will help develop social skills and have them interact with people they may not normally socialize with outside the classroom.

IUSB #5 Learning Environment (Motivation)

In the classroom it is ideal to have all students mastery oriented, however, students may encounter problems. They may not have all their deficiency needs met. Other needs include not wanting to look foolish in front of their peers. Also, they may see their success and failures as something they cannot control. It is my responsibility to help them overcome these problems.

To move students to be mastery oriented I have to provide excessive feedback and attribute their success to their effort. This should raise their self-esteem, increase their expectations of success, and have persistent achievement behavior.

It is my goal to have students who have a low fear of failure, develop learning goals, attribute their success to effort, know that ability is improved with work, and learn self-regulated learning skills to encourage them to be life-long learners. I want to help students to stay focused and engaged by providing feedback, encourage them to finish their work, and avoid placing heavy emphasis on grades and competition between students. Most importantly I will model a positive motivation to learn by showing enthusiasm for learning and endurance when a problem occurs.

IUSB #7 Instructional Planning

In the classroom it is important to set up an environment that optimizes student learning. Students have a need to be engaged with abstract and scientific learning, and at the same time not look foolish in front of their peers. It is my responsibility to set up a classroom for both behavioral and cognitive learning. In regards to behavioral learning it is important that students have rewarding responses from the classroom stimuli, and have this paired to stimuli in the subject matter. I also want to eliminate behaviors that detract from the learning environment.

When students are learning cognitively it is best to teach them a deductive reasoning method. This starts with introducing the name and definition of a concept, demonstrating many examples, relating the examples to the concept, and giving students individual and group practice problems. I will encourage students to correct their homework so they can be prepared for continued learning.

IUSB #9 Professionalism

It is important for both students and I (as a life-long learner) to continually reflect on strengths and weaknesses, and how they know what they know. Together we can view how we see the world, and change our beliefs through understanding what is going on. This can work with studying both academics and situations outside the classroom.

As someone who lived in a Benedictine monastery while finishing undergraduate school I understand the need for community. Community is needed to develop individuals. I work with my fellow teachers, parents of students, and other members of the community to develop my skills as a teacher. I realize the importance of drawing on other’s experience to improve my ability to teach, and my understanding from where my students are coming.

Internet Filtering in Schools

I am in favor of Internet filtering. The Internet can be a dangerous playground if it is not supervised. I believe it is reasonable for a school district to ban pornography, criminal skills, gambling, and questionable chat rooms that online predators can access. I also think that the degree of which hate speech is censored should be determined at various grade levels.
Pornography, crime skills (including drugs), gambling, and general chat rooms need to be filtered at schools. Pornography is not a form of art, it is the belittling of people for purposed of money and entertainment. Pornography can be talked about in the classroom setting without having to display an example website on a computer. It is idiotic to think that a student needs to see a website to know it exists. Students encounter porn from simple searches of innocent material, like "Scooby Doo". My eleven year old step-son found a porn site while searching for basketball shoes. (I was over his shoulder during the search process and a site that looked like an online sporting goods store was actually selling online porn passes.) This same reasoning holds true for gambling and crime skill websites.
As for chat rooms, this can be a teetering subject. Chat rooms can be a great collaboration resource for students, therefore not all chat rooms should be filtered. So, schools should make their own chat rooms that only allow students to access it. Problem! Maintaining a chat room requires money and personnel resources. Also, savvy online predators will obtain access to these sites. It it is possible, have some school personnel either develop or find a chat room that they deem as satisfactory. Allow teachers to have an administration/god-like ability in the chat room. Students may think it is an invasion of the students' privacy to allow teachers that kind of ability, but students should only have privacy in the restroom when they are on school grounds.
As for hate speech, this should only be filtered at various levels of education. At the high school level, students should have some access to hate speech while under the supervision of a teacher. The teacher can provide some online material for students to get an idea of what it is, then the teacher can terminate the online source and lead a discussion on what was shown. This should only be accomplished at higher secondary educational levels, where the students can show some maturity skills. If the exposure causes a problem at the school, then the policy would need to be re-evaluated. Also, it could not hurt to have positive speech be shown to balance the hate.
The Internet can provide useful, educational resources to students. It can also be used to the detriment of students as well. Schools need to be careful what is displayed on the computers, but these schools, also, cannot dismiss this resource.

