Standard+1

Standard 1: Content Knowledge

__Reflection:__ Joan Wink (2005) said in //Critical Pedagogy//, "If the students don't grasp the object with their bare hands, the students only memorized the description, but they don't know the object" (p. 87). This is something I try to achieve when teaching my students; giving them a hands-on experience when applicable. For example, when teaching about simple machines we actually build them. We build pulleys and pulley systems. Students get an opportunity to lift something using a pulley. The same is true when learning about force and motion. We demonstrate Newton's laws of motion, not simply discuss or read about them. Then, students use all of the information they learned in class to build a complex machine of their own. This teaches them the most about simple machines and force and motion because they are having to apply what they learned to create something. Attached are two pictures of this. One of a student sharing his project with the class and another of the class sharing their projects with parents.

I try to do this in math as well. I believe it is important for students to know why what we are learning about is important, especially in math. Wink (2005) also said, "I believe that learning is about ownership. It is about making meaning together...If learning is not meaningful to students, it is irrelevant what the teacher does" (p. 75). To help make math meaningful to students, I try to individualize when possible. My attached strategic teaching analysis from EDC 711 shows this differentiation. I provided three different math menus for students that all focused on multiplication. This allowed students to be challenged at their appropriate level and work at their own pace.

Since beginning my classes towards my AA certification, I feel the area that I have learned the most content knowledge in is math. I learned a wealth of information from Dr. Kamii. Among the things I learned from her is that teaching mathematics needs to be grounded in real life, not made up problems and situations for students. For example, instead of simply teaching perimeter, have the students solve a real problem involving perimeter such as how much boarder we need in order to change the bulletin board. Attached are two of my assignments from her class EEC 672.