Special Needs Students in the Regular Classroom

     I have always had a strong opinion about special needs students in the regular classroom because I have a cousin who is one of them. He went to public schools until he was about 14 years old. The teachers thought that he had reached his maximum capacity at a regular public school so his parents took him to a different school. Daniel is very smart for his age and I believe if they would have kept him in the regular classroom where he was use to the atmosphere and use to his peers he would have done a lot better. He graduated from high school with a regular diploma.

    I am no expert in special needs students in the regular classroom by far but just from my own observations this semester it became a big concern for me. I believe that if special need students can do well in a regular classroom then leave them in there. I noticed a lot of the students in the classroom encouraging the special needs students to do his or work and was just really nice to them. I am always an advocate of encouraging others to do the best he or she can and it just makes the whole world a little bit better. Special needs students have enough struggles as it is and I believe that school just be an encouraging place where each and every student can be their self and it be a learning environment.

Final Philosophy Statement

      At the beginning of the semester I would have never thought I would learn so much. At the beginning my philosophy was lecture and only lecture. I thought that the key to understanding the material is to constantly lecture to the students over and over again hoping that the each student eventually understands the material. That is how it was at my high school so I just assumed that it was like that for any school. Boy am I wrong! Lecture is not the key to understanding material at all, especially when it comes to mathematics.
  
     Lecture is not a very important factor in teaching anymore. Yes there are some days where all you can do is lecture but it is not something that one should do each and every day. Technology in the classroom is a concept that I never witnessed while I was in high school so it was totally new concept to me when I went into a classroom that used a lot of technology. I was skeptical about the whole technology idea until I saw it in action. I always thought that technology always has issues and it never works correctly and once again I was wrong. Technology is a great tool to use in the classroom especially when you want to show the students great online videos and tutorials that relate the topic you are about to teach. Technology gives students so many opportunities that past students will never have. I will definitely use technology in my classroom as much as I can.

     I also have learned that group activities is a great way for students to learn. I always thought that group work was not a great idea because when I was in school I was always the student that did the work and everyone would copy off of. My theory on group work has totally changed this semester. While observing the teacher would assign a lot of group work and it was amazing to see how each student did his or her own work and how they collaborated with each other to solve the math equations. Not a single student that I saw copied any work from another student and that gave me a lot of hope with group work for my future classroom. I hope to use a lot of group activities in my classroom to that the students can help each other which most of the time is more helpful than the teacher trying to explain the concept.

     My philosophy statement has changed a lot throughout the semester and I believe that it has changed for the better. I'll be able to relate to my students more and be able to make my classroom a great learning experience for each student that enters my room.

Practicum Final Reflection

    Observing for 35 hours this semester at Berry Middle School opened my eyes to so many different ideas that I have never thought about. I love how each grade has "teams" and it allows the students to get to know a small portion of their grade and they actually become really close friends in the end. I got to witness a lot of the topics that we talked about in class in the real classroom, especially when it came to the use of technology.

    I saw a lot of technology being used in the classroom. The teacher that I observed under always used a bell ringer for the beginning of class and she would always have it projected from the projector from her computer which I thought was pretty neat. The students had a mathematics project that each student had to complete in two days and each class got to go to the computer lab to complete the project. They used excel and they learned how to graph scattered plots which showed the students exactly where the best fit line is. I never realized how much technology can be used in the classroom when it came to mathematics until I went to the school and saw it myself.

     In the classroom that I observed under I learned a lot of differentiated instruction and how the teacher incorporated several different ideas to teach the concept so that each student could fully grasp the content. The teacher I observed under used a lot of online videos especially from YouTube to introduce the students to the topic that they are about to learn. I learned a lot this semester observing at a great school that I will take with me when I become a teacher.

4MAT REFLECTION

    Before learning about 4mat in the classroom this semester I had no clue what this meant. I figured 4mat was the whole concept that the students were going to learn. 4mat is a lot more than just that. When I think of 4mat, differentiated teaching/learning is the first thing that comes to mind. I have never thought about different types of learners in the classroom until we talked about it in class. I never knew  that differentiated teaching could occur in the classroom until I witnessed it myself while observing at Berry Middle School.

