Ingraham's+Action+Plan

// An Action Plan is a plan for making a teaching change that will enhance your students understanding of mathematics. //
 * Action Plan**

Name: //Shawn Ingraham// School: //Okanogan HS// Teaching assignment: //Pre-Algebra, Algebra, Geometry Describe your student population (approximate number, ethnicity, language, etc): Native Americans (10%), Hispanics (25%), Caucasion (60%) are the three main ethinic groups. The total for the highschool is about 300 students.//
 * Describe your teaching situation **

What teaching change (instruction, assessment, materials) you like to improve? Explain how your teaching change will improve your students’ ability to learn mathematics. Also, describe possible ways that technology might assist you in making your teaching change.
 * Describe your teaching change **

//There are quite a few things that I would like to change. The first thing is that I'd like to bring in more technology. Secondly, I'd like to work on doing a better job of giving formative assessment. I feel I do a small amount by walking around the class and helping students and intervening if I see students on the wrong path. Finally, I am going to focus on using more group work in my class so that students work together and overcome difficulties as a team//

//By bringing in technology I will allow students to communicate and engage about mathematics in a medium that they enjoy using. And anything that I can to to more actively engage students is worth trying. The formative assessment will allow students to know if they are on the right track and will allow me to catch students earlier in the process before mistakes become engrained. Hopefully this will allow the student to have more confidence in what they are doing. By getting students into groups, working together, I feel that students will gain a better understanding of math since they will be able to work together to understand the concepts. By having other students to ask questions and get help from the students will be communicating about mathematics a lot more that if it was just me helping them. Also, by being in groups the students will be able to tackle tougher problems that they could have individuall.//

Identify at least two teaching goals (measurable accomplishment that if met would enable your students to learn mathematics more effectively).
 * Set Teaching Goals**

//1) My first goal is to try and bring in technology into the classroom through interactive demonstrations, a blog/wiki where students can find out about homework, etc.. 2) My second goal is to really focus on setting up a classroom atmosphere that is conductive to good groupwork interactions.//

Describe at least two things you are going to do as a teacher to accomplish your teaching goals. These actions may or may not use technology but if they do not use technology, explain why technology is or is not the best teaching tool for your teaching change.
 * Describe Teaching Actions **

//Technology: I plan on using Fathom to create more visual demonstrations and use a Blog or wiki that students can check to see what the homework is and then ask for help if they need it. I will also use the Survey feature on Fathom we discussed so that students will have more personable data with which to interact with.

Groupwork: I will have to set up the roles of each group member so that a person does not dominate the group. I will need to focus on helping students see that everyone is important to the success of the group. Asking questions is just as important as being able to answer them. By getting the groups to function as a unit the classroom will beome a place that monitors itself which gives me more freedom to observe and watch students communicating the the language of math.//

Identify how you are going to assess each of your teaching goals (simple method of collecting information to see if your teach goals was met).
 * Assess Teaching Goals **

//1) Techonolgy: By setting up the blog and seeing students communicating and asking questions on it. 2) Groupwork: I will know that I've succeed at this goal when I see groups talking about mathematics, following their roles, and monitoring their groups behavior. I guess what is boils down to is just having a classroom where students enjoy... well maybe tolerate is a better word... coming to class and interacting with the mathematics.//

Outline a general timeline that identifies when you are going to use your actions, collect your assessment data
 * Timeline **

//1) Technology: Immediately, I plan on setting up a blog/wiki immediately for each class so that I can give students another forum to talk about math. As for Fathom, I don't really have a timeline for it. It will be a learning process throughout the year but I will try to use it at least once every two weeks.

2) Groupwork: I imagine that this will probably take a quarter to get the students comfortable working together and relying on each member of the group. So if by the end of the first quarter groups are working together and talking about mathematics a lot more than they the have the last few years I will feel that I've accomplished this goal.//

Write a reflection on the results of your action plan. What was difficult? What worked well? How did your students react to the changes you made? What was the impact on student learning?
 * Reflection**