My View on STEM Education

Pre-reading

STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. These academic subjects are taught in the education system. There is more of an emphasis and a push now for students to learn about subjects in these four disciplines. Science may include classes such as biology and chemistry. Technology may include computer science. Engineering may include robotics. Mathematics may include algebra and geometry. STEM disciplines push students to question and make observations more so now than before in these areas.

I think that STEM education is important because there are many fields out there that are underrepresented with the amount of STEM disciplinary concepts they contain. There are many fields that deal with computer or mathematical operations like programming and even finance. There is a lack of women in these fields and it is important to increase them in these workforces. Because things in our world are constantly changing these fields are becoming more and more important to help find ways to better support the growing population and in discovering more environments outside this world. Without STEM, the emphasis on the growth in these industries would not be a prevalent.

STEM needs to be emphasized in the public education system. Due to a lack of females in this fields, there is a need to have new fresh minds in those roles to help discover new and more effective possibilities for people. STEM is what helps human beings advance as a civilization and do things more efficiently. Without improvements in medicine and technology, we would still be living in primitive times.

Post Reading

After further research, that there is a lack of diversity in the workforce (Bidwell, 2015). Women and minorities are very under represented. In the US, “we do not encourage out female students to pursue career paths in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (Purcell, 2013). In addition, the current workforce is growing older and this may stunt the growth of new ideas and innovations to take place. I can see this being an issue because recently I had my boss ask me to set up his email on his phone because he did not know how; he is in his sixties. There are other times that I am asked to do something or check something out on social media, and I have to ask one of my students how to find it, where is it, or can you show me what they are talking about? I have noticed also that nowadays a lot of my students are very savvy with their cell phones and cannot seem to get it from in front of their face. The upside I see to this is any question that I may have about social media, they can easily tell me. The new generation is become more reliant on technology and social media and that is something that the current workforce lacks.

With this current generation being more immersed in their cell phones, this is something that does not always have to be seen as a negative in the classroom and can be used to help increase their understanding in a STEM curriculum. In the article Student Solutions to Global Problems: STEM Education in South Carolina, students using their cells phones had been highlighted as something that the teacher can take advantage of as a resource to help support student learning. Technology can allow the students to find resources to help them and they can use it to interact with others and can allow them to get creative like the students in the article that created a 3D Braille Printer and an app for measuring carbon sequestration.

Though I thought I knew a lot about STEM, there was still much I did not know. After reading some articles, it seemed that there was problem with the amount of lack of interest and the growing “age” of the current workforce in STEM careers. This will possible halt our pace in creating advancements and when new technology can be available. If us as teachers start by promoting and building interest from the school years, then there may be more input, continuing advancements. “As repetitive tasks are eroded by technology and outsourcing, the ability to solve novel problems has become increasingly vital” (Deangelis, 2018). STEM subjects teach life skills that other subjects outside of STEM may not address making them also very important to emphasis as our students go up the ladder in the public education system.

References

Bidwell, A. (2015). STEM Workforce No More Diverse Than 14 Years Ago. Retrieved from https://www.usnews.com/news/stem-solutions/articles/2015/02/24/stem-workforce-no-more-diverse-than-14-years-ago

Purcell, K. D. (2013, March 8). 5 Ways to Get Girls into STEM. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/5-ways-girls-involved-STEM-karen-purcell

Mason, R. (2017). Student Solutions to Global Problems: STEM Education in South Carolina. Retrieved from https://www.huffpost.com/entry/student-solutions-to-glob_b_8591808?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5saXZlYmluZGVycy5jb20vcGxheS9wbGF5P2lkPTE4ODM2MTQ&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAF9cU29FAzVjU05rzvzqgfh_Z-i_NGw_JXPFAlV0vUNnp87NuJHoEIsNDBE2wNGHUnAEgLsIoEFJEXm6h6D5neIjB9qWHLhChVE6G3rrGl9XIF2V0htxd5vfI4JVnbs_Rh4IcaTwwt23moDGIUHbNTOETjjDscenxLDfzxN__KO5

Stephen F. DeAngelis, E. S. (2015). Why STEM? Success Starts With Critical Thinking, Problem-Solving Skills. Retrieved from https://www.wired.com/insights/2014/06/stem-success-starts-critical-thinking-problem-solving-skills/

IEP Meetings

When watching the IEP process, I was able to see each step that is taken in creating student IEPs. I found it interesting that there was a huge emphasis on the parent involvement in the process. At my current school, I do not see as much parent involvement in the process. Parent involvement is very important because they know the student the best. They know student history, strengths, and weaknesses and can help to create the most beneficial and effective IEP for the student (Kupper). The parent can give their input on what may or may not work for their child.

The IEP team consists of the parent, general education teacher, special education teacher, school district representative, and school psychologist. Out of this team, I think that the most challenging role is the parent. This is because the parent is responsible for making sure that their child is receiving the services they need and that their IEP is the most effective. I noticed in the IEP meeting that the parents felt that some of the goals may have been a little much for their child and reducing their child’s special education time was not a good idea because their child was behind. When the parents spoke up, the meeting coordinator agreed to keep the special education time. Though the school members of the IEP team are trying to do what they can to make the student successful, sometimes the parents know better when it comes to the student’s needs.

