Wk1 Free Choice - Andrieux, Joseph

After completing my first day week of school, I feel more confident in educating my students with the training that I have received thus far through Full Sail University. With the various forms of technology that I have been exposed to, I have been able to create a new form of delivering lesson plans for Trigonometry to Juniors and Seniors at the high school.

During the 3 years of teaching and writing, I have learned many things about the teaching and learning of mathematics. I have found that students are most successful when they know what they are expected to learn and why it is important to learn the concepts.

Educators who stress applications and problem solving, or exploration and technology, coupled with more traditional methods will be able to connect students with their material successfully than others. Hands-on is not enough. How are students today use technology and are connected to it regardless of demographics or culture is what we need to identify with in getting them engaged in the material.

In a class of 36 students, averaging 32 per class, providing a 50 minute lecture can not be provided. I have been able to provide a 2 minute video clip that relates to degrees and radians. Then apply it to what we are about to learn with something that they have viewed. Always providing reassurance that this is simple and we will keep it that way. A typical educator would say that is it.

I need to assess that the students get it. I activated 36 voting remote devices and posted several problems on the board in which students need to vote on an answer. We created a competition.

Students who answered the most correctly using the remote voting devices were able to complete only half of the necessary homework while the others had to complete all 40 problems at home (60 minutes of work). The excitement was on and every one working rapidly in solving the problems correctly. Scores were posted on the screen with codes that only the user and myself knew. This eliminated embarrassment. Out of 36 students, I was seeking the first 30 to complete the problems.

Did we have fun? We sure did. It was close - too close. I eliminated the homework all together. 98% of the class answered all of the trig questions correctly inside 10 minutes while it would have normally taken 30. I expected for them to fail. They proved me wrong.