Teach. Love. Math.

In this course, I learned more about how to reflect on the things happening in my classroom and how to become a better teacher. I studied mathematics education to hone my craft. This helped me learn about new mathematics pedagogy to take back into my classroom. Since I took tis course during my year-long student teaching, it allowed me to try new things at a low risk, while figuring out what worked best for me and my students.

This course was the most influenctial of my teaching courses. Since I took this course during my student teaching, it has made the most impact on my current teaching and classroom. I learned how to teach students of color with compassion and empathy. It realized that they bring their personal experiences to school and thus those things show up in my classroom. From this course, I became passionate about teaching students of color 

This course was a continuation of TE 804. I continued to learn about mathematics pedagogy. I reflected on my teaching with my classmates, which helped me grow to become a better educator. This course also helped me begin my search for a full time teaching position. I initially created this website during the class as an online portfolio.

This class was the introduction to Technology, Pedagogy, and Content Knowledge (TPACK). I learned about what it means to find the "sweet spot" where technology, pedagogy, and content knowledge meet is where the best learning happens. My biggest takeaway from this course is that just because technology is available, doesn't mean it should be used. Technology in the classroom is to be used to add to the learning and understanding and not hinder it.

In this class, I learned about the Maker Movement and maker culture. With a partner, we designed a lesson using a Makey Makey to play Guitar Hero online. The goal was for students to learn about how circuits work. We were able to teach this lesson to a summer program to elementary and middle school aged kids. As a final project, all of the students in the class created a website with all of our lessons.

In this course, I learned how to research a topic, gather and analyze data, and present the solution. In groups of three, we had to pick a "Wicked Problem" and find possible solutions to solve it. My group decided to research the achievement gap. We used our personal learning network (PLN) to survey our peers and colleagues about what they think about the topic and possible solutions to the problem. Once we gathered and analyzed the data, we created a "solution" that best fit our problem.

In this course, we learned about how Technology, Pedagogy, and Content Knowledge (TPACK) and the learning setting impacts learning. We looked at different learning spaces around campus and examined what type of learning happened in that space. Some spaces allow for more creative and collaborative learning, while others only allow for direct instruction. We imagined how to create our ideal learning space for our classrooms. 

During this course, I discovered what leadership looks like as an educator and how I can be a leader in my building. This course showed me what it means to be a leader in educational technology. It was through this class that I realized I would like to start a mentoring program for the female students at my school. I also realized that I could also be a leader by teaching my colleagues about using technology in the classroom during our professional development on Wednesdays. 

During this course I had the opportunity to research a topic of my choosing. Since I am interested in starting a mentoring program, I decided to research the impact of mentoring programs on at risk female youth. This research allowed me to begin outlining the purpose of the program, along with weekly activities. With the knowlegde of this research, I am even more motivated to start this program and give back to the community in which I work and teach in.

Creativity is defined differently for everyone. In this class, I had to opportunity to think about a topic within my content more creatively. The topic I chose is graphing functions. This has impacted how I present new material to my students. It has also impacted how I can help them process this material.

The capstone class is the summative course at the end of the master's program. During this course, I reflected on my experience in the Master's of Arts of Education Technology program. I created this website at the end of my student teaching. I added to it for this course to encompass who I am as an educator, who I have grown to be, and who I would like to become.