Content Portfolio

Content Portfolio: Here it is!!

What a crazy semester this has been; but oh how incredibly rewarding it has been. Working on this portfolio has given me the opportunity to reflect on some of the mathematics that I was able to teach this semester and the wonderful students that I was so fortunate to work with! Although I did not feel comfortable providing an example for four of the standards that are listed, I am confident that I would be able to discuss these standards with proficiency or develop an exemplar in the future (Student Teaching).

So a theme of this blog (in the few posts that are available: to be continued) is to raise more questions than answers, thanks in particular to professors that stress the importance of continuing to grow and to reflect in this profession, I have begun to try and ask how I can improve more than I can advocate for how well I have done, so what about now? How am I ever going to ask more questions about my abilities as an instructor from artifacts that I have already reflected upon?

I accept this challenge and have actually had more difficulty writing the support for these artifacts because I feel more comfortable asking how I could improve them than tell why they support my proficiency in the standards. So lets get on to these questions!! To begin with, a question that has been in the back of my mind all semester is how are all of these artifacts going to look if I take them into another class? How will they look when the group of students I am working with is completely new? I think that a continuum of these artifacts is going to allow me to adapt particular pieces to fit the students I am working with or the setting I am in.

Additionally, I am ever more curious about what others are presenting. Do I want to copy them? Do I want to know what I should submit? No, absolutely not! I want to talk with these colleagues, I want to discuss what worked and what did not work. I want to see how we can work together to find new artifacts that have not been used before.

Wow, look at me go, I am like a super teacher over here! I've got all of these artifacts, I am ready to try and adapt them to new settings, and I want to collaborate to make new products to help students learn mathematics. But that's not how I feel. I know so many other people around me have the same feelings, so many others are willing to do the same things and more! I'm more excited about this profession than I have ever been before and am excited everyday about the new experiences or ideas I may encounter! This doesn't make me a super teacher, nor do I feel like I am completely ready to run my own classroom and leave this whole college thing behind. But I do feel like I am ready to work with those around me to make this a great profession, ready to work with students everyday to find solutions to problems, and incredibly excited to continue working with those that can give such great advise!!

In regards to this collaboration and coming up with new ideas, let's look to a great mind to help us see how incredibly detrimental it can be if this piece is not incorporated into our profession:

Last Observation

Observation: Questioning

What:

            During instruction, there are many dimensions to your teaching that can affect the learning and success of your students. One important dimension to consider is questioning. What types of questions are you asking and how can this questioning be improved?

            There are many questions asked throughout a lesson, so how do you begin to assess the nature of your questioning? I am fortunate enough to have an instructor come observe a lesson that I lead and examine the questioning that I use throughout a lesson. I am particularly interested in the dialogue that will occur after my lesson and the ways that I can improve my current level of questioning.

So what:

            So the lesson went seemingly well, with a dialogue throughout. I was trying to allow students to talk their way to understanding the concept of scientific notation and tried to use questions that would help this understanding. The dialogue after the lesson gave me the opportunity to see the questions I was asking and, in particular, the types of questions that I am using during a lesson. It is easy to fall in to a place where you ask knowledge level questions (eg. “what is…” or “how do I…”). The challenge and learning for students occurs when questioning moves into the unknown and students begin to formulate ideas of what happens “if” or “why” something happens. Without an outside observer, it may be difficult to personally reflect on all of the questions you ask throughout a lesson. Throughout this dialogue it became clear that reflecting on the questions I ask and working with students to hone my questioning skills gives me the opportunity to help students succeed in the future.

Now what:

            So now what can I do with this new understanding of my questioning skills and how to improve? I can use this knowledge to help move from asking simple recall questions. Since each lesson will present new and diverse challenges, it is important to plan ahead and incorporate effective questions into the plan before you begin instructing. This will also give a chance to reflect on these questions before they are asked. Unfortunately it can be much more difficult, or nearly impossible, to change a simple question into an inquiry question mid-lesson, or after a question has already been asked. Therefore this planning ahead is incredibly important!