CMP-Inquiry Middle School Interview

Stacey,

Sorry for the DELAY.  I have been swamped and not feeling well.

CMP has developed units that are to address the National Standards that we will start to 
implement this year and more in 2012-2013.

Students that are behind with their basic skills need lots and lots of practice to help 
cement their foundational skills.  Applying these basic concepts to the students 'real 
world' helps the students to see a connection of how the "skills/concepts" are 
used.

CMP does not really have a philosophy for HW.  Everything is to be done in partners or 
groups so that the students can discuss what they have discovered/learned.  The work they 
do is again apart of the cementing. I give HW so that I know what the student knows or 
does not know.  Studebts need practice in order for concepts to 'stick'.

With the larger class sizes this year it has become part of the class to breakdown 
everything into smaller instructional/discovery pieces. I try to do 10-15 min. of 
instruction and then 5 min. of think/share time and then repeat the 'cycle'. The time is 
an estimate depending on what the topic is. In the share time I will be walking around to 
listen to what the students are discussing.  Sometimes it is on topic and then again 
there are times when they are not.  We are giving assessments based on the standards but 
in math we are also assessing the students foundational skills.  Your second question is 
a reason for this assessment piece.

I hope this has helped and again I apologize for the lateness.

Lori

Inquiry & CMP Research

Inquiry Learning Model- I gather that this model is a form of investigation that the answer or outcome is relevant to the individual. The outcome is really important in this.

I read through the guiding principals for the CMP and honestly it could fit any math book. When you read them I feel like every math book ever created could use these as guidelines.
I was a math tutor over at Whitaker Middle School and they used these books. Although I love their light weight and easy to cary around mobility, I also really like how they are more relate-able to the students lives. There are money problems, pe applications etc... So I like CMP's relevance to students lives better than traditional text books who in terms of money problems you will see compounded interest problems (which doesn't really apply to students of this age range).
In terms of direct instruction, guided practice, independent work this all could be implemented to the CMP depending on the teacher. For instance, will a teacher make the students read the CMP packet on their own and do the problems? Will she make them work in pairs? Will she work with them before they break off to work in pairs? The CMP is a good idea, but in the hands of a poor math teacher it can be just as unsuccessful!

Closure and anticipatory set

After searching closure in teaching and various other combination of words that mean the same thing, I have come to the conclusion that closure in terms of a lesson plan is a reminder to the students of what they learned in the day while also wrapping it up while still being meaningful. My favorite site I found for this word was found here. I found numerous definitions and ways to go about wrapping up. This site wasn't bad either.

I know that in my art classroom (practicum) I implement exit slips that ask them a question regarding the topic we went over (or artist), so in their sketchbooks I have them write them down ans well as any questions they have. For a math class I too would make them have sketchbooks. But exit slips would differ a bit. I would have a problem like the ones we worked on in class and have them answer it as best they can, or I would have them make up a problem like the ones from the day's lessons and solve it like an answer key. I would then go over them and see if the students are really getting it. Its meaningful to their learning (they are teaching me) and serves as an assessment tool for me...where are they and are they getting it?

When I searched anticipatory set I found that the definition for me should be an exciting hook to get the students pumped which alludes to prior learning so new learning can be built upon it. I found these two sites helpful.

In terms of our lesson plan, the nest day's anticipatory set could say, Hey, remember when we went out and measured that tree? What else can we think of that is all around us that are triangles? This could then lead us to today's lesson which is built upon the understanding of yesterdays lesson.

Confused, restating what we found on our shared sheet

In my group I was assigned to look over the NCTM standards and I chose the following:
Apply transformations and use symmetry to analyze mathematical situations.
Grades 6–8 Expectations: In grades 6–8 all students should:

• describe sizes, positions, and orientations of shapes under informal transformations such as flips, turns, slides, and scaling;

• examine the congruence, similarity, and line or rotational symmetry of objects using transformations.

I felt that the NCTM were vague like the ones we selected.
My partner online/shared sheet found the following and we compared the two.Draw construct, and describe geometrical figures and describe the relationships between them.Solve real-life and mathematical problems involving angle measure, area, surface area, and volume.