     Differentiated teaching allows each learning type to learn the way he or she learns the best. It allows the students to actually grasp the material being given to them. I knew that students learned different ways such as by doing or by listening but I did not know that there were 4 types of learning. I realized how hard differentiated learning can be at times especially in mathematics when it comes to certain topic ideas. The math teacher that I observed under told me to "always do your best and if you are doing your best your students will learn".

    I will definitely incorporate differentiated teaching in my future classroom because I want to be able to reach all of my students in the classroom. I have always been a type 2 learner and to be able to incorporate the creative side of teaching excites me a lot. It really allows me to think outside of my comfort zone and be able to think about different ideas for my students.

Lesson Plans Reflection

     I never knew it took so much work when creating lesson plans for the classroom. I have never created a lesson plan until this semester and I was a little overwhelmed at the beginning. After doing 4 of them I kind of have the general idea now of what a lesson plan is suppose to consist of. I had to think a lot about using technology in the classroom and how to relate math topics to the students lives and how it can relate to them. When I was in high school it was all about lecture, take notes, and take a test. Now teachers must incorporate technology and ideas that relate to the students. I actually enjoyed creating lesson plans because it allowed me to think out of the box and be able to be creative for my future classroom. I have never been a very creative person until I had to start creating my own lesson plans. Doing observation hours at Berry Middle School this semester really helped me grow as a future teacher.

    I believe that a quality lesson plan have the following characteristics:

• The topic relates to the students
• Uses technology in the classroom
• Differentiated instruction
• power point lectures
• the flip that we have talked about in class
• videos
• online tutorials
• inquiry-based labs
• debates
• picture analysis
• reflective notebooks

     Coming from a background where I knew nothing about different methods of teaching I have learned a lot about lesson planning and how to teach in the classroom this semester. I grew up with just lecture and I always just assumed that teaching is just lecturing in front of the classroom each day but it is way more than that. It takes a lot to teach in the classroom each day and I never realized that until now. I have grown a lot with my teaching methods and I hope to gain more each semester to become the best teacher that I can be.

Goals In The Classroom / Learning Environment

     In my classroom there will be goals on the bulletin board. I will put different goals up on the board each week to give the students the responsibility of achieving goals daily. This will give my students responsibility in the classroom instead of always relying on me to tell them each day what their goal is. When I mean goals in the classroom I actually mean assignments or projects that we do during the week that need to be achieved by the end of the week. From previous experiences when students achieve a goal it makes them more ambitious and willing to accomplish the next goal.


     Another aspect that theclassroom will have is that everyone will be respectful to each other during the 50 minutes that they are in my classroom. For a student to succeed it is hard enough without others making fun of one another or talking about each other. In my classroom nobody will judge one another by an answer or question in my classroom. There is not a dumb question in my classroom if it helps the students learn. I will also respect my students and give them the up most attention while in my classroom.


 For my core curriculum I found links and information on  the Alabama state department of education website:
http://www.alsde.edu/search/default.aspx?query=math%20core%20curriculum

Technology In The Classroom / Classroom Ideas

    







       Technology in the classroom . . . if someone would have said this during my high school years I probably would have thought they were crazy. My high school education consisted of sitting in old desks, taking notes in a spiral notebook, and listening to the teacher lecture the whole 50 minutes. We thought it was cool that the school had an intercom to communicate with the office from the classroom. When I was in high school the only technology that we used were computers and old ones at that. I was on yearbook staff my junior and senior year and that is the only time that I used technology while I was in high school.

