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

Here is my assignment 2A, where we were required to create a Learning Map for the week in which we are working out how our one day of teaching is situated within the grading period and within the unit.  The learning product for this module is the Birthday Polynomial Project (adapted from another blogger) is in the next post.  Worksheet Steps  1-10* Step Activity Grading Period Content Planning Find 9 concepts:  Structures of Expressions Quadratic Equations Functions and Their Features Geometric Figures Similarity and Right Triangle Trigonometry Circles Conics Logarithmic Functions Polynomial Functions Unit/Week Organization Select one week’s concept (big idea) to use as content: Polynomial Functions Divide content into 5 Minor Content Areas (5 smaller ideas) one for each teaching day:  Operations on Functions Binomial Expansion End Behavior Determining Roots of Polynomials Features of Polynomials Scope & Sequence Order 5 Minor CAs into

For Discussion 2B, my warm-up is similar to these  Diamond Problems . The worksheet is close of a warm-up activity I normally do. I usually do not give out a worksheet, I just make up my own numbers depending on what I want the students to work on for the upcoming lesson. I then write the diamond problems on the board and have the students copy them into their workbook. I start with numbers on either side and tell the students to write their product on top and their sum on bottom. After they practice that, I give them the inverse, ask them to find the two numbers that yield a given product and sum. This warm-up activates prior knowledge because students will need to be able to add and multiply integers in order to factor, but they are not being asked to factor yet. I am simply making sure that students can determine the numbers that they will soon use in a factorization. Since it is pretty easy for students at the 10th grade level, it builds their confidence and gets them intereste

For Discussion 2A, I chose the following video: https://www.khanacademy.org/math/ap-calculus-ab/riemann-sums-ab/rieman-sums-tut-ab/v/simple-riemann-approximation-using-rectangles I chose a video from Khan Academy. I often use Khan Academy, not as a replacement for instruction, but as a supplement. I use it for students who are absent, need a quick refresher of a topic, or cannot understand my instruction. I have especially chose this video because I have used it before. This past school year was my first year teaching AP Calculus, which has presented me with a slew of new challenges.  Riemann sums, the topic of this video are not the most difficult topic in Calculus, but I found it difficult to model. As shown in the video, it is very visual and requires a lot of drawing. This proved difficult for me on the white board, where i often messed up the exact points on the graph, the shape of the graph, or the straight lines needed. Though I tried to do it on my own, this video really

Here is my Learning Map for Assignment 1B. I know that the assignment says to use the map we made in TED 632, but that was over a year ago for me and I didn't like it, so I made a new one. I used the last week of school that I taught, where my Integrated II students were getting a jump on Integrated III/Precalculus topics. I had some difficulty coming up with the real world applications, because polynomials tend to be a bit abstract for these students. Though it didn't go into any of these real world applications, one that we often talk about is roller coasters. polynomials can be written to represent the same of roller coasters to help designers and physicists accurately create safe and fun coasters.  Day of the Week Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Essential Question When we add functions, do we still have a function? Of the same degree? What about when we multiply functions? Do we have to factor (x+1) raised to the 6 five time

To be honest, I don't feel that Grasha's Teaching Styles Inventory was very illuminating to me. Maybe it was just the way that I answered all the questions, but I felt that it didn't really tell me how I taught. All the answers seemed to be close, but it deemed some of the areas high even though the number seemed low. Maybe this doesn't make sense to me because I am more of a visual learner (see previous post) and it didn't include a diagram. Or because I am a mathematical person who relies on number sense and objectivity and the quiz deemed a 2.87 High while a 3.12 Moderate (see the post before the previous one). Regardless of the scoring system, the quiz seems to have identified my teaching style as "Expert." This actually makes sense to me because I am quite good at math (I have yet to see the word " humble" appear in any of my questionnaire results). My degree is in mathematics and I am currently working to get my Masters in Mathematics

According to a learning style quiz available at https://www.webtools.ncsu.edu/learningstyles/ there are four continuums of learning: Active vs. Reflective, Sensing vs. Intuitive, Visual vs. Verbal, and Sequential vs. Global. Upon taking this quiz, I found that I am pretty well balanced in the first, second, and fourth continuum leaning slightly toward active, sensing, and global, respectively. The main area that I seem very unbalanced in is Visual vs. Verbal. According to this test, I almost completely favor a visual learning style over a verbal one. This means that I prefer diagrams, photos, and maps over things like text and explanations.  Fortunately, I do not think that this will be a huge issue for most of my students. As one can expect, I often teach how I learn and add visuals to the mix as often as possible. I think that in the age of immediate access to information social media such as Instagram and Snapchat, many students are becoming more visual learners. Math itself is oft

After taking two personality questionnaires, I have discovered my personality is ESTJ, which stands for Extraverted, Sensing, Thinking, and Judging. For me, being extraverted as opposed to introverted is quite the advantage in my line of work. I like discussing ideas with others and learning from my peers. It also allows me to talk to students and build a rapport with them. Being extraverted allows me to open up more channels of communication which helps me to get things done efficiently and exchange ideas freely. I am more Sensing than Intuitive, which means I prefer to focus on concrete facts and step-by-step instruction. This makes sense within my content area, mathematics. Math is based on concrete ideas and is often done in a step-by-step fashion. Mathematics is also an appropriate content area when one looks at the third part of the personality type, Thinking over Feeling. I prefer logic and facts as opposed to how something makes me feel. Math does not contain tone or emotion

Hello all! Nice to meet you you! My name is Delanie Ipsen. I am a math teacher at Pacheco High School in Los Banos, CA. I just wrapped up my second year teaching last week and I am so excited that we are entering Summer break. I am going to be using my free time during the summer to finish up my final credential courses (I'm soooo close) and prepare for the next school year. This upcoming school year I will be teaching one section of Integrated Math I, one section of Integrated Math II, and two sections of AP Calculus. I have been putting a lot of effort into improving the Calculus class. I have known that I wanted to be a teacher, specifically a high school math teacher, since I was myself a high school student. Math was always my favorite subject. I liked taking a large, complex equation and simplifying it until I could find the desired answer. I also enjoyed math because it was not subjective and "the numbers don't lie," and the fact that it can be applied to man