Opinion on best practices for Secondary Education

To determine what the best practices are to teach secondary mathematics, the following areas need to be look at: growth and development, and motivation.

During the secondary years, students’ growth and development involves moving cognitively from concrete thinking to developing abstract thinking skills. Students need activities that require them to think about concepts that cannot be directly observed through the senses. Students are also undergoing personal development to develop their identity. This is accomplished through conflict, exploration, and commitment to their findings.

As for motivation, it is ideal for students to be mastery-oriented. This cannot be accomplished if their deficiency needs are not met, look like a fool in front of their peers, and are extrinsically motivated. For classroom motivation, teachers need to provide excessive feedback and attribute student success to their effort. Students need to have a low fear of failure, develop learning goals, attribute their success to effort, know that ability is improved through hard work, and learn self-regulated learning skills. As for meeting deficiency needs outside the classroom, teachers will need assistance from outside agencies so the student can receive help. If there is a deficiency need that is not being met in the classroom, teachers must urgently identify the problem and correct it.

Students, at any level of education, are changing. Since teachers are supposed to be one of the most stable adult figures in the students’ lives, teachers have a requirement to guide students through those changes. With proper guidance, students will become the adults we want them to become.

Teacher-Centered vs. Student-Centered Teaching

Before I address my thoughts on the topic, I think I need to define the topics as I understand them. Student-centered teaching is an approach to education focusing on the needs of the students, rather than those of others involved in the educational process, such as teachers and administrators. When choosing mathematics examples, the examples need to relate to each student. If the example does not relate to each student, new examples need to be composed so each student has an example to which they relate. Teacher-centered teaching is when the teacher makes the goals for the students, presents the material for the students to learn, and provides the activities for them to learn.

I am in favor of teacher-centered learning. Due to NCLB and state-required topics that needed to be covered in every secondary subject, there is little time to simply look at what the student wants to learn. The I-STEP requirements do not care about focusing on the needs of the students, just on the needs of meeting state requirements and NCLB. It is teacher’s responsibility to make sure that these needs are met and the teacher needs to set the pace to make sure that all state standards are met. There is no room for the student to set the pace. That is why schools are offering “A” and “B” levels of courses (for example: Algebra II may have sections called “Algebra IIA” and “Algebra IIB”, with each letter designating the pace at which the course is presented.)

However, teacher-centered learning does not remove the teacher’s responsibility of relating the material to the needs of the student. The teacher needs to find examples that the students can relate to. In Algebra II, if there are students are interested in skateboarding, then the teacher should relate a parabola to a half-pipe and how the change in a quadratic equation changes the shape of the parabola/half-pipe.

Also, teachers need to let students make discovers together in teacher-centered teaching. Teachers need to allow students to work on group problems so they can interact in an academic setting, and mentor each other to accomplish the goal of solving problems. A stronger student who understands the material can help a weaker student who needs more help. The weaker student may relate the stronger student, and seek advice of the stronger student. The stronger student can state how they were able to understand the material, which can help the weaker student. After the students work on the problem together the teacher can assess what the student accomplished, and can either approach the topic in another way to meet the student’s needs or move on to something else. In either case the teacher decides what the students needs, but the decision is based on what the students have learned.

I advocate teacher-centered learning where teachers determine what exercises the students would be able to relate to students working in groups to develop their skills. Using this method the state and NCLB standards are met, and hidden curriculum issues like social-building skills are developed.