At my current school, I have not attended many IEP meetings, so I never really knew the best way to help them when it came to the IEP process. After watching the mock IEP meeting, I know better how I can help my students with IEP during meetings and moving forward. One thing that I will do is ask the meeting coordinator to have the student join the meeting. Seeing how the team talked with the student and took some of his input helped the IEP process in getting the student his needs. Another thing I will be sure to do is to keep work samples. I do not keep much student work because I want them to have their work to be able to study from, but when I would be asked for input about a student on be invited to IEP meetings, I would not have any samples to help. I now will be sure to make a copy of any work that I feel will help to address the goals on their IEP. Thoroughly reading the IEP will also help me to create the best accommodations or modifications for the student. There is a lot that goes into making and IEP, so to help my students, I need to thoroughly read and understand their disability and needs. In meetings, I need to speak up more about what I think the student can achieve and ways to help them. In the meetings that I have gone to, I was there for a short period of time to give minimal input and was told I could leave. After watching the meeting, it is important that everyone on the team stays the entire time to be sure that everyone is on the same page.

References

Exceptional Children’s Assistance Center. (2011, October 30). The IEP Team Process: Chapter 1 – IDEA and IEPs. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=94&v=bSm3wOjkkVw

Exceptional Children’s Assistance Center. (2011, October 30). The IEP Team Process: Chapter 2 – The IEP Team. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMctXPmG7bc

Exceptional Children’s Assistance Center. (2011, October 30). The IEP Team Process: Chapter 3 – What’s Included in the IEP. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIi0xanOVcs

Exceptional Children’s Assistance Center. (2011, October 30). The IEP Team Process: Chapter 4 – Getting Ready for the IEP Meeting [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDhLjYSbwCc

Exceptional Children’s Assistance Center. (2011, October 28). The IEP Team Process: Chapter 5 – The IEP Meeting. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ok0irMNfKmY

Kupper, L. & Kohanek, J. (2000, July). “The IEP Team Members.” Reading Rockets. Retrieved from https://www.readingrockets.org/article/iep-team-members

Somebody Else's Kids- Claudia

In Torey Hayden’s Somebody Else’s Kids, four extraordinary students are highlighted, Boo, Lori, Tomaso, and Claudia. They each struggle with learning disabilities and throughout the book, Torey addresses each one in a different way. She is compassionate towards her students and is dedicated to giving them the best chances for success in her classroom by trying different ways of helping them. One student that she goes above and beyond for is Claudia.

Claudia is a well-behaved 12-year-old honors student who came from a private school on the other side of town. She has had no history of being a bad student, behaviorally or academically. She struggled was being pregnant. Due to the lack of educational programs for pregnant students, Claudia was placed in Torey’s class. Torey also noticed something else about her that Claudia was struggling with that no other one of her teachers had seen as an issue. She struggled with being immensely shy, becoming physically ill when presenting in front of people and had to be coerced to work in groups.

To accommodate Claudia, Torey made may efforts to help her be successful. Academically, Torey would have all of Claudia’s assignments ready for her when she entered the class because Claudia, in the beginning, was not interested in socializing. To help with her social skills, Torey would encourage Claudia to work with others in the group. This was demonstrated when Torey joins the group when they are painting because she had seen Claudia just watching and when Torey joined, Claudia began to participate and loosen up. She began laughing with the group and volunteered to help others in the group. Torey also took the time to get to know more about Claudia and showed care for her. Torey also gave Claudia responsibilities in the classroom, for example working with Boo to help her social skills. Torey also made attempts to build a relationship with Claudia’s parents by inviting them to informal meetings to give them incite to what the program for Claudia and to try and work with them to help Claudia, though they were not very interested in helping. Torey does give Claudia an outlet to talk about her pregnancy and other problems and worked to find her support groups.

Though Torey did as much as she could to accommodate Claudia, there were some setbacks. The first setback was Claudia’s lack of social skills. She entered the classroom very shy and timid with little interest in interacting with the group or even Torey. The next setback was Claudia’s parents not being on board with seeking help for their daughter. Torey made multiple attempts to try and reach out to Claudia’s parents at the meetings, encouraging them to get Claudia help to deal with her pregnancy, the baby, and educate her on the process. They were very resistant and saw Torey’s attempts to be helpful as crossing the boundaries. Claudia’s father, mainly, only saw things his way and did not think his daughter needed help in dealing with anything. Another setback was that Torey allowed Claudia to come to her and talk about her situation and everything, which could be seen by others as crossing a teacher-student relationship boundary.

With the setbacks that Torey faced in trying to accommodate and help Claudia, this did cause some potential issues. With Claudia’s social anxieties, it made it hard for her in interact with others and have friends at her Catholic School. Her previous teachers acknowledged her shyness, but it was not need as a hindrance because she academically thrived. This issue was noticed by Torey when Claudia came to her class because she would come in, grab her folder, and work on her assignments before going home at the end. She did not socialize with the other students voluntarily at first. Another potential issue for Claudia is that since her parents, mostly her father, were not on board with helping her seek help to deal with her pregnancy and social issues, Claudia suffered before meeting Torey. If this had continued, Claudia would be more socially distant from others and she may have continued with another suicide attempt.

