Blue BayHawk Math

  How I’m Growing as a Teacher In the last couple of weeks, I’ve been thinking a lot about how asking the right questions can totally change how students learn. I’ve been working on a unit about Polynomials and Rational Expressions, and it hit me just how much the way I ask questions affects how engaged my students are. A good question can pull students into the lesson and make them curious, while a bad one can leave them zoning out. Here’s a lesson I’ve learned the hard way: in my first year of teaching, I wasn’t great at asking purposeful questions. It felt like I was just throwing random questions out there and hoping they’d stick. By my second year, I got better at connecting the dots for my students. I got even better by year 3. For instance, when introducing polynomials, I started asking things like, “How is a polynomial different from other algebraic expressions?” or “How does the graph of a polynomial reflect its degree and coefficients?” These kinds of questions make st...

  Working with a mentor has been such a game-changer for creating meaningful learning experiences that let my students explore their own interests while also pushing their thinking to the next level. My mentor really helped me see how important it is to create a balance between allowing students the freedom to follow their curiosity while guiding them toward deeper, more complex learning. Using my knowledge of Depth of Knowledge (DOK) levels, I’ve been able to structure lessons that not only meet students where they are but also challenge them to think more critically and creatively. For example, we often start with basic, straightforward tasks (DOK 1), like defining terms or solving simple problems, to ensure that students have a solid foundation and are using their recollections. From there, I’ve learned to use guiding questions and real-world scenarios to push them into DOK 2 and DOK 3 levels, where they start making connections, analyzing patterns, and explaining their reasonin...

Reflections on applying the UDL and DI in my classroom  As a high school math teacher, using Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and Differentiated Instruction (DI) has really changed the way I think about lesson planning. UDL focuses on giving students different ways to learn, interact with, and show what they know, which is a great fit for the variety of learners in my classroom. The ultimate goal is to help students become more independent, strategic, and motivated learners, according to the UDL Guidelines . DI adds to this by reminding me to meet my students where they are and tailor my teaching to their unique needs. In my classroom, I want every student to feel like they belong and can succeed, no matter their background, abilities, or experiences. My goal, then,  is to create a space where everyone gets the kind of instruction and support that works for them. UDL helps me design lessons that give students options—different ways to access the material, interact with it...

  Elevator Speech on Assessment Philosophy   I believe that assessments are essential to education. Not only do they serve as a means of ascertaining how well lessons have been delivered, but they also provide a check of comprehension and mastery for the learners. Assessments can and have been used to check teachers’ efficiency in presenting learning content. Without assessments how could we find out if knowledge was actually imparted? How would we know that a teaching method/ strategy is the right one for a group of students? There are many more questions that we would be unable to answer if we did not have an assessment. Assessments are of different forms and types. There are two types of assessment that may be administered. One is formative assessment which is a test that is given before, during, or after content has been taught. Formative assessments are given at the beginning or in the middle of a topic or unit. The results or data from these tests are used to ascer...

  Assessments are an essential part of instruction. They provide the means to check whether the goals of the instruction are being met. The goal of assessment is to obtain a sound inference about what a student knows, understands, and can do. Assessments should be without bias to the students, in other words, they should be fair. What is a fair assessment? Fairness is the equitable and just treatment of those being assessed. An assessment that is fair is not unduly influenced by factors or conditions that are unrelated to the learning objectives that the assessment intends to measure. When it comes to learning, I believe that all students have the ability to learn given the right environment. I fully subscribe to Howard Gardner’s theory of Multiple Intelligences. Gardner proposed his theory in 1983, suggesting that all people have different kinds of intelligences. People are not only intellectually intelligent, but they are also musically, interpersonally, spatial-visual, and lin...

Standardized testing is a practice where all students in a particular school district or state or region are administered test questions that are consistent or standard (across the board) and scored using a consistent predetermined rubric. This means that students in a particular state or school district are tested in a consistent manner regardless of their unique situations or experiences. I think that standardized tests, as far as assessments go, do serve an important use in education for the following reasons. These tests are a fair and robust way to assess the learning and/ or skills of students who have been taught using the same curriculum at specific points in time. They are also a tool for equity. They show when students in a specific school or area do not possess the level of knowledge or skill that their peers in other areas have mastered, so that attention and resources can be channeled to helping those groups of students, thereby ensuring that every student is exposed to si...