Opinion on Assertive Discipline

As a reserve military cop and as "a big guy", I believe I have the ability to assert myself on students to resolve a discipline problem. I could get into some one's face and be like a basic training instructor if the situation demanded it. However, secondary students are not basic trainees. It is my impression (from the description of assertive discipline in the textbook) that the teacher does not act like a drill instructor, but it comes close. I believe when teachers act this way, it gives the "air" in the classroom uncomfortable to learning. If I had to do this to the student, the rest of the classroom time would not be fit for learning, and this feeling would last for several days.
As for putting the offending student's name on the board, that is ridiculous at the secondary level. That is done for elementary students, not secondary students. Putting names on the board should rank up there with wiping students' butts, an absurd act.
I think that classroom management and discipline is going to be my biggest challenge. I know my textbooks suggest ways to handle a situation, to me it seems like theoretical knowledge. I know that classroom management is a class I will be taking next semester, but from past experience I have had little success learning from the assigned instructor.
To whoever, reads this, please give me advice in the comment section.

Setting a standard on essential knowledge

I am in favor of having the state board of education setting a standard on “essential knowledge”. It is of my opinion that to be citizens of this world (let alone of the United States) people need to have a certain level of knowledge and understanding to relate with whomever they come into contact. However, I think setting a standard for all students is very optimistic, impractical, and impossible.

As an aspiring mathematics teacher, I would like to see all students take two years of algebra. From personal life experiences, to function in current middle-class society, people need to have basic algebra skills to look over their taxes, calculate sales tax, and keep various types of inventory. Granted, most people would think that the listed matters can be accomplished through add, subtract, multiply, divide, and technological devices. On the other hand, algebra is about grouping like items and developing logical skills. These logical skills are used in life outside of applied mathematics.

There would be another group of people who would want to raise the bar above my expectations and say that trigonometry should be a required skill for all citizens. They may state that trig is necessary for communications and traveling/navigations. It is true that trig is used to help people develop logical skills and is used in the mentioned activities, but trig’s logical skills are based in algebra and these activities do not require trig anymore. With the advent of the modern cell phone, trig in communications is not needed for citizens. Modern maps and GPS eliminate the need to use trig to calculate routes of travel. Being able to read a map is important, so should that skill be a standard for “essential knowledge” in social studies?

Setting up a standard on essential knowledge seems practical for middle-class students who have normal (and +1 standard deviation) IQ scores and no special educational requirements, but so many students fall outside these parameters. They should not be set to this standard. Students who do not fall within this parameter should have a different standard. They may need a higher or lower standard, depending what is being required of them. People of all levels of intelligence and income levels play an important part in society, whether they are a brain surgeon or a trash collector. Society needs these people, but I do not think society would place the same basic educational standards on these people.

With that being said about creating different levels of basic educational standards for different people, why is our state government making students take the same standardized test and requiring them to have the same basic levels of skills. State leadership knows that there are varying levels of class, intellectual capacity, and language skills in its residents, so why is their one I-STEP? That is a stupid question, it is money. I-STEP requires approximate $30.2 million annually to administer the test (http://www.ista-in.org/display.cfm?articleid=103). The price tag could reach in the billions if every student was to be evaluated, given a standard, and given an appropriate revision of the I-STEP. This type of assessment is impractical. Therefore, one standard is set for all students.

Would it be great that all students could be held to the same standard? Sure. Would setting a specific standard affect the individuality of the student? No. Does individuality make setting a standard impossible? Absolutely! Issues regarding race, class, gender, and mental capacity make it impossible to set the ideal standard. It would be great if this could happen, and it seems that government officials would like for it to happen, but to do so would be optimistic, impractical, and impossible.

