Accomplishments

As a finale to my M.Ed. program for Saint Mary's University, I took part in the education conference and presented a session based on my action research project, which began nearly a year ago.  Needless to say that I experienced a lot of anxiety the day drew nearer.  I hoped that I would present a seminar that was worthy of the work that I had put into its preparation.  I grew more and more nervous as the day wore on and I waited for my turn.  When it was finally over, I felt simply exhilarated!  I was so thrilled not only to be finished, but especially to know that I had done a good job.  For nearly a year, I spent all "free" time researching and writing and learning about my topic in preparation for this presentation and now it was over. 

I began to wonder if my students have ever felt the joy of accomplishing something like that. Certainly if they had, they would have a true love for learning.  Now I realize that high school students can't be expected to spend a year preparing for one big event.  However, they ought to be able to know the feeling of working hard toward a goal and the thrill of achieving it.  How do we get teenagers to care enough about thier progress in school that they work hard and appreciate all that they might accomplish?  I am certain that if they did take ownership of thier work and had clear goals to work toward that they would get hooked on learning. 

Looking for some fun vocabulary builders

Well, over the past weekend, I was at the SMU M.Ed. Conference in Champlin Park.  One of the sessions that I attended was on vocabulary building in the math classroom.  The presenter had some great ideas.  I found this interesting collection of math vocabulary terms:  http://www.mathwords.com/  It is pretty cool for a lot of math topics and levels.  I will post a link to it on my class moodle pages as well.

The presenter at Champlin Park also used some interesting smart board tools for some of the games that he demonstrated.  It made me start to think about applications for the smartboard.  Where can I find some good resources for reliable smart board applications?

One of my favorites

I thought that this might be a good opportunity to share one of my favorite websites.  It is jam-packed full of fabulous tips for everything related to teaching!  It is from Honolulu Community College.  I simply stumbled upon it a few years ago.

http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/teachtip.htm

Real-Life Learning

One of the main goals of this blog is to look for some ideas for bringing real-life relevance into my math classroom.  Many students seem to find math difficult because they don't see the connection to the real world.  It seems that every moment in the classroom is so full of teaching the ever-growing lists of standards that students will may be tested on that we don't have much time for projects or activities that might lend relevance to our lessons. I try my best to incorporate activities and problem sets that are authentic, but I would like more ideas in order to reach more learners. 

I teach geometry.  While there are many real world applications, it seems difficult to work within the constraints of a classroom, particularly with over-filled classes.  I have taken classes outdoors to estimate heights and distances using trigonometry.  I have brought in manipulatives.  We visit websites that are relevant.  It never seems like enough.  I am looking for good project based learning ideas.

I also teach a college algebra course.  We focus a lot on trigonometry.  The students tend to be college bound but not calculus bound.  They can really use a dose of real life math!  They often have struggled with math because they do not see the usefulness of it.

Welcome to Lightning Strikes

Hello!

This is my first blog entry ever so I am going to take some time to introduce myself.  My name is Judy Hoffman and I am a math teacher at Eastview High School.  Eastview is in Apple Valley, MN, a suburb of Minneapolis.  We are the Eastview Lightning!  I am in my 8th year at Eastview.  Prior to EVHS, I taught in the far western suburbs of Chicago off and on for about 15 years.

I am nearing the completion of my master's degree through a program at Saint Mary's University.  I have done action research projects on formative assessments, reflect on learning, and grading practices, all topics that I am very interested in.  As part of our culminating activities, we are being asked to begin a blog related to education.  So I am going give this a try.

I hope that this blog can be a space for me to share my ideas and thoughts about things going on in my classroom and world of education.  I hope that I can also learn from others as well.  I am currently teaching Geometry and College Algebra/Probability and Statistics (CAPS).  We are in the Statistics portion of CAPS which always results in many questions on my part. 

I have found that many students who have a difficult time with math don't really see the relevance in it.  They simply see math as a series of problems that have single correct answers that are near magical in thier appearance.  These students fail to see the creativity in math.  They don't find the beauty in it. 

What kind of projects can I incorporate into my lessons that will help students see that math is relevant amd elegant?