Blog 23: Final Lesson Reflection

1. what are you most proud of in your block presentation or senior project?
I think I am most proud of my independent component 2. By preparing students for the math field day, I was able to get first hand experience on working with students and teaching them different topics that they need to preform well on the math field day tests. I'm proud of this because I was actually able to work with students and teach them materials, in a way I was the teacher, and this is the best part of completing my independent component 2.

2. A) What assessment would you give yourself on the block presentation?
I would give myself a P because I completed all of the necessary requirements.

B) What assessment would you give yourself on your senior project?
I would give myself a P- because I completed most of the material on time.

3. What worked for you in the senior project?
Networking, I was able to show many of the teachers and administrators at my mentors school that I was capable of teaching a class of a few students certain materiel. From here I can tell that many of the teachers enjoy my presence and would be willing to work with me next year.

4. What didn't work for you in the senior project?
I would have been very helpful if we continued the research checks as a weekly assignment instead of whenever the teacher felt like it. I know it wasn't necessarily Mr. Rivas fault, and he was just trying to create a relaxed environment, but having weekly research checks would be awesome so that students do not fall behind like I did

5. Has the senior project been useful to your future endeavors?
Yes, the senior project has actually taught me a lot about what it is like to be a teacher and many skills that I will be implementing when i become a teacher. I want to teach physics when I get older and so it is pretty cool that I already know a lot about certain trick that will help that.

Blog 22: Mentorship

Literal: 

Done

Interpretive: 

I learned how to work with students which is really helpful because i plan to work with them in the future. It also taught me a lot about how students react to different teaching Methodist and people in the classroom. It also showed me the classroom flow and how things are set up. 

Applied: 

This has helped prove my best answer which is communication. This showed me that without proper communication, students can not succeed in the class and will often resort to doing childish things and not completing anything. This is bad. However, it proves my essential question and it is something many teachers need to work on. 

Blog 21: Exit Interview

(1) What is your essential question, and what are your answers?  What is your best answer and why?

What is the best technique to teaching 7th grade math in terms of maximizing scores on standardized test? 

My three answers are teamwork, communication, and patience. My best answer is communication. 

(2) What process did you take to arrive at this answer?

It was the best out of all the other answers. There were flaws in the other ones. 

(3) What problems did you face?  How did you resolve them?

Most of the problems were with he other  answers, it was pretty easy to get over them i just did not make them my best answer. 

(4) What are the two most significant sources you used to answer your essential question and why? My best source is probably my mentor, she was able to give me first hand experience . My other best source was probably an article called Eight Grade Math Curriculum and Standards which taught me exactly what I needed to know about the math curriculum and what is being taught in school. 

Extra Blog: April

Pretty much were finishing up the senior projects and its almost time to present. I am currently freaking out out the idea of talking for an hour, but like i'm going to have to do it. I guess I will have to get over it soon and see what happens. I have been working on the things I am going to say and what my activity will be. I just hope everything goes swell, and I get a good grade.

Blog 19: Independent Component 2

Literal: 

a) I, Nick Ayala, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 37 hours of work.

b) Cite your sources regarding who or what articles or books helped you complete the independent component? 
Ellenberg, Jordan. "Don't Teach Math, Coach It." The New York Times. The New York Times, 24 July 2014. Web. 22 Jan. 2015.

Hattar, Micheal M. MATH IS FUN. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.

"Teaching Math: Grades 6-8: Communication." Teaching Math: Grades 6-8: Communication. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Feb. 2015.

c) Update your independent component 2 log.
done

d) Explain what you completed.
For my independent component, I coached a group of students in order to prepare them for a math field day. The math field day, held at Glendale High School, this year is a culminating event for the math counts competition. What I did was coach the student on the different kinds of math problems they would be facing. Under my supervision, the students had to complete difficult problems in a short amount of time, work together to find a solution to group problems, and take many tests in order to prepare them for the actual Math Field Day. At each meeting we held, I would give the students warm up questions which they had one minute to complete, then I would move to the main activity, followed by a short test, followed by a debrief. The student who scored the best was usually rewarded with some kind of candy. This was incredibly helpful because first it helped me understand the dynamics of a classroom a lot more. It also prepared me for talking for 2 hours which is going to be helpful in my two hour presentation. Finally , this helped support my best answer because it showed that with proper communication, teachers could teach anything to anyone.

Extra Blog: March

This month I began working with students who were having difficulty with the classwork in my mentors class. By doing this I was able to see first-hand what worked when teaching students a difficult subject. For the most part it was just communication. Communicating the correct way to tackle the problems was an important factor that I had to work with the entire time. My mentor doesn't have time repeat herself over and over again so when it cam to these students, some clarification was needed for them to completely understand the subject. This just helped me decide which one of my answers the best. I believe communication is incredibly important and that when it is done correctly students will be able to understand any aspect of the subject.

