Oroville+Math+Linda

//An Action Plan is a plan for making a teaching change that will enhance your students understanding of mathematics.//
 * Action Plan **
 * __Describe teaching position.__** **Name:** Linda Colvin


 * School:** Oroville Junior Senior High


 * Teaching assignme**nt: Chemistry, Advanced Biology; 2 sections of a "transitional 8th grade/algebra class, content to be defined by me as a diagnostic and remedial instructor, 1 section of a slower paced algebra


 * Describe your student population (approximate number, ethnicity, language, etc):** Students are primarily Caucasian with a fair amount of Hispanic and limited Native American population. ( Need to look up the numbers!) More importantly, the poverty level is high - FRL is high enough to have OSPI consider us "challenged." We have approximately 50-60 students per grade level in the high school. My own math population will be specifically those who have already demonstrated that they are "math" challenged set up in quite small classes.

Describe your teaching change **What teaching change (instruction, assessment, materials) would you like to improve?** Certainly more use of technology to attain skills as well as reflection on progress needs to improve. Develop more engaging, hands-on or computers-on activities to set the stage for the skill building.

I would like to use blogs if the district permits (may have to be homework from another site) as reflective pieces for the studetns and a monitoring piece for me. I journal some now, but usually as an instructive, monitoring, entry task. This would be more reflective in nature. I have seen with other strategies that they will be more engaged and honest about their perfromance if asked, and suspect that using the keyboard with help.
 * Explain how your teaching change will improve your students’ ability to learn mathematics**.

I want to use more real-life data to generate the numbers/relationships we will work with. Fathom will accomplish that, along with the survey work.

I have small enough math classes and enough PCs in my lab that I will be able to put students on them during 55 minutes classes to access a variety of manipulatives that can be both skill and concept builders. The trick now is to develop the plans that permit the use

I constantly use the web for mroe info relevant to whatever we focus on. the ability to pull in data sets, manipulate them through Fathom, and setting up pages for the classes on wikisites will help organize me and and monitor student progress more efficiently.
 * Also, describe possible ways that technology might assist you in making your teaching change**.

**Identify at least two teaching goals (measurable accomplishment that if met would enable your students to learn mathematics more effectively).** 1) Improve student understanding of ratios, as evidenced by their attitudes as well as their proficiencies.
 * Set Teaching Goals **

2) Improve student ability to understand the "language" of math - translate the language into something they can relate to.

3) Improve level of relevance so that motivation to perform and level of curiosity is higher.

4) Another strategic goal will be to convince the orovilel administration to allow us to join the Math Alliance!

**Describe Teaching Actions**
 * 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**.

Providing scenarios in a context and exploring the relationships between various attributes through the use of Fathom, surveyed data, etc can address both relevance and the issue of understanding of ratios. Blogging or use of a wikipage can deal with the reflections and language of math. Saving work to a wikipage from scenarios devised from data collections as we ourselves have done allows student to express themselves without the paper burden (for both them and me!)


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

1) I will continue to use reflective work like exit passes that allow students to reflect on their progress and explain how they know.

2) I will have students invent their own assessments for each other for a given skill, concept,etc. by devising rubrics that they will use on their own and others' performances to monitor progress.

** Timeline ** **Outline a general timeline that identifies when you are going to use your actions, collect your assessment data.** These strategies will go into practice immediately, especially in the the 2 remedial sections, as I have the freedom to devise the curriculum. The slower paced algebra class will be more text driven, but will employ these strategies right away.

The incorporation of various tech strategies will depend on district approval.

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 **

//Optional:// a note about this edit for the page history log


 * Note** that the content you create on http://rethinkingmath2.wikispaces.com is licensed under the [|Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 3.0 License]. Please only submit content that you write yourself or that is in the public domain. Learn more about our open content policy.