Masters Capstone: Learn, Design and Technology
My Experience trying to change.
There are always challenges as a teacher. Once I feel like I figured it out another unique student proves me wrong and leaves me digging for more information and strategies to support my students.
Self Pacing my Algebra 1B
My action project in my course Critical Digital Praxis in Education taught by Dr. Letha Mellman inspired me to take action. I identified a problem in my profession. The problem was learning gaps in Mathematics. Students' anxiety in math, due to deficits, impacts their success. In the public school system students are pushed through content at a fast pace, and then moved into classes when they are truly not ready to move forward. This impacts students' enjoyment of learning, confidence in themselves and overall success in high school. I will identify here one solution that could help transform math anxiety in students and give them confidence. I have many other ideas surrounding the reform of math in schools, but this idea is one I can implement right away in my classroom to try to close the gap in the constraints of the public school sytem.
Problem Solution
Learning Gaps in Math
Create a classroom that is based off of proficiency. Students will show they have confidence in one skill before moving forward in the content.
Programs that help the transition to standards based
What really happened.
This proved challenging with the lack of time and resources.
Since no one in the math department at Jackson Hole High School uses standards based learning it became difficult to implement. I dabbled in the resources above to create my own version of what self pacing would look like in my Algebra 1B class (the second semester of Algebra 1 taught in one year).
Problems that I ran into:
1. Grading competency checks took time, and giving students real time feedback on their skills and what to practice was so individualized it was difficult as one teacher to do that for every student.
2. The level of motivation of these students to go at their own pace. The students lack math skills, but they also lack skills such as organization, note taking, studying and how to self initiate work. Sometimes it feels like pulling teeth to get the students to open their computers to watch the lessons and complete the practice. Even when I give them options such as games like quizlet, kahoot, and quizzez, or creating videos, or even creating a colorful poster.
3. I have a support teacher in my classroom with me. I could not do this without her. She has mastered most of the math topics on her own so she can support the students. I am not sure how I would run this class on my own.
4. The small group instruction is awesome, but sometimes as soon as I leave the students are off task.
Portfolio Example:
This is a new assessment style for me
Here are some positives:
1. I got creative with how I asked students to complete their work. I gave them choices, and gave them opportunities to demonstrate their learning in other ways.
2. I tried out Portfolios as an assessment strategy which was inspired throughout this degree program. So much emphasis these days is how to prepare 21st century learners to share, communicate and contribute in the digital web-based world.
Success is tied to our digital presence, and how we communicate, contribute and share to communities.