If Claudia was a student in my mathematics classroom, I would try many different things to accommodate her. Because Claudia was an excellent student, I would focus more on her social anxieties. I would have her focus on her academics to help continue her education, but I might have her display her understanding of the concepts by teaching it to the other students. She struggles immensely with presenting in front of a large group, so I would have her teach one or two students at a time. I would also give her responsibilities in helping to improve lessons for the other students, by allowing her to create her own lessons for topics we are learning. I would also direct students to her if they needed extra assistance and treat her almost as a co-teacher. Giving Claudia jobs to help the other students forces her to interact with others, which can help her become more confident in social settings.

In my classroom, though I have been able to see how Torey was able to help her, I think I would still have some challenges. I have students that come to me with every problem they have in their lives, so I do not think it would be a challenge to allow Claudia to feel accepted and cared about by me. I think the struggle would be more getting the rest of the students in the class to accept her because students can be very judgmental with those who are different from them. I also think that I would struggle getting parental involvement because I have called many parents in my few years at my current school and I have had parents say they have given up on their kid and I have had parents say they will talk to them but if they don’t want to they won’t. Not becoming discouraged to help my student may be a struggle because as an educator, there is only so much I can do, but I would stop trying to help as much as possible.

Claudia struggled with more social skills than academia. Her pregnancy then further hindered her ability to make friends and be accepted by her family and her previous school. Torey accommodated her by giving her supports, a person to come to for guidance, and pushing her socially. Though there were setbacks with Claudia’s family not being fully onboard with seeking counseling or supports for her during her pregnancy, Torey still managed to give her a person to talk to who actually cared. I think that if Claudia were a student in my classroom, I would try similar tactics to help with her social skills, though it may take some time for the other students to accept her.

References

Hayden, T. (1981). Somebody Else’s Kids. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers.

IEP vs. 504

Working at my current school, more than half of my students have an IEP or a 504. Coming up on my third year of teaching, I don’t think I have ever really known the difference between the two. Researching more about these two plans, I came across a lot of helpful resources that explained the difference thoroughly.

504 Plans comes from Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1073, “a federal law that prohibits organizations that receive federal money from discriminating against a person on the basis of a disabilities” (Maryland.org). The “504 plan modifies a student’s regular education program in a regular classroom setting” (Bachrach, 2016). 504 plans require schools to make reasonable accommodations for students with disabilities, so they can have the opportunity to participate in school and school- related activities. The main focus of a 504 is how the student can access learning and can accommodations be made to remove barriers for the student. For example, if a student is wheel chair bound, time may be built in their schedule, so they can have ample time to travel from class to class (Nephcure, 2018). To obtain a 504 plan, a student can have any disability and even if they do not qualify for an IEP, they can still obtain a 504 plan.

IEP, Individualized Education Plan, was the result of the Individuals with Disabilities Act. This educational law requires students to have 1 of 13 disabilities to obtain an IEP. An IEP provides students with a specific disability special education related services to meet their learning needs, which includes specialized instruction. The main focus of an IEP is what the student is learning. The State can receive additional funding for eligible students with an IEP. The IEP has written documentation that is required, and specific guidelines must be followed.

504 and IEPs are at no cost to the parents and students. Both require some form of parental involvement and consent for the student to be evaluated for services, which happen annually. Both strive to meet the needs of the student, so they can succeed in a classroom environment. These plans are federally mandated and ensure that no student with a disability is discriminated against.

References

Living with Kidney Disease. (2018). Retrieved from https://nephcure.org/school-accommodations/

Maryland. Section 504 Plans. Retrieved from http://mdod.maryland.gov/education/Pages/Section-504-Plans.aspx

Bachrach, S. J. (Ed.). (2016, September). 504 Education Plans (for Parents). Retrieved from https://kidshealth.org/en/parents/504-plans.html

My Experience in Special Education

I have been working with Special Education for the past 4 years. I began my Special Education path in the summer of 2015 volunteering at Camp Inclusion, a sports themed camp for ages 12 to 21 with disabilities. The camper's disabilities varied with most of the campers being on the Autism Spectrum. The camp allowed the once campers with down syndrome and autism who could display independence and the ability to help others to be volunteer counselors. This helped them to learn leadership, responsibility, and social skills needed for a successful life. I would work with them to help the campers, as well as work 1-on-1 at times with those that required it. The camp would have activities such as water balloon fights, kickball, floor hockey, basketball (basically any sport possible), and even Zumba classes for campers. Every Friday during the camp season, campers would go on a field trip to places like the Zoo, Chesapeake Bay, and many other places. During camp, it was my job to make sure that I aided the campers in a way that they could learn to deal with things like emotions and becoming more independent. I was lucky enough to work at this camp up until the summer of 2017.

In the fall of 2015, I also began working as a respite counselor for the League for People with Disabilities. Since, I worked a full-time job, I would work the overnight respite camp weekends working with 1 to 3 campers. The needs of the campers ranged heavily from an 81 year old camper with cerebral palsy, who needed to be bathed, clothed, fed, and turned throughout the night. Other campers included those with autism and down syndrome who were both very low functioning and nonverbal to the high functioning and mostly independent. I would assist those that needed help showering, brushing teeth, getting dressed, and many other daily activities. Campers would participate in activities such as making rice crispy treats, arts and crafts, and playing sports. Though these weekends were some times exhausting, I enjoyed being able to help those to have the best time possible while they were at camp for the weekend.

