Showcase of Graduate Work
Here you will find a showcase of some of the most important and meaningful work I have done in my Master of Arts in Education program.
My main focus throughout my work and projects was enhancing my teaching of mathematics and students' learning of mathematics, particularly through the use of technology. I believe that incorporating tech tools into students' learning can increase their understanding of certain concepts. Technology in math teaching also enables more effective and creative assessment of student learning. You will find artifacts reflecting this, such as a Minecraft assessment and my analysis of using the tech tool Model Algebra to help students better grasp the concept of equations. These will be under the Mathematics Learning through Tech Tools Category.
A large area of growth in my master's degree was the usage of learning management systems to develop high quality learning spaces for students to learn mathematics. This is very important to me, as I believe that it is important that we make use of the best qualities of online learning and incorporate it into our classrooms as much as possible. Thus you will find the online course module I designed in Schoology which uses the flipped learning model. This artifact can be found under the Online Teaching and Learning category.
Finally, one of my biggest takeaways from this degree, though only one course, was the invaluable concept of positive behavior intervention and support (PBIS). I am very inspired by the work I did in this area of learning, and applying PBIS in my teaching and building positive classroom culture has become one of my biggest goals as a teacher. Thus, you will find a couple of artifacts of my work in this area under the Positive Behavior Support category, one of which is a presentation on home-school communication.
Mathematics Learning through Tech Tools
This is a vodcast I created of me introducing the concept of trigonometry to students. My goal for this vodcast was for me to teach math content creatively through the use of video and voice. I incorporated my own experience of using math in nature to capture student interest and make the content relevant and applicable to life. This gave me the experience of putting together a lesson vodcast for students to learn a new concept in a way other than me lecturing to them in the classroom, such as incorporating this vodcast in a flipped classroom model.
This is a video tutorial of an online assessment of learning that I created using Schoology for 8th grade mathematics. This assessment enabled me to have a deeper look into how a Content Management System like Schoology can allow me to assess my students' learning of mathematics in ways that are more convenient, effective, and creative than without these tools. Using such tools allowed me to create an assessment that was very focused on the learning goal of understanding what a function is, through embedding a screen casting tool and the online graphing calculator Desmos into Schoology.
I embarked on the journey of creating an exciting, engaging, and effective assessment for learning through the use of Minecraft. Here, I created a farmers market in this virtual world, through which students would take the role of both buyers and farmers as they apply the concept of unit rate and best price. This is possibly the most unique and creative, and perhaps most engaging, assessment I created using technology in my master's. I carefully designed it to be a captivating learning experience for students to apply what they are learning in math.
I evaluated many tech tools that I would be able to use in my math instruction. I wrote a detailed analysis of each tech tool, focusing on the role the technology plays in supporting student learning of math, how the mathematics is represented within the tech tool, and a description of the tool itself. This enabled me to build a library of useful tech tool resources that I can implement into my mathematics teaching. The tools I evaluated range from interactive math modeling tools to online math lessons.
Online Teaching and Learning
I designed an online course module using Schoology for a sixth grade math unit about equations. I implemented a flipped classroom model with this module. This gave me the opportunity to be able to create an online unit that focuses on students learning at their own pace at home, assessments for learning, and self-reflection. This format of flipped learning through Schoology would enable me to use class time for giving students personalized and one-on-one help, practice and application activities of the concepts, and project based learning.
(Enter course using the code R4D6N-Z8KFW)
If you do not have a Schoology account, please view this screencast I created for students which gives an overview to learning in this online course module.
This is an infographic about using digital portfolios as a valuable assessment and learning tool at the secondary math level. I created this infographic using Piktochart, which gave me the opportunity to also consider how I might use infographics to enhance student learning. This infographic provides a visual method of exploring different and engaging ways of implementing digital portfolios as a tool of assessment as learning and assessment of learning.
Positive Behavior Support
Creating a presentation on home-school communication gave me the important opportunity to research the positive effects that communicating with students' families has on their behavior in school. This presentation talks about why this often overlooked topic is incredibly crucial to enhancing student learning and behavior, as well as many methods for teachers and other faculty to communicate with students' parents or families.
This is a presentation that would educate and convince my colleagues about the concept of implementing positive behavioral intervention and support (PBIS) in our school. It is meant to be an informative yet concise presentation that includes what PBIS is, realistic strategies to apply it, why it is more effective than traditional classroom management, and how to evaluate the effects of PBIS on student behavior.