Blog 18: Fourth Interview Questions

1. What is the most important part of teaching?

2. Do you believe that teamwork is important to learning math?

3. How do you implement teamwork into your classroom?

4. Do you find that students do better when asked to preform in teams?

5. How much time is set aside each day for teamwork?

6. IS communication important while teaching a math class?

7. What is the most dificult thing to communicate to your students?

8. How much time is set aside for actual lecturing time in class?

9. How often do you communicate with parents?

10. When communicating with parent what are some of the things you go over?

11. Is patience important while teaching a math class?

12. Did you find it difficult to transition from learning higher level math to teach lower algebra 1 material?

13. How much time is set aside for students to work individually?

14. How often do you check on your students and how they are doing on problems?

15. do you usually assign difficult problemns for students to try and then give them plenty of time to attempt them?

16. What time of problems do you assign for homework?

17. Why is your classroom set up the way it is?

18.How long have you been teaching?

19. How much time do you put into teaching math?

Blog 17: Answer 3

what is the best technique for teaching algebra 1 in terms of maximizing scores on standardized tests?

patience is the best technique to teach algebra in terms of maximizing scores on standardized tests.

Patience makes students work on their subject without letting getting stressed

Patience allows teachers to work with students who do not understand the topics well

Patience allows students and parents to figure out what is going wrong at the school.

"Teaching Children Patience - Classroom Caboodle." Classroom Caboodle. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Mar. 2015.

I believe patience is an important part of the classroom because it allows for better student teacher relationships which will better the education of the students. This will help everyone become better students and teachers. 

Extra Blog: February

This month I began work on my independent component 2. In my independent component 2 I am going to be mentoring a group of students so that they may participate in a math field day at my mentors. Before I was able to do this however, I had to find the correct students and prepare practice problems and tests. In order to find students I chose from the top students in the class and had them take a test and the ones who scored highest were allowed to be on the team. After that I had to create practice problems. The most difficult part about that was finding problems that were difficult for the students to complete but still important for them to learn. I started off with basic linear equation problems and the group seemed to understand it more so next I will be working on implementing word problems. The math field day questions are essentially simple problems worded in order to confuse the students. So I believe it would be good to get students to take apart a question and see what it is truly asking. This will help students later in the math field day and in higher level math classes.

Blog 16: Answer 2

1. What is the best technique to teach Algebra in terms of maximizing scores on standardized tests?

2. The best technique to teaching Algebra in terms of maximizing scores on standardized tests is by implementing teamwork in the classroom.

3. The best technique to teaching Algebra in terms of maximizing scores on standardized tests is by maintaining good communication between students and parents?

4.1 Good communication allows for constant monitoring of students.
4.2 Good communication allows teachers to seem more approachable about aspects of the class that students might find difficult
4.3 Good communication also allows teachers and parents to assure one another that everything is okay with he student and that they are excelling in class.

5. Gallegher, Emily. "The Effects of Teacher-Student Relationships: Social and Academic Outcomes of Low-Income Middle and High School Students - Applied Psychology OPUS - NYU Steinhardt." The Effects of Teacher-Student Relationships: Social and Academic Outcomes of Low-Income Middle and High School Students - Applied Psychology OPUS - NYU Steinhardt. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Nov. 2014.

6. "Building Parent-Teacher Relationships." Reading Rockets. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Feb. 2015.
"The Positive Teacher-Student Relationship." The Positive Teacher-Student Relationship. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Nov. 2014.

7. I beleive that without proper communication between teachers students and parents, not much can be completed in the classroom. However, with the correct amount of attention and constant communication, students can easily prosper in the class and in life.

Blog 15: independent component 2 approval

1. For the next 30 mentor ship hours, I intend to prepare students for a math field day. My mentor is in charge of a group of students who have excelled in their class and are being considered to attend a math field day where they will go head to head with some of the brightest minds in the area. Here, these students will use their previous experiences and other skills they learned, to achieve the highest score and bring back awards for the school. I will be in charge of these students this year, I will act as a mentor for them. I will create lessons to prepare them for difficult concepts and subjects that will most likely appear in the field day. I will be going after school, and prepare the classroom, and then prepare students by teaching and assessing their strengths and weaknesses.

2. I will be helping students for 1-2 hours after school everyday, and I will also be setting up lesson plans and mock test to prepare them for what they might experience at this field day. I will also be attending the field day as their one of their coaches, since I am not a teacher, I will not be able to be the main coach, but I will work with the students regardless.

