Fostering communication

 

A central goal of my math instruction is for my students to become fluent producers and consumers of mathematical ideas.

 

• Share their ideas
• Defend their ideas

Students should learn to skeptically evaluated and defend claims,

commit their ideas to print

They will learn

• Using HTML and wikis to share knowledge on the web
• Use Microsoft Excel and Processing to manage data and prepare graphs
• communicate and defend political, economic, mathematical and scientific debates

One of the main ways students will use mathematics in their future lives is to use quantitative analysis to mount a persuasive argument.

Students should learn to include graphs, charts and basic

as effortlessly as they would

 

My Job and Your Job: The Classroom Compact

It is my goal to

1. Be prepared and on time
2. Provide sound advice
3. Answer your questions and demand that you think
4. Make it fun
5. Push you
6. Listen and Laugh
7. Work Hard
8. Help you set challenging and worthwhile goals
9. Help you meet those goals
10. Make clear what is interesting, important, and useful in each class topic

I ask that you

1. Be prepared and on time
2. Follow my advice
3. Answer my questions and ask good ones in return
4. Have fun
5. Push yourself
6. Listen and Laugh
7. Work Hard
8. Set challenging and worthwhile goals
9. Concentrate on learning the subject rather than memorizing for a test
10. Seek out what is interesting, important, and useful to you in each class topic

 

Alternate formulation:

Your responsibilities:

• Set high standards,
• Make steady progress,
• Work hard,
• Think deep,
• Have fun

My responsibilities:

• Set high standards for my teaching,
• Help you monitor and improve your progress,
• Work Hard,
• Blow your mind,
• Have fun.

Need to have understanding of roles with

1. Students
2. Parents
3. Fellow teachers
4. Administrator

 

Engages student families in their childrens education and responds appropriately to their concerns.
I plan to send out an introductory letter at the beginning of each semester, describing my approach to the class, an overview of the course goals, and the classroom mission statement. I would include a detailed syllabus that would indicate the frequency of homework and the dates for major projects, so that parents understand their children's obligations.

One unusual strategy I would like to employ is that a few times in the semester I plan to ask students to teach and discuss a topic from class with someone in their family, and test the results. Besides the constructivist benefits of teaching and discussing a topic with someone outside the classroom context, this positively involves the student's family in a way that hopefully is fun for both parties.

 

Professional Community

Engages in collaborative decision making and problem solving with other educators.
Many of the lesson plans in this portfolio were developed with other prospective teachers.

 

Hardcore Hardball is team-taught between math and

 

 

Professional Responsibility

I have pledged to abide by the Revised Code of Ethics and Standard Practices for Texas Educators. I also agree with the principles laid out in the New York State Code of Ethics for Educators:

1. Educators nurture the intellectual, physical, emotional, social, and civic potential of each student.
2. Educators create, support, and maintain challenging learning environments for all.
3. Educators commit to their own learning in order to develop their practice.
4. Educators collaborate with colleagues and other professionals in the interest of student learning.
5. Educators collaborate with parents and community, building trust and respecting confidentiality.
6. Educators advance the intellectual and ethical foundation of the learning community.

I will use these principles, as well as my teaching philosophy and a focus on students' goals, as a guide for the tough ethics questions that I may confront during my teaching career.

 

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Creates learning activities that emphasize collaboration and teamwork.

"positive interdependence": for example in the Football Running Routes lesson, students had to analyze whether their individual routes crossed, and if they collided. This meant that each student relied on their teammates correctly determining their player's path and location in time.

See also: Questioning Strategy section

 

 

Classroom Management

My Classroom Management approach comes directly from my teaching philosophy. I create a course plan that helps students find what is personally relevant and interesting about the material they learn. I show them, rather than tell them, how mathematics will be useful in their everyday life, in other subjects, in later classes, in college and in the real world. If I can create a community of learners that are all invested in a goal and see our class as a time to work towards that goal and perhaps enjoy it then I will have done my job.

 

 

• Create a classroom community
• Classroom Contract
• Mission Statement
• Clear and Dispassionate consequences

Policies

Harlo's Classroom Policies

Rules

This is a starting point. If you see the need to add or alter a rule down the road

 

Problems?

1. Cheating,
2. misbehavior
3. falling short
4. resistance strategies

 

Classroom Management References

Mendler, Allen N. Power Struggles: Successful Techniques for Educators, Discipline Associates (1997).
ProTeacher Classroom Management Ideas
Ideas for Many Areas of Classroom Management
Student-Teacher Development in Classroom Management -- case studies in classroom management.