Today marks the beginning of my blogging journey! My two
professors, Dr. Clark and Dr. Parker, have challenged my class to keep a weekly
blog on what we gain from our pursuit whether it be a conversation in class, a
public classroom observation or any other outside research we have done. To be
completely honest, I have no idea what to expect from this experience. I have
never successfully kept a journal of any kind for more than about a month
because I have never felt like I was getting anywhere. However, I feel that a
weekly reflection will not only make it easier to maintain but easier to
examine growth.
On the first day of our Education 250 class, I was extremely
overwhelmed. We spent our entire two hour block in deep conversation of how
much of an impact we will potentially have on our students for 30+ years. The topic
jumped between various aspects of the class from skyping into a live classroom,
to breaking down the GWU School of Education mission statement, to putting
ourselves into the teacher’s shoes. All the while, we were moving between
taking attendance, the do.com agenda, a secondhand chat, new candidate
orientation and an exit ticket. I felt like I was scrambling to keep up and
differentiate between all of the links we were using. My efforts to multitask
seemed overrun and I wasn’t sure how I was going to “hold on.” I was fully
expecting a long semester.
After three days of class and some outside research and
conversations, I am happy to say that I am no longer in complete panic mode.
Although I am still amazed by how much I have to learn, I am encouraged. Today,
we did an exercise where we sorted statements into the five NC Teacher
Candidate Standards. Collectively, my group read through every single
statement, carefully discussing which category it might belong to. I recognized
that the five standards run extremely close to one another and often have
overlaps in topic that make them hard to differentiate. Before class, when I
saw that we were discussing standards, I got worried that they would be too
technical to remember. However, I can already feel myself sorting through the
information and starting to create my own definitions for what I think each
area should encompass.
I am no longer deeply burdened but am curious to understand
how secondary math education fits into these standards. I found myself
researching the national standards in mathematics and discovered that they are
different based on the content being learned. There are standards for geometry,
algebra, number and operations, measurement and data analysis and probability. With
all of these being so well defined and students being able to choose their own
path of math classes, I am curious to know what overall standards are set in
terms of content that must be known to graduate. I have started my hunt for the
answer through various emails to my mother who is a community college math
instructor as well as my high school calculus teacher. I am in high hopes to
get some advice on where to search soon!