3. This will help me explore my topic more because it will show me what it is like to work with students of a high caliber, and also allows me to understand what it is like to work with students one on one. It will also show that through communication and relationships with the students, we can achieve more and perform better at the competition.

Independent component 1

• LITERAL
  (a) Write: “I, Nicholas Ayala, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.”
  (b) Cite your source regarding who or what article or book helped you complete the independent component.
• Mr. Murillo
• "CPM EBooks." CPM EBooks. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Feb. 2015.
• Dean, Ceri. "Mathematical Practices for Deep Understanding." Educational Leadership:Getting Students to Mastery:Mathematical Practices for Deep Understanding. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Sept. 2014.
(c) Update your hours in your Senior Project Hours link. Make sure it is clearly labeled with hours for individual sessions as well as total hours.
• (d) Explain what you completed.    
• With the help of mentor, and through setting up previous lessons, I have set up a lesson that I will teach to my mentor's class. 
• INTERPRETIVE 
  Defend your work and explain its significance to your project and how it demonstrates 30 hours of work.   Provide evidence (photos, transcript, art work, videos, etc) of the 30 hours of work.  
  
• My lesson is important to my project because it gives me a chance to have a first hand experience with these students and allows me to implement some of the ideas that I learned and see what works and what doesn't. To prepare for this, I helped my mentor set up some of her lessons and sat in on her class while she taught to see what it was like. I also helped teach the Saturday school classes, and after school programs. 
• APPLIED
  How did the component help you understand the foundation of your topic better?  Please include specific examples to illustrate this. 
• This component is important because it shows me first hand what teaching students is like, and how they interact with the teacher, and what techniques are best to get everybody to understand what is happening. 

Extra Blog: January

This month in my mentorship, I worked with the students. More specifically, I worked with students in groups. The way my mentor sets up her class, is so that the students work together in groups of 3 or 4. She usually teaches a lesson followed by an activity, and that allows students to work together and understand what the lesson was about. I helped out by going around and checking to see that the groups were on the right tracks with their ideas. Through this I learned that for the most part, my mentor knows her students. She usually pairs up one or two of her lower kids with someone who is doing well in her class, and that usually lead to a collaberation between the students to get a mutual understanding of the topics. This technique seems to be really good because the students work efficiently and help each other out.

Lesson 2 Reflection

1.What are you most proud of in your Lesson 2 Presentation and why?

I am most proud of my activity, it was really creative and I think it worked pretty well. 

2. a.     What assessment would you give yourself on your Lesson 2 Presentation (self-assessment)?

AP

     b.     Explain why you deserve that grade using evidence from the Lesson 2 component contract.

I believe I did a pretty good job, the only thing is that I didn't make time, but I was nervous and pretty much rushed through everything.

3. What worked for you in your Lesson 2?

I think the activity and my power point were both well done. 

4. What didn't work? If you had a time machine, what would you have done differently to improve your Lesson 2?

I would have gone back and practiced my presentation again and maybe added more info on my power point.

5. What do you think your answer #2 is going to be?

I think my answer 2 would be having a teacher who cares and is very open with their students.

Blog 12: Mentor ship 10 hour check

1. I am doing my mentorship in Pico Rivera, at Rivera Middle school.

2. My contact is my mentor, Mrs. Laura Murillo.

3. As of right now I have 15 hours.

4. In the 10 hours of service, I helped my mentor teach students, and walked around and helped her students who needed a little more one-on-one time. I also helped set up lesson plans.

Blog 11: Holiday Project Update

1. Over the break I worked on creating lesson plans that would help my mentor in her class, as well  as read a couple of books about working with teenage students and teaching math. Finally, I made posters that would supplement my mentor's lessons about equations and graphs.

2. I learned that many students are helped by a visual when being taught something. Students who didn't understand the subject would be able to use the visual to their advantage and figure out what was going on. Using posters lead me to figure this out.

3. I would probably talk to one of the 6th grade pre-Algebra teachers, Mrs. Gomez. Mrs. Gomez knows more about teaching using supplementary visuals, and other tools to help students than many other teachers.

Blog 10: EQ

1. I reviewed the rule of 3 for writing an EQ

2.a. This looks fast and sloppy and does not work well because it is too general.
     b. Yes. Frame work narrows the question down to a very specific topic. Takes a stance by having you choose a side. Specific enough for the topic.
    c. Yes. Framework makes the question more specific, and forces reader to take a stance.
     d. No. The framework is not that great, and is not that specific.

3. Revised EQ: What is the best technique to teach 7th grade Algebra in terms of maximizing scores on a standardized test?