Math 371 Technology for STEM Educators

As someone who has grown up having a very strong passion for many different subjects in school and having many different hobbies and interests outside of the classroom, I understand the importance of branching out into other fields of study.  My interests include but are not limited to mathematics (obviously), most sciences, history and social sciences, analytical writing, visual arts, and performing arts, such as band and theater.  Don't get me wrong, I was no valedictorian or prodigy who could do almost anything with great ease, but I always felt as though my strengths were very diverse.  At that time, and honestly only until just recently, I had always wanted my strengths to be less diverse and more singular.  In other words, I would rather have been very strong at one discipline rather than average/mediocre at many.  Though at the time this idea sounded logical, nowadays, I couldn't feel more different.  The reason is that now I realize how much each st...

Throughout the time I’ve been in the education system, especially high school, there have been many classes in which we “warmed-up” before our class lecture or activities began. In elementary school, this idea was usually limited to vocal music, band, and physical education, or a class at the beginning of the day. All of these were quite valid classes to warm-up for. Once I got to middle school, there was one more class that added to this idea, and I’m starting to realize why. Once I got to middle school, both math teachers started each and every class period with a set of problems on the board, called our “Problems of the Day,” or POD for short. These problems were usually recall from previous sections or even previous courses we had taken. The POD’s became a staple in their classrooms until I graduated, as I had both teachers for all of my math classes. At the the time, my student mind viewed these problems as tedious and pointless, as it just took time out of our time to lecture a...

From the teachers that brought you, "Stand in front and lecture," and "Here's the answer now figure it out," comes "Everyone quiet whilst you work, I don't wanna hear any talking." Starring Generic Math Teacher, and a special guest by the Social Studies Department. One of the largest perceived problems of math classes in high school, and, frankly, in college is that the lecture lifestyle is the life for the common teacher or professor. The variability in day to day teaching life is somewhat limited and the lifestyle becomes a staple in the everyday life of both students and teachers. Most movies purvey math classes as boring, and there's a large social stigma behind math because of the fact that it doesn't hold the interest in people who don't receive structure well.  Something that I love to emphasize is a combination of fun activities, gamification, and lecture-style teaching in a course to help progress the students not just ...

Everyone knows there is a difference between Elementary Education (K-5/6) and Secondary Education (5/6-12). They are different in many different ways including content, what the school day consists of, and how to gain back the students attention if off track. Today I will be talking about the different type of strategies used to gain the students attention back if starting to get off track.  Starting with Elementary Education, which consists of Kindergarden-5 th /6 th grade. The different types of strategies that I have experienced/seen are as follows:  ·       Repeat the clap rhythm  ·       Saying then answering  ·       Announcing that he/she will wait for the class               I’m guessing we all know what the repeating the clap rhythm strategy is from either our days in Elementary or from us seeing younger c...

Through some of my classes I've noticed that some of the teachers wont give help just answers. And while the answer is nice to have just giving it and nothing else doesn't help with trying to understand the material. I haven't experienced this in any of my math classes but in the ones that I have the teachers are confused that the test don't go as while as they planned. And on the other end of the spectrum their are the teachers that move so fast through the material expecting the students to understand right away because that teacher understands it already. So what I'm saying is as a teacher you need to find a middle ground for explaining your material. But that middle ground is going to change from student to student, because in some cases if you give the answer the students might be able to see where they went wrong and some of them might be able to understand it with a quick explanation.

I want to talk about something that I have seen in my classroom observations, notation. I have seen a few teachers who put little to no emphasis on proper notation. I've even seen a teacher evaluating an expression without using any equal signs! So, the question should be if we actually do need to stress the importance of notation. I think that the answer to this question should obviously be yes. There are a lot of different reasons that we should emphasis the importance of notation while teaching math. First off, it makes learning a whole lot easier. When I observed the teacher who hadn't used notation, I was genuinely confused as to what the goal of the lesson was. I would consider myself very strong in mathematics, and I think that there might be something wrong if I don't understand what is going on.  There is also the issue of your students wasting their time doing a lot of work that means nothing if it has bad notation. Bad notation can lead to total misunders...

       One of the biggest questions I have asked and hear a lot is how to improve student’s engagement. Even for longtime teachers, it can be something they want to improve. Thinking back on my own experiences when was I most engaged? I think several of these very engaging classes can be found with the teachers that still make me want to come back after all these years. Some of the best memories from school were from teachers that may have taught like a pirate. From my Latin teacher reenacting Pompeii with a miniature city and pop volcano to my English teacher that made us act out Romeo and Juliet. Both were able to bring the lesson to life and we took a stronger hold to it because of it. Here I am going to take a bit about the book Teach Like a Pirate and what you can do to be an engaging pirate teacher.        In Teach Like a Pirate, Dave Burgess talks about teaching in three circles. The first is content, this is what you as the teache...