Week 2 Thoughts

Unit DescriptionUnit TemplateI was really upset when I heard that this week's webinar presenter could not make it.  A few years back, I took a moodle class through UAA.  Our district runs a moodle site and gives teachers access to the site to create courses of our own.  I really liked the moodle set up and enjoyed creating a class.  My class was not much of a class, but more of a place where students could go to keep up with assignments and exam dates, and ask questions or set up after-school appointments with me.  I did this for a year.  It worked well for most of the year and participation dwindled as the end of the school year approached.  I believe the next school year started off slow for me, as I was on maternity leave until November and I just never started up the moodle site again.  In conclusion, it has been a while since I have used moodle and was hoping this week's webinar would be a great refresher for me.

However, I did enjoy the reading and videos on UbD.  It is one of those concepts that you read about and say, "Duh!  Of course it works.  That just makes so much sense."  With the amount of standards that we have to cover in our curriculum and the short amount of time with which we have to accomplish this task, it just seems smart to determine what you want your students to know and to be sure to build your instruction and activities around that understanding.  Throughout the year, it seems there is always something that pops-up that takes my students away from the classroom - MAPS and Aimsweb testing that happens 4 times a year, LEP testing, someone from the district wants to meet with the sophomores and juniors this week, our school is hosting an NYO tournament this week and we need the team to help prepare and set up.  It takes away from the little time that we do have to cover all that we need to cover.  UbD allows you to cover those important concepts that your students cannot succeed without.  Once you have your essential questions established, then you can build in those meaningful activities that are going to engage your students and give them something to think about and discuss.

Finally, understanding understanding was an eye opener for me.  I enjoyed the puppet show which did a great job of summarizing what Chapter 2 discussed.  I can always tell when my students understand what I have taught by the way they tackle extended assignments that I give them.  There are the group of students that start tackling the problem and then there are the students that read through the problem and automatically say - this is too hard.  My students have also never understood the concept of studying, and they are not really good at recalling information.  Therefore, I can always tell the students that understand from the ones that don't because they can still work problems about a specific concept a month down the road.  They understood the concept, therefore they remember how to solve the problems.  Unfortunately, I find that this does not happen often enough, which makes me think I should really work on creating some great meaningful activities for my students this upcoming year - I am hoping I will be able to do this using more technology.


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Week 1 Thoughts

I have learned a lot in one week.  Most amazingly, I have a Twitter account and a blog - two things I never thought I would create.  It was a fun learning experience. One that I do not think is quite over :)  The FERPA webinar was also a great learning experience.  One of the discussions that still sticks out in my mind is their definition of parent.  Much like Barbara, I also teach in a small Alaskan village where the definition of family is lax.  Many of my students were adopted as babies by aunts and uncles, grandmas and grandpas.  However, they consider their birth parents just as much a parent.  Sometimes, during parent-teacher conferences, I do not know which parent will show up to discuss their students' progress.  I also have older brothers and sisters who come as a guardian representative, and I always wondered if it was legal for me to share the student information with them.  The definition seems to imply yes.  However, I am worried about one sister who was a SPED student herself when she was in high school and never received a diploma.  I honestly do not think that she is legally capable of being a guardian - her mental state would be questionable.  Do any of you have an opinion on this?

I have been thinking of what type of online class I want to create.  As a secondary teacher of a core subject in my school, I am required to teach an RTI (Response To Intervention) session biweekly to my students.  Depending on the group of students that I have been assigned, I review math concepts that the particular group is having difficulty mastering.  I would like to create an online course that would supplement this RTI teaching session.  There would be a total of 45-50 students assigned to the class, however on a biweekly basis the group consists of 10-15 students.  I am thinking I will create the course as an ongoing study and discussion class.  All students would be able to access the class at any given period to review concepts they are struggling with; however, the group that is meeting during the current biweekly session would be required to access the class, review the materials/strategies introduced on the site, and write a discussion about their learning experience during the session.  If anyone has any ideas about how I could tweek this idea, please feel free to post your comments.  I would love to hear them - especially if you think this would not work at all.  I am really excited about creating this class, but I want to make sure it will be something that will benefit my students' learning.

Introduction

When I was in high school, I wanted to be a teacher.  As I got closer to graduation, I changed my mind and entered my first year of college majoring in Chemical Engineering.  After a year of that, I decided engineering was not for me and transferred to Accounting.  I graduated with a BS in Accounting in 2000.  After five years, I decided I should have been a teacher all along.  I went through the MAT program at my hometown university and in May 2007 graduated with a teaching degree.

I taught high school Algebra I for two years at a local high school before moving to Alaska.  My older sister had already been teaching in Alaska for 5 years and had settled in the small rural Yup'ik village of Newtok.  In August 2007, I began my teaching career in Newtok, Alaska through the Lower Kuskokwim School District.  I teach secondary mathematics, grades 7-12.  I love my job!  I love the community and the environment.

I am currently enrolled in the M.Ed. program through UAS for an endorsement in Elementary Mathematics, grades K-8.  I do not think I will ever teach in the primary grades, but being a middle school teacher, I wanted to learn more about the basics of teaching math.  I want to learn as many strategies to teaching multiplication, division, fractions, estimation, etc.  so that I can be more beneficial to my students - many of them whom struggle with these basic concepts even throughout their middle school and beginning high school grades.