In the summer of 2016, I volunteered at Cedar Lane School in Howard County. There I would work with students with autism during the summer school session. Most of the students I aided were on the lower end of the spectrum, mainly nonverbal. I would also aid those with high difficulty dealing with emotions and aggression. I spent a lot of time in the sensory room trying to calm students and redirect their attentions. When we were not in the sensory room, we were doing activities such as creating art work or going outside and playing on the playground. The students really enjoyed choosing their favorite YouTube videos to show the class. The main thing we wanted students to get out of being at summer school, was to at least enjoy themselves because a lot of them need the consistency of going to school everyday, so they cannot fully enjoy having the summer months off.

 In the Fall on 2017, I began my teaching career at Woodlawn High School. Not knowing what to expect, I ended up teaching College Algebra, Algebra 2, and Geometry. Across those three classes, I had over 50 IEPs and 504s. This caused me to have to create various variations of lessons with a variety of scaffolded versions, so the IEPs and 504s could be effectively addressed and students all had a fair opportunity to learn. This first year helped me greatly into my second year, 2018. In my second year, I co-taught a self-contained course, Sets, Functions, and Probabilities. This course was designed for upper classmen who struggled with math and needed to fulfill their 4th math requirement for graduation. I felt very prepared for this class because I had a lot of outside the box activities and scaffolding ideas from the previous year. A lot of the students in this class did best with one-on-one guidance, which was not at times always possible. To combat this, my co-teacher and I formed groups based on level of understanding and assisted the students in groups rather than individually. We did a lot more collaborative activities, which also helped students gain comprehension of different topics.

In the Winter of 2017, I began working for Trellis Services. Trellis Services is an Autism waiver service that provides one-to-one aid to families with children with Autism. At Trellis, I worked with an 11 year old, who knew everything there was to know about all of the US presidents and her favorite was JFK. She enjoyed watching YouTube videos of some of his speeches and tributes to him. She also love the Littlest Pet Shop and would repaint her pets and make YouTube videos of their adventures. My student mainly had difficulties dealing with her emotions and being independent. She lacked some social abilities, but after a few sessions she began to open up more to me. To combat some of her mood swings, I had to be a couple steps ahead of her at all times. If she began to change moods, I would redirect her by talking about some of her favorite things, like JFK, or getting her to play Pokemon or the Little Pet Shop. To promote independence, I would have her do more things on her own even though her parents did a lot of things for her. I would make she get dressed on her own and do things like brush her teeth and clean up some of her messes to start to her to do them without mom and dad. My student made great improvements during my 6 months with her and continues to make steps to being more independent and have more control over her emotions.

In my time of working with children with disabilities, it has helped me a lot in being able to help the students that I teach in the high school classroom setting. It has taught me how to address different emotional issues my students may face, how to break down information, how important it is to incorporate physical activity in some of my lessons, and how to be more patient. I think that though I may not have as much experience teaching Special Education in the classroom, I do have a lot of experience with understanding where a lot of my students are coming from and having compassion for their needs. I hope that in this course, I can further my knowledge in Special Education because though I teach math now, I would like to end up teaching Special Education in more of a FALS setting. I would like to learn more about how to create the most effective lessons for my students and what are the most beneficial approaches to take when dealing with certain IEPs, 504s, and various other learning disabilities.

Semantic Question Map - Bias

This week Courtney and I looked back on our articles that focused on the Probability Unit in Statistics. The three vocabulary words we decided to focus on were bias, probability (with independence), and sample size. Each word was highlighted in a different article and encapsulates part of the theme for each article.

In the article “Wait, Have We Really Wiped Out 60% of Animals?” by Ed Yong, we associated the word bias. We chose the vocabulary word bias because there are many sources out there today that include an immense amount of bias and sometimes it Is very hard to see it at first. This article shows a great deal of bias by explaining the impossibility of humans wiping out 60% of animal species in a total of about 49 years according to the World Wildlife Foundation. Not all animal populations were accounted for in their study, which is a prime example of bias.

In the article “No, CBS Sports, The Patriots Have Not Found an Edge on Coin Flips” by Harrison Chase, this article give explanation and calculations to the independent events of multiple coin flips. We chose the word/s independent probability because coin flipping is one of the main examples that are used in the Probability Unit to demonstrate independent probabilities. Independent probability is basically when two or more events can occur with having no effect on the next. So whether the Patriots flip a coin once or 150 times, their probability every time of getting a heads or tails to win their coin toss is still going to be 50% each time.

In the article “Moneyball Shows the Power of Statistics” by Kevin Rudy, the word/s that we chose was sample size. We chose this because it demonstrates some of the consequences of having a small sample size. Billy Beane of the Oakland A’s claimed that because the sample size was small, that was why his statistical analysis of finding undervalued players that could make up for overvalued players (for teams to save money on payroll) was not proof that his system didn’t work. Having a good sample size when trying to represent a whole population is important. Because Billy Beane did not have enough in his sample to make his metrics true across the board, his system did not seem to work to those that were critics of him.