I felt that the three we found fit together well. The standards from all seem very vague and general. In which we selected the ones in which fit the best together.

With our NCTM standard we were assigned to go over the khan website and find a video in which supports our lesson/standard. We chose http://www.khanacademy.org/video/similar-triangles?playlist=Geometry because our subject was geometry.
This video  is direct instruction and a great introduction into triangles. Although I am not sure I would use this lesson, I like what is being taught, I don't necessarily agree with the use of technology in this case.

Practicum- sharing a Lesson

Yesterday was my first day teaching at Judson Middle School. I taught the majority of the classes and it was a 'fun' day with the theme of the Day of the Dead.
Objective: Students will be able to create a papel picado.
In order to get the students able to do this, I showed a brief powerpoint of what the Dia de los Muertos was, where its celebrated and how its generally celebrated. I then talked about Papel Picado's and their function as a Mexican craft and world wide decorative piece. I then  briefly showed my example and folding and cutting techniques. I had stencils if they wanted them, but they were told that they could implement their own design.
I checked the understanding in my formative assessment via exit slips. And no, they didn't get it. BAH! But, this was good for me to see before I start my unit this way I can make changes and place more emphasis where it is needed for the students to really understand what I want them to get. Furthermore, as I was walking around to help and snoop on their progress I realized that the majority of the students were not paying attention when I discussed the methods of folding. I think for future projects that have direct ways of folding or what not, I will walk the class through this while they are doing it. This will get more students where I want them to be!

If I were to reteach the lesson? I would change a lot! I would have more information on the history and make the students do a mini group project to get the information in their heads. I would then walk them through the folding technique together as a class then cut them loose to have fun. Furthermore, because it was a fun day, not a lot of students were productive, this bothered me. I think that if it were my class they would still get a effort based grade for the day, that way participation would be higher.

Appropriate Use of Technology, again 2.2

1. What steps (categories) did the author use to design their Lesson Plan (eg, Step 1: Learning Objectives; Step 2: Materials)? These were not directly stated, so I would only have to guess. And that is that the learning target would be: I(the student) will be able to understand different techniques (angles and ratios) of discovering how to determine if triangles are similar.
2. What types of methods and teaching strategies were implemented?  Direct instruction implementing the use of technology.
3. Describe any applications of critical thinking or problem solving you observed. He does a great job explaining the triangles and similarity. I feel that this (in the class room) could lead to practice problems that the students could do in pairs.
4. If you were to teach this same lesson, what might you change about the delivery or example(s) I would not do this lesson on the computer, this seems pointless to me. Using hands on examples of triangles would be better for constructive learning.
5. If I wanted to do this in my classroom, I would add hands on activities as well (so that they actually have to measure the angles with a protractor). Furthermore I would have practice problems for them to try with their partner (next to them), then go over as a group.

Warm-ups in Math Education

I have been in a variety of math classrooms throughout my lifetime, and warm ups have been apart of the majority of them. Warm ups have different meanings to each class. I personally will use a five problem daily warm up. Two questions will be moderately easy covering the past topic of the week, the third and forth will apply the same concept in a harder more applicable way. The last problem will be a challenge, it will be a problem in which the explanation will follow in the weeks lessons. The last problem will let me see how students would go about solving for it without the proper technique given. This will help me see their way of thinking and help me construct a way that is beneficial for them to understand. Simultaneously the students will feel good about themselves in solving the first two-four problems and let them see what type of problems we are going to focus on in the week to come (they will no that the last problem is just to try, not expected to know).
      So, overall, warm ups are used to boost students confidence as well as let them experiment with new topics/problems. Warm ups are not tests and will not be graded, they will be placed in sketchbooks in which I will read once a week to see their progress. This allows me to see what I need to spend more time on or go over, as well as see how my students go about solving problems without knowledge of a technique prior to solving. This is beneficial because it helps structure the way in which I will teach these new techniques. Problem five of these warm ups are like mini pre-assesments.

Appropriate Use of Technloogy

Our shared sheet can be found here. 

 I found the geometry lesson...it wasn't my favorite, but it was the closest I could find to the standard we found. I still feel like technology is not necessary for math.

