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Developing as an Educator

Math does not hate

math does not discriminate

math loves all

Professional Growth Goal

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At the beginning of the 2019/2020 school year, I set two goals for myself:

 

1. Complete the thesis for my Master's Degree

The completion of my thesis was an overdue goal from 2018 when I was enrolled in the master's program at the University of Redlands. Due to the overwhelming amount of work I had in my first year of teaching, I did not have enough time to complete it. Fast-forwarding to the COVID-19 epidemic, when my school district announced that school would be the week before our Spring Break, I saw the opportunity to complete the thesis. And complete it I did. I ended up using the statistics I taught, making the thesis a very personal product.

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2. Implement AVID strategies in my core classes

During the summer of 2020, I attended the AVID Summer Institute in San Diego. There I received my training to be an AVID teacher, and I was told that I HAD to implement AVID strategies in my math classes. I thought this would make my job more difficult, but it actually came pretty naturally. Recalling my experience as an AVID student, I knew the best place to start was with the notetaking process. Taking a note from Stats Medic, I learned that I can teach students informally, then have them revisit the notes while making annotations using the formalized math, and trick students into writing a summary by calling it the "Big Ideas". This style of teaching is called "Teach first, formalize later" and is the structure I use to teach my AP Statistics and Integrated Math 3 classes.

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Math is life

Math is love

Math is universal

love math

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CSTP Self Assessment

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The results of my CSTP Self Assessment are actually very similar from the beginning of the 2019/2020 school year to the end. The CSTP categories are listed in the same order, despite the fact that for some answers I ranked myself differently. At first, I thought it meant that I had not improved, but after trying to reason through the results and reflecting on my work, I realized that the categories I am stronger in are likely always going to be my strongest aspects. The fact that I teach a subject where students always have gaps in their knowledge and understanding of the content means that CSTP will always be my priority.

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Professional Goals

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1. Learning Italian

I began teaching myself Italian with no intention of having it aid me in any way to teach. However, during my first year as a teacher, I ended up getting a few foreign exchange students, one of whom cam from Italy. This student made me realize that knowing any additional language, no matter how unlikely I am to actually need it, will only benefit me. I thought the only other useful language for me to learn would be Portuguese since I already know Spanish and many of the immigrants that come into California come from Central and South America....right? Either way, what I learn about the Italian language and culture is something I can also bring into the classroom.

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2. Learning American Sign Language

When it comes to providing support for my students who have verbal communication issues, I can think of no better form of differentiation than learning sign language. In my opinion, it is a rather ignored language when I hear people talk about interests in learning new languages, but it shouldn't be. I often see businesses displaying information in multiple languages to help customers, but I never see any attempts to help out anyone who cannot talk. I used to work as a cashier, and I always felt bad when the only thing my mute/deaf customers could do was point at pictures of something they wanted. Considering that I also have parents of students who can only communicate using sign language, learning it will be my priority after I am done learning Italian.

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3. Work with local businesses

As the teacher of a subject that has so much real-world applicability, I think I have a huge opportunity to make an impact on the community surrounding the school. Interestingly, my school is situated in a town where people seem to value locally owned businesses (particularly restaurants). In the future (near future I hope) I wish to contact the local communities in the hopes of providing my students with opportunities to apply what they learn in the classroom, help the local businesses, and provide work experience. Unfortunately, as a new teacher I am rather swamped, but once I have this job down and I do not have to spend so much time lesson planning, those businesses better watch out.

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4. Work with a bank?

Okay, I am not sure about this one, but this idea came from some Wells Fargo workers. I invited a few representatives from Wells Fargo to come to my classroom and introduce basic financing ideas to the students (with the relation to math being how loans and money in bank accounts change), and they explained to the students how credit scores affect communities (apparently the businesses that are brought into cities/towns are based on the community's average credit score). I got the idea that maybe through a partnership with a bank or two I can help the town's community improve by properly educating students about finances. I have no idea if this is a decent idea, or if I am even allowed to do this (have yet to talk with my principal), but the students seem to be very interested in this idea. To quote them "it is what (they) wished school spent more time teaching".

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Math is life

Math is love

la matematica e immortale

Math matters

math liberates

la matematica e amore

Love life

love math

math brings fortune

math knows no hate

Advice for new teachers

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1. Learn to converse with students

Finding commonalities with students has made my job easier. Many students are very timid or have no interest in the subject I teach, but that verbal barrier always breaks when they learn that I have similar interests to them. When opportunities present themselves (and I am not busy) I have quick conversations with students about their day or common interests; it builds on the atmosphere that I try to create where students can feel comfortable while they do their math, two things that often don't go together, unfortunately. Additionally, it can be fun to have small arguments with the students over trivial things; I will never apologize for saying that my favorite chocolate bar is peanut M&M's.

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2. Learn to like noise

While the amount of freedom students have to talk should vary from class to class and grade level to grade level, it is in my opinion that no class should ever force students into complete silence. I remember fearing and disliking those classes when I was a student, which overall lead to my grades dropping. Plus, the silence is just weird. I play classical music in my class to both promote mathematical thinking and to fill the silence. The kids seem to be overall more productive with a little noise. In the end, trying to create a completely silent classroom is a losing battle.

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3. Be open to ideas, especially those from students

Often, lazy people come up with the best ideas. But in all seriousness, students are quite creative when given the opportunity, and it does not hurt to hear from another perspective. In my personal experience, students like to give input when it comes to simplifying content (to make it easier to understand for others) and improving efficiency in class procedures; oftentimes when they do not want to do something physical, they will find a way to accomplish the goal in lazy but creatively unexpected ways.

math does not discriminate

love math

math is your friend

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