In teaching these important vocabulary words to our students, Courtney and I came up with using the Semantic Question Map and the Frayer Model. “The Semantic Question Map is a variation on the Semantic Map, but its general design is fixed. The focus word is placed in an oval in the center of the map, and then several questions about it are raised. The questions, which may be provided by the teacher or generated by the students, are placed inside the ovals that extend from the oval containing the focus word” (McLaughlin, 2015). When specific word or topic is to be highlighted in a class, this map is to help students focus on that aspect. The Frayer Model allows students to focus on vocabulary. The center oval contains the word of focus and surrounded by four boxes, the word’s definition, characteristics, examples, and non-examples are further explained (E^2 Math, 2013).

I decided to use the Semantic Question Map to focus on the word/ topic bias. I chose to use this graphic organizer to teach the “Wait, Have We Really Wiped Out 60% of Animals?’ because it can help students focus on the main aspects surrounding bias, such as the definition, examples, consequences, and how to eliminate or create an unbiased sample. In my model, I go about focusing on those aspects by asking them in a question form. I provide acceptable answers in each connecting box in red based on the notes from the lesson that I had taught. This will help to keep students organized and have a resource when they go to create their own survey or experiment.

References

McLaughlin, M. (2015). Content Area Reading: Teaching and Learning for College and Career Readiness. Pearson Education.

E.^2 Math (2013-2014). Read Like a Mathematician. Arizona Common Core State Standards. Retrieved from https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/blackboard.learn.xythos.prod/58cff272a982b/1094448?response-content-disposition=inline; filename*=UTF-8''ED 620_Close Reading in Math.pdf&response-content-type=application/pdf&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Date=20190505T142818Z&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Expires=21600&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAIL7WQYDOOHAZJGWQ/20190505/us-east-1/s3/aws4_request&X-Amz-Signature=ba6a8e76055eb4c0b9877e4af68dd659fa8725db1f658d08e531cb0f15e30d1f.

Framing Our Reading, Part 3

https://blog.minitab.com/blog/the-statistics-game/moneyball-shows-the-power-of-statistics?fbclid=IwAR0uSn-MQYuBwGcKjFJnS-YQeCQK6kQaXgNqG1_Rypn6GXJCD9U3yEUN8cY

This week, Susan, Courtney, and I stuck with Statistics in finding an article on the Oakland A’s and Moneyball. This article talks about how Billy Beane used sabermetrics to change the way data analytics and statistics were used in the MLB. The article breaks down an example of a 1-Proportion Test and proves that Billy Beane’s statistical analysis was actually very accurate. This article also hits the three components of text complexity, qualitative, quantitative, and the reader and the task (Burke). The qualitative aspect of the article is that is furthers the students understanding of the topic of statistical testing and analysis. The quantitative aspect is that the text is appropriate and at the reading level of high school AP seniors. The reader and the task aspect is that the students will have prior knowledge to this information because the article is an extension to the lesson to show how these tests are used in the real world.

As the reader, this article packs in lot of information. It gives important definitions for different components that are calculated in a 1-Proportion Test and what each element means in terms of the problem. One of the important things that I found in this article was the meaning behind the p-value. Another important thing that I found in this article were the images of the tests because it gives each piece that is used to calculate the statistics. I also found that the article highlighting the percentage of the Oakland A’s winning 20 consecutive games and how it was calculated is important, as well. The quote that stuck out to me was when the article was referenced the trade of Pena and Giambi,

Pena and Giambi were traded at the end of May, when the A’s record was 20-26. Oakland went 83-33 the rest of the season. By the looks of it, these trades helped!

This was a shock when I was reading because it was just proof that the numbers don’t lie, and Billy Beane was on to something with his statistical analysis. Some of the key words in this article are p-value, significant, binomial distribution, and 1-Proportion Test. These words are key vocabulary words in the probability unit that are needed to be familiar with in order to grasp the data that is being explained in the article and how the numbers came about to form conclusions.

There are many important pieces to this article I found as I read. I was able to relate to the article because it was from a relevant movie of a sport that I know, baseball. It also gave an example of how statistics is used in the real world and how it is such an important aspect of the sports. The calculator images of the components of a 1-Proportion Test and a binomial distribution lend to where each piece of the calculation comes from and how to interpret their meanings. Importantly, this article explains how to find probability for consecutive wins, so the reader can get a better image of the importance of statistics and how it helped the A’s turn out a better record than before and save millions. The message this reading gave to me was that statistics is an asset to not just the game of baseball, but to many other sports and aspects of real life.