OTEN

Hello my blog post reader...went to the OTEN conference today. The first workshop was basically the same thing as our technology class (made me feel smart, I know what everything was). The second one was good. Stellarium was the technology used, but the teacher showed us this is three different ways. Firsts had us write down what we thought the moons pattern was and then explain our thoughts. Then we saw the stellarium example (which was still a bit rough to grab the concept). Then he had us go out side and do a hands on example (which I finally understood)! It was informational as well as introducing a new technology...bah technology. I downloaded the free stellarium, its actually really fun to play with without any purpose. It would be a great activity with ones kids to look it up and actually go outside and try and find the constellations! If your interested you can get to the download from this site.

Task 1-1- educ 533- Best Practices Research

 After doing some research I felt like Engaging the student and relevant learning were the most crucial. I think that both of these can be met by integrating the curriculum. As I stated on my google shared sheet, Math is apart of everything; shopping for clothes (finding percentages off), grocery shopping (fruits per pound), and more importantly ART! Griding, proportions, scale, lighting, perspective, calculations, color mixing etc... Why learn math if it has no meaning to your life? This is why integrating the curriculum is vital.

The majority of sites I visited regarding best practices instruction all include technology, perhaps I didn't expand my research enough but this was upsetting. I feel like all these articles are saying oh man direct instruction is killing students attitudes regarding math, which I agree. But their answer is, spice it up with technology. Although this can be an effective learning tool I feel that this is only adding to the problem. To me, the problem is how we go about teaching. If you are implementing a boring lesson plan than your use of technology will also more often then not be boring.  Some articles really stressed asking other teachers their methods and trying to find what works and building/ taking upon their ideas. Its not stealing when our primary goal is to educate students. I like this. Currently I am doing this at my student teaching site. I am stealing ideas that I like from various teachers, to create what I hope to be the most effective learning style for my class.  Again I am going to stress that technology is NOT the answer. In class activities, projects, real life examples, all of these can be engaging and effective, and I hope to learn more of these hands on construction possibilities in this class.

http://www.mlms.loganschools.org/wested_docs/west_research.htm
http://ozpk.tripod.com/00best
http://www.ctserc.org/s/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&id=8&Itemid=28
http://www.ttms.org/best_practice/best_practice.htm
http://www.tltguide.ccsd.k12.co.us/instructional_tools/Strategies/Strategies.html

About Me...For Math Methods

Hi, my name is Stacey and I want to teach middle and high school art. I always enjoyed math (although its a strange pairing) especially algebra. I recently was a math tutor for a middle school and loved it. I feel like my artzie'ness helped the struggling students. This is why I am endorsing in middle school multiple subjects. I went to Oregon State and received a degree in fine art (emphasizing in painting) and minored in art history.  I was originally a graphic design major, made it through junior year and decided on the off chance I live to be a hundred I didn't want to work in front of a computer for the rest of my life. So bare with me and the technology because I will fight it as much as possible. I love painting, reading sci-fi, eating mint chocolate chip ice cream, and fighting crime...yes I am sarcastic.

'New Tech Standards & Requirements'

Surprisingly enough I skipped over the create technology aspect and really found 2.A and 2.C interesting.It is my understanding that these two requirements want students to work collaboratively, not just with other students but people from other countries by using different technologies. This will bring continents which seem estranged from us, and bring their ideas to the classroom.I thought about this one for a while. I think that by having my students sign up for something like Blue Canvas would be extremely helpful as well as satisfying the technology requirements 2.A and 2.C. Blue canvas is exactly like facebook except its for artists or wannabe's. Essentially you sign up, create a profile and upload your artwork. Once thats said and done, you can explore other peoples artwork from across the world, you can blog/message back and forth. This is a great tool for artists to see work outside of their norm, to see other cultures and societies and their processes. I tried to create an account this summer to see what it was all about. So I just went in and finished it up, you can see my page of art and at the top you can search other art to explore from.

