Domain: Skills

Dimensions 3,4,5,6: Skill in Planning, Teaching, Assessing, & Developing Caring Learning Environments

Before Hunter, I had never written a lesson plan and educational vocabulary was another
language for me. In SEDC 710, our professor had us write a lesson plan with a student from a
different content area. I remember my fear and struggle over this assignment when I was paired
with a dance major. After comparing ideas, we created an active lesson with every student
moving like the hands of a clock that could be used for the unit circle. This was a reminder that
the ability to combine student interest into lessons will only encourage more growth and
understanding for students. In SPED 708, Professor Olander had us create a sequence of lessons
to be used in an ICT classroom, where we outlined specifically the role of the content teacher,
special education teacher, and of the students. The lesson planning immediately felt more
productive and thoughtful because I was learning to consider everyones place in the learning.
In SEDF 706, I was first introduced to formal terms for assessment by Professor Torres.
She explained the importance of creating a blueprint first, where a teacher would outline their
student learning objectives and work backwards to create the assessment. Thus, the assessment
would encompass all of the proposed constructs and content of the lesson, while accurately
measuring a students understanding.
During my fieldwork semesters, I observed many ICT classrooms and was assigned one
student to aide. He had great difficulty with most of the eighth grade content due to his lower
abilities and struggled greatly to hold his focus during class. Most days I would work
independently with this student, having to explain any subject topic to him, and attempt to
engage him in the content. From my experience with this student, I learned firsthand about
attention span and how long a teacher may have to convey their message. This goes back to
Primary-Recency Effect, from David Sousa, that Professor Gardella would discuss with us. The

Domain: Skills
Dimensions 3,4,5,6: Skill in Planning, Teaching, Assessing, & Developing Caring Learning Environments

best times to deliver content is in the first and last ten minutes of class. With this idea in mind, I
often plan a hook or lead in activity at the beginning of the lesson. This increases the likelihood
that students will form episodic memory with the activity, and therefore, better recall concepts.
As well, I prefer to assess students at the end of class. With my time in student teaching,
I have recognized that many students feel put off by an entrance ticket, as if the teacher is trying
to trick them out of a good score. I have become more attuned to the emotional needs of my
students through my fieldwork and student teaching. In fieldwork, I spent a majority of my time
with students who had IEPs related to a behavioral or psychological issue. I learned the
importance of becoming flexible with planning, to not think a derailment in a lesson is a failure.
In student teaching, I have found great success with this. During one class, I was preparing to
give an assessment on simplifying radicals and quickly realized that students needed more
practice. I made an adjustment, produced a mini-lesson on the topic, and allowed students to
practice the skill until they shared that as a class, they felt ready to move on. In instances like
this, I will ask the students if they would like to pause the lesson to re learn an old concept.
Students then feel more invested in their learning because I am offering them a share in the
decision making. This pay offs in seeing many of my students seek additional help before or
after school, and during lunch.
In Methods, we discussed how to teach to the whole class. Gardella often instructed us
to find the students who perform better and give them a different task, such as, scribe their
answer on the board or assist a student who needs more support during independent work. In
Methods, we also discussed the role of a calculator in the classroom. I had an assumption that the
calculator is a hindrance to learning and prevents full understanding. Gardella helped to change
this perception, reminding us that a calculator will allow the class to move forward in learning

Domain: Skills
Dimensions 3,4,5,6: Skill in Planning, Teaching, Assessing, & Developing Caring Learning Environments

because students who struggle with computation will not be spending a majority of their time
learning a skill they missed from early schooling, and instead, discover new conceptual
understanding. This goes back to Professor Burke' s desire to teach us to move from the
procedural to the conceptual understanding level. In student teaching, the calculator has become
a saving grace for many students and has helped many students move out of a negative attitude
surrounding math. When I taught quadratic functions, we spent time completing the square to
find the vertex form of the parabola or finding the roots of the equation. The graphing calculator
became a great resource for students when they were able to visual see the graphed vertex, roots,
etc. in addition to finding those features procedurally.
My cooperating teacher has been an outstanding example of great teaching for me. Her
best practice that I try to model is the constant connection to familiar examples in everyday life
and her ability to make the formal or symbolic more understandable. I have found that making
instruction more conversant encourages more participation from student. My CT asks students if
they've had a toothache and how they describe the pain--starts slow and happens all at once-when she introduces exponential growth and decay.
A goal for my time after Hunter is to continue to equip myself with methods for reaching
the students who are above and below the bell curve. I can use all of the planning, teaching, and
assessment tools I have acquired throughout my semesters. With students who have a lower selfperception of their math ability, I make a point to share my struggles with math in school and
include my desire to study math stems from my liking of math, and not an innate ability. For
students who are more advanced, I will attempt to go beyond the curriculum by adding on to
concepts to encourage a deeper thinking.

Domain: Skills
Dimensions 3,4,5,6: Skill in Planning, Teaching, Assessing, & Developing Caring Learning Environments

One of the best classes I took at Hunter was Professor Clarkson's Problem Solving
seminar. In my planning and teaching, I am constantly trying to work on my students' ability to
reason abstractly and think critically about a problem. I recognize that these skills will transfer
outside of the classroom and can be applied to fields other than math. I want my students who
have a negative attitude of math or those who want to simply meet their credit requirements to
leave my classes with a deeper understanding of how perseverance in math permeates
everywhere.