As the teacher, I found that this sports article is packed with good information that statistics students will see throughout the year. The key concepts of how 1-Proportion Tests can be used outside of the classroom and how it has benefitted a larger organization are important in showing students possible future career paths they could take that use what we are actually learning in class. The images and break down of the tests and how to interpret the results are most important in this article. In order for students to grasp those concepts, they need to know some background on the process if running a 1-Proportion Test and a binomial distribution. This will enable students in understanding the meaning of the article. The perspective of this article is straight forward, informational, and potentially pro Oakland. The author does a good job of adding in a little humor to the article with some side comments, such as “… to find the answer I could multiple .636 by itself 20 times….ooooooooor I could be lazy and have Minitab do it. I’m going to go with lazy”. This may seem to give mixed messages to students, but a lot of statistical analysis is done on some type of calculator that is programmed to spit out an answer given the right information, so I took this as students can see that there are resources out there that can make their lives easier. The author’s purpose of this was to demonstrate that there are applications where this type of test can be used and how it is important, so when a student asks, “when am I ever going to use this?”, you can respond “when you become a baseball statistical analyst.” In addition to this article having a good mix of unit vocabulary and being about a relatable subject matter, it is short, so student engagement and attention should not be lost. I also found that this article went well with a few standards that I covered in Statistics this year. Some of the standards this article covers are,

·       ~ S.IC.1 – Understand statistics as a process for making inferences about population parameters based on a random sample from that population

·       ~ S.IC.6 – Evaluate reports based on data

·       ~ S.CP.2 – Understand that two events A and B are independent if the probability of A and B occurring together is the product of their probabilities and use this characterization to determine if they are independent

·        ~ S.IC.4 – Use data from a sample survey to estimate a population mean or proportion

These standards are found in almost every unit of a Statistics course, which make this article a good fit for my classes.

In determining a strategy to use for this article, my group chose paired summarizing. “Paired summarizing provides a format for two students to work together to express their understandings and summarize narrative or informational text” (McLaughlin, 2015). I will begin this by explaining to students how to summarize and identify essential information. Then I would demonstrate by showing the students a short paragraph and model identifying key information, so they know what types of things to look for in this article. Once students know what is expected and what to do, then I allow students to work with a partner and guide them into paired questioning. They will read the article independently and summarize on their own, then they will compare and contrast their summaries with one another. As the teacher, I will be encouraging them to ask questions on what one another has summarized and what information they thought to be important. At the end, we would come together as a class to come up with one class summary.  This strategy would be effective for my students because it allows them to compare viewpoints on what others think is important in reading. It also helps them to learn how to identify key information apart from information that may be filler or unnecessary in identifying the message.

References

Burke, B. A Close Look at Close Reading.

McLaughlin, M. (2015). Content Area Reading: Teaching and Learning for College and Career Readiness. Pearson Education

Framing Out Reading, Part 2

This week, Courtney, Susan, and I chose an article on the Patriots titled No, CBS Sports, the Patriots Have not Found an Edge on Coin Flips by Harrison Chase. We picked this article because it gives a real-world example of finding the probability of multiple independent events occurring. It has a good mix of vocabulary from the probability unit and has some rare words as well. The article came from a sports blog called Harvard Sports Analysis, which we found by doing a Google search.

As the reader, I found this text to aid in the understanding of how to find the probability of multiple independent events. The most significant parts of this text were the breakdown of the probability of the Patriots winning 19 of 25 coin tosses, the probability that at least one team in the NFL can achieve this, and the probability of this not happening at all. The quotation that stuck out to me the most was,

Even if you restricted it to not all results as extreme in either direction but just results of 19 or greater, the probability of one or more teams achieving that is still nearly 20%.

This quote stuck with me as I read the article because as I thought about the probability of continuously winning a coin flip over 50% of the time, I thought that that percentage was somewhat higher than expected. Some of the words that are important were probability, independent, simulation, and significant. These words are important to know the definition and their meaning in statistics to understand the breakdown of the data being presented in the article.

In teaching the students using this text, students need to know vocabulary and process of finding the probability of multiple independent events. If events are independent, they need to know to multiple each probability of each separate success of an event together. In this case, they need to know the probability of a coin toss. The background that they would be given for this would be an exploration in simulating a coin toss. When I introduce this concept to students, we do labs with coin toss and dice roll to see that none of the events depend on the outcome of one another and they are they are separate and independent. The meaning behind this article is not a complex one. It takes students through finding the probability of winning and losing multiple coin tosses for one team and across multiple teams. The author shares some of his biases in supporting the Patriots with statements such as, “clearly with Deflategate out of the way the media is looking for something else to accuse the Patriots of” and “both common sense and statistics will tell you that the Patriots have not been cheating by winning coin flips at an ‘impossible’ rate”. Though it is from his point of view, it does not change the mathematics presented. The article also flows well with going through the probability of the Patriots winning 19 out of 25 coin flips, winning fewer than 6 coin flips, at least one team having a record of 19 out of 25 flip wins out of 32 teams, and the probability of one or more teams achieving that coin flip record. The author also makes these comparisons to prove his point that the Patriots are not cheating during coin flips. This sports article is used to support the Patriots against media criticism for cheating at another aspect of football and gives a breakdown of the math to support the case.

The strategy I am using for this article is paired questioning. “In Paired Questioning, students engage in actively generating questions during reading” (McLaughlin, 2015). I would integrate this strategy into my lesson using this article by doing 5 steps, explain, demonstrate, guide, practice, and reflect. I would explain paired questioning to them and how the activity is going to flow with the student and their pair generating questions to one another, taking turns asking and answering. I would demonstrate this explanation with them using an example from a previous reading we had done in class. Because the article is not separated into sections, I would have the students look at the first three paragraphs, then the paragraph 4, then paragraphs 5 and 6. Once the students have read the three sections, engaging in paired questioning at the end of each one, I would have them look at the article as a whole and have them state their opinions and knowledge from what they were able to grasp from the article. At the end, the class would reflect on our opinions and understandings of the text.