     Observing in a classroom setting my very first time in college, I was astonished at how much technology was used in the classroom. I observed at a new high school building under a math teacher and she used a lot of technology in the classroom. I took a lot of ideas from her classroom because the students actually engaged in the topic and it was a lot of fun for the students as well. I believe that technology is great idea in the classrooms today because this is a technology world and technology is a lot of what students use today. Using technology in the classroom would help tie together school work with the student. I found a YouTube video showing how well technology has worked in an Oklahoma teacher's science classroom:

Ideas For Technology In The Classroom

     I have a lot of ideas for technology in my classroom. First of all, each student would be able to use a laptop in the classroom. I would go over a lecture and then my students would get on the Internet to find different ways and methods of solving the same problem that I did on the board. I decided to do this because not every student learns the same way. Some like learning each problem step by step and then there are some students who want to learn a shorter way to do the problem and still come out with the correct answer. The Internet is full of different ways and methods of doing mathematical problems and my students will become well-rounded in math by learning different methods and ways of doing math.


     Another idea that I came up with for my classroom does not have a lot to do with technology as the first one. While I observed  in a classroom I saw students doing math projects. Sometimes it is very challenging to find math projects for the students to do in a specific subject area. The students in that classroom learned about Pascal's triangle and the teacher printed off patterns that the students could choose from and while working out the triangle it made a pattern. The students got to design it and color it any way that they chose. I want my classroom to not only be a lecture type class but also a well-rounded classroom where students learn by doing different things each week.

  I also have the idea of having a math fair just like a science fair. I found a great website for high school and middle school students where they can pick and choose from the list and that could be their large project for the semester. The students would be able to use the Internet, library books, videos, etc. anything that they can find that relates to their project topic. I noticed that a lot of students enjoy doing the science fair projects so why not do a math fair project? Here is the link where the students would pick a project from in their specific grade: http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/Intro-Math.shtml

Why I Want To Teach Mathematics / Purpose of Math

    









     Teaching mathematics is not a very easy job, especially in high school. Math has always been perceived as the hardest subject in school. Mathematics takes students to perceive numbers in a totally different way especially when it comes to algebra, trig, and calculus. Math makes you go "out of the box" so to say and think about ideas in a totally different way. I hear a lot of times that "I will never use this in the real world once I graduate" but to be honest everyone uses math in his or her daily tasks. Without math we would not be able to add how much our grocery bill is each week, how much our bills will be per month, or even how many pairs of shoes a teenage girl has in her closet. We use mathematics a lot more than what we think we do.

      I want to become a math teacher because I want to make learning math educational but also fun. I want to get away from the stereotype that math is hard and show each student that they can succeed in math just like any other subject. When my students leave my classroom each day I want them to have a deeper understanding of math. I want to be not only a teacher and role model to my students but I also want to be an encourager. I want to encourage my students that they can succeed daily and to never give up on a dream. I want to be able to help my students not only in the classroom but in life itself. I am also going to be the teacher that comes early into school and stays late in the afternoons to help any student that has questions about math.




I found a great website that talks about why everyone needs to learn about math and how math is commonly used day to day. http://www.mathguide.com/issues/whymath.html

My Inspiration For Becoming a Teacher

"Why did you want to become a teacher?" 

       That is the number one question I receive at least once a week. Changing my major from nursing to math / education was definitely a huge change for me. My biggest inspiration for math was my junior high school teacher Mrs. B. I went to a small Christian school in center point and with a graduating class of only 25 there were not a lot of subjects one could choose from. I started loving math my first year with Mrs. B. She was the teacher that one wishes every child would get. She not only gave me my strong background in mathematics (especially in algebra) but she also showed me that I could do anything that I put my mind to. Mrs. B. was very serious about her math classes and every student knew it to. We would play algebra games in her classroom the day after we learned a new subject to get each student familiar with the new equations. She made math fun and interesting, not scary and terrifying like most students perceive math to be. She would come into school early and stay late in the afternoons to help each student succeed in her classroom. Mrs. B's math classes were the hardest classes at PCA but she encouraged each student to strive in her classroom. I want to be a great math teacher just like Mrs. B. was and to always encourage my students that they CAN do math and that they can succeed in anything that they put their mind to.