Math

Tomorrow we are going to the spring conference for the MEd program.  We will be joining discussions and seminars given by second year MEd students about their Action Research in their classrooms.  We are going to be able to connect with teachers in our discipline from all across the state.  I am excited to talk to other teachers that teach the same subject that I do. 

It is interesting to find out how other teachers from other school teach specific topics within our curriculum.  All of us teach in Minnesota and all are using the Minnesota State Math Standards as the base for what we should be teaching.  Each of our students will take the MCA math test as a junior and our schools will be judged on that data.  But, we don't all teach the same way and it is nice to sit down and discuss how others do things. 

In my geometry class, the next chapter we cover will be surface area and volume.  It is interesting to get into a discussion about formulas and whether they should be given to the students or whether they should be memorized.  Our world is so different from 20 years ago and now students have so much information available to them through the internet.  When they go out to the real world, they will be able to look up anything that they need, so is it still important for us to make them memorize mathematical formulas? My opinion varies on the subject, I am ok with having my students memorize information, and then give smaller tests just on that memorization.  Then for the larger tests, I think we need to give students the formulas and then we test them on their ability to apply the formulas.  It is a subject that many different teachers have many different opinions on, and it is interesting to be able to talk to other teachers about their opinions. 

Action Research

My current action research project for the MEd program centers on critical thinking.  I would like to know if implementing critical thinking will increase my students retention and understanding of our geometry concepts.  I have researched and found many different opinions about what critical thinking actually is and found methods of implementing it into my classroom.

For my project, I am going to teach strategies on critical thinking and then give my students a higher-cognitive level question each day for one chapter.  I will then take data on how my students scored on the problems, a survey about their opinions on the benefits of critical thinking, and an analysis of their previous test scores compared to the current test scores.

On Monday we will be starting the chapter where we will implement the critical thinking.  So far, I have not had too many challenges with this topic, but I do have a few worries.  I am going to be adding something to my lesson plan each day and I want to give my students adequate time to think about the question, but also get in the lesson and practice that they need.  So, time management might be a problem and I may have to change things around if needed.  Also, when researching, many authors discussed the fact that it is difficult to assess a student's ability to think critically, so this may skew my data.  I am excited to get started with my implementation plan.  I'm sure the research won't go exactly as planned, but I am interested to see what happens and analyze the results.