I think that this article, though short, is a good break down on how probability is used to analyze sports. It incorporates vocabulary from the unit and calculations learned. It has a good mix of vocabulary and biases from the author, who seems to be in support of the Patriots. Each student can form their opinion on whether they think the Patriots are “cheaters” based on their understanding of the article and their view on the Patriots outside of the article. I think this article can strike controversy amongst classmates based on who their favorite NFL team.

References

McLaughlin, M. (2015). Content Area Reading: Teaching and Learning for College and Career Readiness. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Chase, H. (2015, November 5). No, CBS Sports, the Patriots have not found an edge on coin flips. Retrieved from http://harvardsportsanalysis.org/2015/11/nocbs/?fbclid=IwAR1PyAfLz1qT0efdRRWW5W7AQz6lvR-bB6GurcBNWDVMYcycfEO6WCcGqe0

Framing Our Reading, Part 1

Article Title: Wait, Have We Really Wiped Out 60 Percent of Animals?

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/10/have-we-really-killed-60-percent-animals-1970/574549/?fbclid=IwAR1xibxi_Bm6E3f6dnWyU5kztF04GjldgC7xtmWNgVYrc4I3ZvBacrBp79U

For this week’s article, Courtney and I chose to go with an article about animal extinction statistics. We chose this article because it gives examples of false data leading to inaccurate conclusions and bias. We found this text by picking article topics that we think our students would find interesting, such as animals and extinction. The article also did not have an overwhelming amount of complex or rare words and had vocabulary that is found in the unit of introducing statistics and probability. The article comes from a reputable source called The Atlantic, which has a variety of interesting engaging articles.

When reading this article, I found many key elements that were significant to the lesson and to understanding the author’s message. Some things that I found to be most significant for the lesson was bias between animals that are studied more than others, how statistics of a small sample can skew the big picture, and how statistics can be misleading. Bias, the hinderance of smaller sample sizes, and misleading statistics were shown through examples of how animals that are studied more have more data and animals that are studies less have less data, so to get their true population numbers for those species that there is not as much known is more difficult. So, to say that in the past 40 years, 60% of animals have been wiped out is not totally accurate. With this, a quote that stuck out to me was,

Since prehistory, humans have killed off so many species of mammals that it would take 3 million to 7 million years of evolution for them to evolve an equivalent amount of diversity.

This alarming statement made me think about mammals, such as the sabretooth tiger and the woolly mammoth. These animals were said to have been driven to by hunters and global warming, but there is only so much to support these theories that no one is 100% certain how they disappeared. Having variability with humans destroying animal habitats, hunting, and polluting the environment may have played a role in diminishing populations, but climate changes and other environmental elements have played a role too, which is not highlighted as heavily as human intervention. In addition, words and phrases, such as “estimated the size of different animal populations”, percent, biases, data, and “It is not a census of all wildlife but reports how wildlife populations have changed in size” all contain vocabulary and verbiage that students would see throughout a statistics course and in the first unit.

In using this text to teach students, key information in this article have to do with the variability in collecting data, sample sizes, bias, and false statistics. The background needed for this would be examples of how to spot bad data and vocabulary on words like census and biases. I believe that this text has some a few levels of meaning, such as how people can interpret statistics, how statistics does not always paint an accurate big picture, and how bias can change the meaning of statistics and messages. I feel that the overall article, however, shows one main perspective that can be possibly seen as biased based on person beliefs about the human contribution to animal extinction. This article is written in the point of view of the author and their opinion on how certain data can be misleading. You could form an opposition to the article if you are a firm supporter of human intervention causing extinction. The text does have a good, easy transition from one idea to the next and is clean in relaying information to the reader. The author refers to reports from WWF, The Guardian, and Living Planet Index. This article also has straight forward concepts and is more informational, bringing awareness to how data can be misinterpreted. The language is for a level of ability who is not familiar with how to dissect a text that contains data and how it can be misconstrued. The author is trying to convey that the statistic of saying that over the last 40 years or so that 60% of animal species have been wiped out is not totally accurate because not all variables have been accounted for in the study. This text is well organized, and I see it being a good introductory article to how statistics can be misleading.

I think that this article would be useful in making connections between real world current events and what we would be learning in class with bad data and bias. The lesson with this article would start with a recap of what bias looks like and how to determine bad data. Each student would read the article individually highlighting information that demonstrated bias and bad data and what they found interesting. After they highlighted, they would then determine the author’s message and meaning of the article. The students would then come together with a partner and participate in a think-pair-share, where they can compare the information they found to demonstrate bias and bad data, and what they took away from the article. To wrap up the class, we would come together as a class and reflect on each group’s findings and compare our opinions and thoughts on the article.

I think that this article is a good way to ease students into statistics. It allows them to see how bias and bad data can be found in real world current event. It can allow the students to form their own opinions on a text and presents an interesting topic of animal extinction. I think that with this text students can get a good understanding of bias and how data can be misconstrued.

My Philosophy on Teaching

In reflecting on my time teaching and taking graduate course, I have acquired my own set of moral and ethics when it comes to assessing students. I think that the most important thing is to be relatable, impartial, and having students being physical and not always having a sedentary class period. Students should be assessed on their knowledge in various ways that allow them to be creative and engaged.

