D. Professional Growth Reflection and Growth Plan

 

D.1 My Growth As A Teacher

I used to believe that being a math teacher involved showing others how to solve math problems and perhaps pointing out connections that I’ve discovered that connect math concepts. Through my teaching experiences and training at Western Governors University, I’ve come to learn that there is a lot more involved to help students master new mathematics skills. Not only must I have a firm grasp on my content, I must be able to accommodate and adjust according to the ever-varying needs of all students. As a teacher, I have found that the majority of students need much more support than simply listening to a lecture in order to master mathematics concepts. They need practice, feedback, then more practice. After a weekend or long break, reminders! 

Before our trigonometry unit, the Secondary Math III teachers in our department gave a pre-assessment. We later met and considered what questions the students answered correctly and what questions the students did not answer correctly. Although right triangle trigonometry was a subject from the previous math course, many students had no idea how to use those trig functions. 75/100 did not answer those questions correctly. We decided that according to the general poor student performance on right triangle skills, we all would need to devote significant time to review those important topics. I therefore modified my class trigonometry unit to include a robust review of trig functions. Discussing this data with other veteran math teachers helped me to grow as an educator because they could give me insight as to why students struggled with certain questions.  They gave me tips on teaching the upcoming unit and I was able to implement some of their ideas in my own lesson planning. For example, one fellow teacher said that in order to help students comprehend periodic functions, he uses a fan-folded paper that is cut into several little figures of people. He explains that a “period” is just one of those units.  I learned that by discussing data with my fellow teachers I can learn from their insights, brainstorm ideas for improvement, and have a greater impact in my own classroom.

As a professional development activity, I have broken down state math standards into small, more understandable chunks, as advised by my school professional development team. The Utah Core math standards are similar Common Core standards and are poorly written in my opinion. They are cryptic and only decipherable with focused study. Sometimes they are too general and therefore left susceptible to varying individual interpretation. In order to properly build the curriculum for my classroom I had to dissect and interpret the standards to see what my students were actually supposed to be learning. During the covid year of 2020 I also had to find the “most important” standards and focus on those, since it was certain that there would not be classroom time enough to cover all the standards. Breaking down my grade level state math standards deepened my content knowledge since I was systemically interpreting all required elements of subject matter content. For example, my 11th grade students need to learn how to “model periodic phenomena.” (Utah Education Network, 2016). I interpreted this as “graphing sine and cosine.” Therefore I know that this is a subject that I must cover during my class. I also learned that graphing a tangent function is a skill only required by honors students, so I did not include that in my plans. 

As a professional development activity, I read a book called “Building Thinking Classrooms” by Peter Liljedahl. In this book, Peter describes several strategies that he has discovered to be the most effective in his own extensive research. One of the strategies that I have found to improve learning on several levels is having the students work in partners while standing at a white board with a marker. Reading this book and implementing this form of activity has enhanced my use of content pedagogy in the classroom in the following ways: Students work out math problems together and explain to each other their thought processes using academic language. For students, there is novelty in using a whiteboard marker instead of pencil that increases engagement. There is an energy that increases engagement when a person can stand up while doing a problem. Because students are physically moving, there is less “drag” and falling asleep in my classroom. My teaching practices and overall pedagogy have improved since reading and implementing ideas in Peter Liljedahl’s book. 

D.2 Collaborating

Before our trigonometry unit, the Secondary Math III teachers in our department gave a pre-assessment. We later met and considered what questions the students answered correctly and what questions the students did not answer correctly. Although right triangle trigonometry was a subject from the previous math course, many students had no idea how to use those trig functions. 75/100 did not answer those questions correctly. We decided that according to the general poor student performance on right triangle skills, we all would need to devote significant time to review those important topics. I therefore modified my class trigonometry unit to include a robust review of trig functions. Discussing this data with other veteran math teachers helped me to grow as an educator because they could give me insight as to why students struggled with certain questions.  They gave me tips on teaching the upcoming unit and I was able to implement some of their ideas in my own lesson planning. For example, one fellow teacher said that in order to help students comprehend periodic functions, he uses a fan-folded paper that is cut into several little figures of people. He explains that a “period” is just one of those units.  I learned that by discussing data with my fellow teachers I can learn from their insights, brainstorm ideas for improvement, and have a greater impact in my own classroom.

D.3 NEA - EdTPA Preparation Materials

The National Education Association (NEA) provides materials to help teachers prepare for the edTPA assessment required for graduation and licensure from Western Governors University. Using these resources to prepare for the edTPA helped me develop as an educator by giving me specific ideas of how to most effectively demonstrate desirable teaching aptitudes. For example, the edTPA Task 3 involves student assessment. In the resource “The Basics of Assessing Student Learning,” the text considers the question, “What does good quality feedback look like?” The work goes on to explain, “Very simply, it is candidates sharing with students what they did well, as well as how the students can improve.” (National Education Association, n.d). Since the materials provided by NEA explained what the edTPA assessment is looking for, I was able to practice, record, and submit evidence of my own effective teaching performance. 

D.4 Future Growth 

I want to be involved in the Latino school community by teaching mathematics in Spanish, their native language. There is a growing number of immigrants in my area, especially from Venezuela. My second year of teaching I was privileged to be the homeroom teacher for a young Venezuelan student who could speak very little English. My Spanish is rusty, but we were able to communicate and develop a great teacher-student relationship. I want to be able to lead, guide and inspire the young people that have come from other countries. I am unique in that I spent over a year in South America and I have lived in and experienced the latino culture first hand. I have already discussed with my department chair and vice principal about teaching math in Spanish in upcoming years. 

I plan to become fluent in Spanish once again. I plan to take a class at the local community college called “Spanish for Educators.” I will attend trainings for teachers that teach in Spanish. I have started reading novels in Spanish. I will watch Spanish TV programs and movies. I am already taking every opportunity to speak in Spanish to those that will allow me to. Even if I do not teach a Spanish math class, I will be able to communicate with my Spanish speaking students in their native language and grow as an influential educator. This will help me to be more involved in the Latino school community.

References

National Education Association. (n.d.). “The Basics of Assessing Student Learning Task 3.” Center for Great Public School. Retrieved from: https://www.nea.org/sites/default/files/2020-06/24292%20edTPA%20Gen%20Ed%20Task%203_0.pdf

Utah Education Network. (2016).  “Secondary Mathematics III.” www.uen.org/core. Retrieved from: https://www.uen.org/core/core.do?courseNum=5630