The third rule I liked was 6.A. Which to me was to get the student out in the computer/technology setting explore in order to use. I would add an element of creativity to this rule. So, for my high school students final project I would want them to create a slide show of all their work from the term. This would be open in terms of what application would be used, whether they want music or text etc... So once they had a general idea of what they wanted to do they would have to explore the technology tool on their own and figure out how to manipulate it to their specificity. Here is my example of what I did this summer using Youtube (they would use art work):



With this all being said I do see a lot of challenges mainly concerning computers and location. I have never seen one art classroom with a computer. So I would be assuming that all students have access as well as internet outside of the classroom. This is a big assumption that cannot be made. Perhaps I can work a deal with the technology person at my school, that my students one day a month can fit in and work with the technology. Also, the majority of art networks involve blogging/instant messaging, something that is not permitted on school grounds. I would have to talk to the principal regarding a way around this dilemma.

Assignment #5: Multimedia Project (applies to CA 6.35)

I found an old cd which had all the images I used to create a (fast motion)movie in Flash when I was a graphic design major. The origonal movie I created was about my personal experiences with working at Disney world and the 'infamous Piglet Incident.' So I went to picasa and created a web albulm. I uploaded the movie frames which just converted them as photographs. You can make a movie using picasa web, however it is very very basic. So, never using youtube (outside of searches) I decided I was going to explore this avenue. I created an account, clicked around and found where I make my own videos. It allows you to pick different movie genre's in which to create your movie. I chose Stupiflex and photography settings (which makes the video jump around from frame to frame. From here I imported the photo's from picasa and bagan clicking which frames I wanted in the movie segment. For a free movie (using stupiflex) it has to be under a minute. This program is very basic as well. My orginal movie should be numerous frames a second so it appears to be moving in real time, however the fastest you can get the frames to move is three seconds (where I would want 1/4). So, if you want to create something basic to get your point accross this would work great. But if you want a real video with decent functions I would suggest doing it in another application and uploading it into YouTube (know that I know how to do that!). I then saw that I could add my own voice or do text to speak function. I have never worked with that so I chose it. It was fun to write everything and here 'jane' speak it back to me. I demo'd the movie, and then published it.

I feel like this could definitely be a helpful tool to an art teacher. Doing the same demonstration seven class periods a day would be redundant and a waste of materials. If I recorded myself demonstrating the project at hand, at the beginning of the period each class could watch the 'how to/what to do' and we could discuss afterwards. This would be beneficial to me because I would have this demonstration saved for life, I could use it for years to come without worrying what I did with that project for this up coming year. And although this took me forever to figure out (all the different programs) I am confident that I could get in and create something in less than five minutes!

Analyzing Student Data in a Spreadsheet.

This project didn't take me nearly as long as I was imagining. This was really similar to Excel and although it has been years since I used it, it was pretty self explanatory. I could definitely see myself using google docs for grades, its pretty simple to use and much more reliable than my hand written organizational skills!

The link



I think I did it! Heck ya. I did add another chart which will probably be confusing to other people. I liked it because I could look at that student and see where there lines are on the spiral. Perhaps not the best choice for easiest data analysis but effective for this project. I am not sure why the second chart won't open. When I click on it in preview mode it lets me see it, but not on my blog post... hmm...I will work on this.

My Favorite Web2.0 tools

So, from my online surfing I believe Web 2.0 is not a different version of the world wide web, but a name given to aspects of the web that are constructivist in nature. So anything that is truly collaborative/sharing/group working applications fall under this tittle Web 2.0. So for me, the web is like the broad category art, and web 2.0 is like  specifically painting (in which painting has numerous mediums, oil, acrylic, water color, en-caustic etc...).

TeamViewer is a Web 2.0 program that is free online. You can either use it once or just download it so you won't have to do all the steps every time you want to use it. I have already used this program with the teacher, and it is a great tool for students who really struggle with technology if you have a teacher who is willing to help. Basically you download the application (or just use it once) and it asks for a code, it gives one person (the student) the code and you have to give your teacher the code so they can punch it in to their computer. Once all codes are given the teacher (or person you gave the code to) has access to your computer. In my case, the teacher moved the cursor and told me step by step what he was doing on my computer screen so I could see the steps I needed to take. This is a great tool for students who are struggling technologically, having computer issues, or need step by step guidance in completing tasks.