When trying to assess student, as the teacher, you want to be able to determine whether your students are picking up what you are teaching. Are my students retaining the information? Is there something that my students aren’t understanding? What can I do to clarify any misunderstandings and relate this to my students? These are all questions that I ask myself when I give my students a formative assessment. I think that to be a good teacher you need to be able to relate. I have had more success by having my lessons relating back to something physical the students can do or construct than pen and paper note taking and sedentary activities. I also find ways to relate to my students through their interests and career goals, for example by relating my quadratics unit to basketball and projectile motion that you would see in physics. I have also seen vast improvement on my student’s summative assessment scores at the end of the units.

Formative and performance assessments I find to be very useful in my classroom. Formative assessments allow me to track student knowledge and check for understanding. I can take this data and alter lessons or review necessary skills needed for concepts moving forward in a unit. By being impartial and fair with grading, my students are more motivated to succeed because they know that I am not just going to give them a good grade because I like them more. I do not let emotions get in the way of how I grade their work. Giving them immediate feedback, help them to also see where they are making mistakes and where they need to improve. Giving performance assessment, motivate and engage my students because they can construct something that relates to things outside of the classroom. They can demonstrate their knowledge through something that interests them and does not give the stressors that come with taking a test.

In increasing student engagement, there are many technologies that I have tried, and I would like to incorporate in the future. I have used sites such as Khan Academy, that allow my students to have video lessons, additional resources, and practice exercises with immediate feedback. I have also used applications, such as Kahoot! that I have found to be helpful when doing knowledge checks because they again give immediate feedback and allow the students to use their phones. Technologies I would like to incorporate are Nearpod and Desmos because they are able to provide more interactive lessons that a plain old PowerPoint cannot. Students can get the immediate feedback and have a digital copy of a lesson to refer to if necessary.

I think that the Experiential Learning Theory is one that I can most relate to and has helped me in my classroom. Students relate and remember things that they can experience. If a student does not see how a math skill can be used outside the classroom, they tend to not be as motivated to want to learn the material. I have created lessons that relate to projectile motion for the quadratics unit using basketball analogies and carnival games to teach probability. In my first-year teaching, I had no prior experience, so I went with teaching how I was taught when I was in high school which was mostly lectures. I noticed my students were more talkative to their neighbors and on their phones as I was trying to teach them material. When I hit about the second quarter, teaching in that manner just was not effective, so I began to try teaching with different mediums and trying to relate more to what the students were interested in. I had my students actively doing explorations and experiments that they may have seen or experienced outside the classroom, which helped to improve their engagement in my lessons.

Creating a philosophy for how I think one should teach is hard to say because there are so many factors that play into how students learn. There are those that are inside and outside the classroom as well as many different types of disabilities that play a role. With adapting to my students, being fair, unbiased, consistent and relatable have given me the most success in my current teaching environment. I do not sugar coat anything with them and I remain transparent. I find things that my students show interest in and I run with those ideas in creating effective and engaging lessons. I think that my philosophy most closely relates to Experiential Learning because many of my students learn better through the things in their lives they experience.

Fairness with Assessment

When creating assessments, it is important to be fair. Each student should have an equally likely chance to succeed and demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of the unit content. I believe that students must be engaged and motivated in lessons, have a safe, comfortable learning environment, and be able to relate to the material. All of these things play into being to able fairly assess students.

 I believe it is the responsibility of the educator to teach the students in a way they can relate and understand the material. If the educator cannot teach in a way that it is relatable to the students, should the blame be put onto the students for not performing on their assessments? I think it is the educators responsibility to make the content relatable. A student is not going to be encouraged to learn something they cannot totally understand. Relating lessons to things that students show interest in makes the topic more memorable. For example, when teaching quadratic functions, I used a lot of basketball and football analogies to better explain the topic because there was a culture of basketball and football in the school. I also created a lab, where students were able to catapult different objects and diagram its motion.

In addition to making the lessons relatable, the learning environment must be comfortable and safe. The students must feel safe to make mistakes as they learn new material. If a student does not feel like they can make a mistake, then it will be impossible for them to learn. Students must also feel comfortable with the educator and their classmates to share answers and collaborate.

In making my own assessments as fair as possible, I need to ensure that the questions that I am asking are clear and concise. They need to be specific to what I am looking for and align with expectations. I also need to ensure that the questions match the content that was actually taught and are worded in a way that matches what the students are familiar with. The assessment needs to have multiple types of questioning and at the end of each assessment I want to add a reflection piece so I can also get feedback about the unit, so I can teach it better the following year and alter my future lessons. Bias in questioning needs to be eliminated, so that there is a leveled playing field for all.

Being an educator, I have been able to reflect on things that I did in my first year that might have not been as fair when assessing students. Though I have tried to make my assessments mirror to what was learned, I may have relied more on students knowing my expectations in giving directions. I always made my directions brief and to the point, but then when grading students may not have put all the information I am looking for to give them full points. I should have made my directions specific in order to be able to say that this or that was not done to answer the questions properly. I need to review my assessments and make sure I am giving everyone an equal chance in order to effectively assess their knowledge and my ability to teach material as well.