Miss Ipsen's Blog

Unfortunately, I only able to access one of the texts for this course, Checking for Understanding , by Fisher & Frey. I liked this book because in the past I have struggled with assessing my students and finding out they knew less than I thought they did. I have made it my personal goal to find as many ways to check for understanding as possible while remaining efficient and effective. The ten main ideas from this book that I want to take away are as follows: 1. Determine the purpose of the lesson with clarity. 2. Give lots of feedback. 3. Checking for understanding is not the final exam. 4. The difference between formative and summative assessments. 5. Implement the "Backward Design Process." 6. Use Intentional Targeted Teaching. 7. Employ Think-Pair-Share. 8. Develop hand signals. 9. Use foldables. 10. Try common assessments and consensus. For more information on each of these takeaways, view my PowerPoint Presentation: https://docs.google.com/presentation/

http://www.symbaloo.com/mix/teachingmath10 This is the link to my Symbaloo. I have never made a Symbaloo before, but it was kind of nice because I was able to put a lot of the links that I often use in the same place. I included all the places I need for school like our gradebooks, calendars, and the learning management system I use. I also added some of the places I go to inspire my lesson plans, including other blogs I follow and places where I have found some great ideas. I have also included the links to the CCSSM and the Standards of Mathematical Practice so I can reference them quickly when designing a unit.

In my opinion, the main goal of assessment is to determine how well the students are understanding the material. From this assessment, we can determine whether there is a need for reteaching and which students require a different approach to the material. On the other hand, I believe that grading is meant to be an evaluation of how much the student has learned or how well they have performed.  These two ideas link when an assessment is actually a reflection of how well the student is performing. Often, I give a lot of informal assessments throughout the learning cycle. This include quick quizzes and exit tickets as well as other methods of informal assessments. Because I teach math, which I believe requires a lot of practice, all of my classwork and homework are graded on completion. Students know that they will get credit, even if the answers are wrong, but these assignments allow them to practice for their exams, which will be graded on accuracy. Because my department recogniz

There are a lot of different definitions of authentic assessment, depending on the subject area and the grade level. In my high school math classroom, I consider an authentic assessment to be something that relates the curriculum to the real world. For authentic assessments, I usually like to use a performance task. In these performance tasks, they start easy, with vocabulary questions and basic questions on the material. Then, then task becomes more and more complex, including problems that extend the student's thinking. Therefore, I am able to better assess exactly where each student stands with the material.  One of my favorite authentic assessments for Integrated Math II is for the Right Triangle Trigonometry unit. After we have covered all the material, I give them a performance task that involves them going out onto campus and finding the heights of several campus landmarks using trigonometry. It starts with them creating a homemade clinometer

From teaching this lesson, I learned a lot about teaching and about my students. First and foremost, I learned some more about how to format and organize my lessons. Before being exposed to the unit planner, I just took a chapter out of the book and taught it straight through. I often wondered what some teachers’ rationales were for skipping around in the book. I now realize that many of the existing textbooks do not exactly have the most effective sequencing for my particular group of students. I also learned that students are more efficient when they are allowed to collaborate and speak with one another, but it is only effective if the teacher is closely monitoring students. I also learned that no matter how well you plan a lesson or a unit, there are many factors that could cause it to need adjustment. It is important to be flexible and not worry too much about the need for change as the lesson unfolds.    This lesson could be changed to be more effective for these students. Hon

Here is my teaching plan, or a rough outline of what my students and I will be doing during the lesson I will be teaching next week. Audience: 10th grade Int. Math II Students Group Size: 20 Time: 58 minutes Equipment: Projector, white board, markers, student workbook, index cards  Resources:   Visual aids Setting: Students are arranged in groups of four where they can all see all visual aids and easily communicate with one another.  Objectives: The learners (student) will: be able to show key features of the graph. Time Concept to be Learned What you (teacher) do or show What learners (students) do Self-monitoring (Hints for teacher) Making adjustments that could not have been predicted  5 min. Warm-up Take roll, monitor student work Complete warm-up activity, collect any necessary materials for the day Make sure you are not blocking the visual. Stand near students who benefit from proximi

Birthday Polynomial Project Today you are going to graph your own unique polynomial using the coefficients of your birthday in the form mm/dd/yy. Write your birthdate on the lines below ____ +   ____  +  ____ +   ____ +   ____ +  ____  For instance, if your birthday was January 1, 2001, your coefficients would be 010101 So your polynomial could be   or    However, if your birthday was December 31, 1999, your polynomial could be   Once you have your polynomial written correctly, choose some of the coefficients to be negative to make your polynomial even more interestin g. Once you have your polynomial, graph it using technology, you may need to zoom in and out to get a better picture (some of the peaks between solutions may be very high).  Then on a sheet of graph paper, include the following: Your name and birthdat e Your polynomial written at the top An accurate sketch of your polynomial Degree & Odd/Even Leading coefficient & Negative/Positive Domain