Warm-Up Activity

Devising a warm-up activities that allows me to learn some personal information about my students is not one of my stronger characteristics. As a natural introvert, I would try to keep it simple without trying to make sure I used all the learning modalities: visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and tactile. However, I would be willing to get it a try.
As someone who has a hard time learning names, I would require the students to make name tags for their desks. This could fall under tactile. While they are making their name tags, I would have each student stand up (kinesthetic), tell me their name, a hobby, and if they like the end of their toilet paper over the top of the roll or rolling down the backside of the roll. The visual would be the name tag and seeing the student. The auditory would be hearing their information. The toilet paper comment is something silly to mention, hopefully used to lighten the mood.
I would also use the toilet paper comment to see if the student is "too cool" to make a silly comment. In P250 at IUSB, the T.P. comment does set the mood for first day introductions and set the personal atmosphere of the peer mentor groups.
This comment takes for granted that the student's T.P. hangs on a roller (and takes for granted that they have T.P. at home). In SPEA I was trained to not take things for granted, and be aware of gender, race, and class issues. (Thank you, Otis Grant, for training me well!) So, I do not know if the T.P. comment should be added to introductions. (Please, reader, let me know what you think in the comment section.)

Reflection on my own Secondary Ed. Experience.

I went to school at a small, rural school. My hometown population was 4,500, and my graduation class was 96 students. I went through secondary school during the early and middle 1990s, graduating in 1996. I do not remember much about my middle school experiences, just primarily high school. I remember most about school is my mathematics classes, especially trigonometry and calculus. I saw them as my college-prep classes and tried to learn what I could before going to Kansas State.
I remember my teachers as bordering the extremes in their teaching styles. There was the low-end teachers that tried to do the bare minimum, counting the days until retirement. Then there was the other end that saw themselves as crusaders, trying to be super-teacher and be the saviors of education. There was not much of a middle ground.
As for other students, they were extremists also. They were either friendly or bullies. I socialized with people before school and during lunch, but I did not hang out with anyone after school. That changed when I was a senior, started dating, and hanging out with another guy my age that worked at the bakery.
When I beginning my 10th grade year I got a job at the local bakery. I would arrive at work at 5:30am to make doughnuts, then go to school. I would fight to stay awake in my classes by trying to take notes. I would go home, do homework, go to some type of social club twice a week (Boy Scouts or Taekwondo), and go to bed around 10pm. What I remember most of all about my overall school life was that it was very structured between school, clubs, and work.
The grade I recall with fondness was my senior year. I was fit from cross-country, I had a girlfriend, and in November I was awarded a full-ride scholarship to Kansas State.
The grade I would like to forget is 9th grade. I HATED physical education class (the only class I got a B in). The upside of that year was my algebra teacher who made math a subject I wanted to continue to study.
I did not experience too much pressure from peers and parents. My parents wanted me to pass my classes, take four years of band, get an after-school job when I was 16 years old, and go to college. I did not have much peer pressure until I was a senior, having pressure from my girlfriend.
As for my overall feelings while I was in school, I felt like I was just floating through. I always knew I was going to college, so I always had my mind set of getting out of my hometown. The only time I felt like I had strong feelings was during my freshman year, which I really hated with a passion.
If I was to give advice to someone in secondary school, it is to take advantage of as many opportunities as possible without stretching yourself too thin. Take part in activities, talk to teachers. I took college night classes starting my junior year, having 15 credit hours by the time I graduated. There is going to be good and bad experiences in secondary school. Experience them because the experience will provide a foundation for what is encountered after high school and with life in general.

iMovie Upload

It certainly was an adventure trying to make an iMovie. I would like to try uploading my Japan pictures with my step-son's Mac. It was fairly easy, except trying to get the music/sounds to work the way I wanted it. Oh well. Currently, YouTube said it would be several hours before my video could be viewed. When available I will embed it into this post.

Update: 6/11/08 - Here is the embed

Using "Tube"

I have been using YouTube for about two months to study for the Praxis II exam. I am using math instructors to help me get reacquainted with some algebra and trigonometry concepts. It works great because I can access YouTube from the V.A. office on campus (where I work) and watch math lessons.

These three videos are from a subscription on YouTube called “MathTV”. The lecturer has various videos on algebra, trig, and calculus. I am also current subscribed to “yourteachermathhelp” and “MIT” (from actually classes at MIT!). I need to explore for other mathematics subscriptions.