UStream. I signed up and it was free. It took me a while to figure out what the heck I need to click on, it reminded me of youtube where there is just so many video's to watch I was lost in a see of garbage...but the tittles help. So you can click on education and educational streams will pop up (like Al Gore and the 24 hour project). To create your own you have to click on your user name in the right hand corner, again I got lost but just explored numerous buttons.

Oh man, this was not fun. I couldn't get my web cam to work, then every time I accessed my main channel it would freeze firefox and I would have to close out and get back into it. So, I am not sure if my little angry video will work but here is my attempt:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/turn-this-is

After cooling off from this assignment I started thinking about ways I could possibly use this (although highly unlikely)! In art, often as the teacher you give demonstrations of what is expected or going to happen in a project. It would be a lot easier for a teacher to Ustream herself completing the project, and then playing it to all seven classes. This would make her day less redundant as well as being able to save the demonstration for classes and years to come! So, that being said there is one upside to Ustream, even though it is a vile  program :)

Google Docs Group Project

The purpose of this assignment was to get us acclimated with Google Drawing.

At first I thought this was just a lame version of paint, and I was thinking art students would use Photoshop over this any day. BUT...The idea that students can work on the same project simultaneously is really unique and I believe it adds collaboration in a fun new way that I believe younger students are unfamiliar with. This collaboration could enhance learning especially for students who are a bit confused or lost. When paired with other students they can look at their work, derive a better understanding of what needs to be done, and expand upon it. For instance,  I like the idea that an artwork should never be in exact in your mind before you start a project.. I feel that this leads students to disappointment ( EX: I really want to make a realistic face, but when creating it they see its not like how they in vision it, they get upset, frustrated and generally give up). An assignment can be given for groups of three to create a face using Google drawing at home. Hopefully at the end of this lesson, the students first impressions of what they wanted it to look like will be very different. This is because the other students have their own idea as well and they all have to merge them together to create something, hopefully, that wasn't invisioned from the get go.

In terms of my contribution to the group, we all played around and created this image/text/nonsense document as an experiment. It was nice to do it at the same time in the classroom because I could turn to Andy or Megan and say 'hey how did you make that, or change that font?' We also made the notes open so we could all add something that we learned or thought was beneficial. Take a look at our masterpiece:



Well...I will post it in another window, having trouble getting it to post because it is from my Willamette site and it won't recognize it...bah

Post number two

I could see this beneficial for a college art class. Blogging could be used as a diary of process or at home painting projects. The Blog could be a great diary tool, so show at the end of the term what they struggled with and how they overcame it! It also would be easier for them, in terms of not loosing the information and being able to compile their final thoughts.

I read through the math blog and found that helpful. I guess in terms of me searching for new and crafty ways to teach math or art, searching professional blog posts might be a nice tool (although I am struggling trying to sort out personal from professional). Its easy for me to scan through their posts and find one that is relateable instead of doing searches for each one.

The article's I read stressed the importance of writing for students.  That facebook, texting and twitter are all forms of writting but not at a higher level (generally). Blogging could be meeting these students half way. They could keep a personal blog/diary of the class (struggles and successes) while writing in a more professional manner (full sentances, grammer, punctuation). This would prepare them for college, writing classes, and job/careers.

Personal Bio

My name is Stacey and I want to be a middle/high school art teacher, who will possibly teach a few math classes. I love painting (oil), cats (I have a few), movies, hiking and the color blue. I went to chemeketa for my associates and then transferred to Oregon State and was going to major in graphic design. During my junior year I realized that on the off chance I live to be a hundred I don't want to work on a computer for the rest of my life, so I dropped that and eventually discovered painting. I love portrait studies and just got the courage to submit some work into the fair, so if your there check it out! I would like to teach high school painting and maybe a math class (I really like algebra) part time and work on painting. My five year plan is to create a strong portfolio and apply to U of O's Masters in painting program so I can teach college level painting part time and be selfishly creating my own work simultaneously. I am obviously new to Willamette and their online tools as well as Wise. I hope to at least understand all these things before I leave!