These three videos from "MathTV" are 2 lessons on trigonometry. (I have also noticed that many lessons have requested that their "embeds" be disabled. Therefore I will not be able to embed them into a blog.)

Use of Jeopardy PPT

I believe the use of the Jeopardy PPT will be useful to me in the mathematics classroom. However, I may have to bend the rules of the original game by posting the questions first, then make them give the answer. The game board I would leave the same.
As a two-time P250 peer mentor and going into my second semester of U100 peer mentor, I have found PPT games like Jeopardy and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire useful. My mentorees want to play them and they learn from the questions and answers.

Podcasts

I have been watching podcasts for about six months now. I will go to ITunesU and download free mathematics lectures from MIT or NJIT. I have been using them to review for the Praxis II exam. Since I cannot remember how to do everything that is required for the exam, I use these podcasts as a reminder.
As for education, this evening I have found two subscriptions that I think might help me in the classroom. One of the subscriptions is "Mathematics in My World". It is training tool for Algebra I and II students. Another subscription with these students in mind is "MathClass101". There are other podcasts that work with Calculus, Statistics, and math I am clueless about. However, I am looking at Algebra I and II because I have been notified that I will be working with Discovery Middle School, P-H-M School Corp. for my student teaching. It will be these courses and general mathematics topics that I will be concentrating on during student teaching.

Taylor Mali - What Teachers Make

This was shared to myself and my fellow Transition to Teaching cohort members. I have found this video very inspiring to become a teacher.

IPhoto Reflection and Accompanied Brainstorm

As an aspiring mathematics teacher, I can see how IPhoto can be helpful to geometry lessons. I can take pictures of sculptures and architecture, and incorporate it into a geometry lesson. The down side is that it cannot help me much more than that. I scanned the Indiana standards for various math subjects and my imagination did not come up with any ideas on how photography can help me teach these subjects. The up side is that the concept of making books with pictures did bring up a good idea.

Technology I would like to bring to the classroom is Mathematica and Geometer’s Sketchpad. I can make booklets that include problems and graphs from these programs. I have thought of making overhead projections using these programs, however I did not think of making booklets until I used IPhoto.

Technology Trends

I graduated high school in May 1996. It was shortly before this date that I had my first encounter with the Internet. In the school library I looked up the Air Force public website while the librarian talked me through the process. In a freshman mathematics seminar I had my first experience sending email via the university email system. Throughout my undergraduate studies I had an Apple IIe computer, a pre-windows device that I only used as a word processor. If you look at the work-cited page of my undergraduate graduation paper (May 2001), my sources were books that I either bought or looked up in the library. There was no mention of Internet sources.

As a graduate student in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs (SPEA), I had to learn to perform research over the Internet and learn to use Microsoft Office applications. It was not until I started my graduate program that I had a windows-based computer and Internet access at home. When I finished my SPEA degree in December 2007, I was using research material from the Internet.

It amazes me how far technology has gone in the last 12 years. I look at students who are now entering their undergraduate studies and I see how much their lives revolve around the Internet. Even with the military, I am required to take ancillary training via the web. A part of me thinks it is ridiculous on how dependent we are on computers.

I understand that technology is very important in meeting people in today’s world. I admit, I met my wife via a Catholic chat room. I watch my step-sons playing games like World of Warcraft with friends located in different towns. I still do not understand the purpose of Facebook and MySpace, but people spend copious amounts of time developing their sites.

Since this technology exists, teachers might as well use it to their advantage to help educate their students. Until recently I was reluctant to incorporate technology into the mathematics classroom, but with experience with computer programs like Mathematica and Geometer’s Sketchpad, I am willing to add technology to curriculum. I know that I will soon be learning how to make web pages, podcasts, imovies, and who knows what. If there is a way I can incorporate this technology into the classroom, I am willing to give it a try. I will not be learning just for me, but for the sake of educating students.