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Welcome to the Learn More pages!
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I work with both intervention and accelerated students and, funnily enough, many of them have something in common. They are defined by their grades and test scores. Intervention students dismiss a task as too difficult for themselves before they have a chance to think because they identify with their grades. Accelerated students invest so much into the identity of their grades that they worry themselves sick over tests and presentations. It is heart-breaking for me as an educator to see students be limited by their negative beliefs about themselves. This drove me to my driving question.
I wanted to know how a shift in mindset could affect students. So, I researched growth mindsets, developed and adapted lessons that promote student choice, researched educational models that can tap unseen academic potential. I conducted action research on my students by treating them with growth mindset activites and reflections and measuring their performance on a performance task. I ultimately had research results that were NOT statistically significant. My two week growth mindset treatment did not miraculously improve my students' performance. In an odd way, this supports the existing body of research. Growth mindsets are about developing life long learners! It's not a magic pill you give to students before testing. It is a long term commitment to changing the way a student perceives themselves and mathematics. I believe this happens by changing the culture students learned in. After all, students learned their current beliefs about math from somewhere. So why can't we replace them?  Lessons
On the Lessons page, you will find examples of lessons that can help promote critical thinking and open ended problem solving.  How-tos
On the How-to's page, you will find tools to help you build a culture of agency in your classroom and tutorials for setting up some of the best tools
 References
On the References page, you will find a directory of my favorite digital resources, top notch blogs to follow, and recommended peer-reviewed articles.
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Click here to access the Research page!
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Standards addressed during research:
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.7.SP.C.8 Find probabilities of compound events using organized lists, tables, tree diagrams, and simulation. CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.7.SP.C.8.A Understand that, just as with simple events, the probability of a compound event is the fraction of outcomes in the sample space for which the compound event occurs. CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.7.SP.C.8.B Represent sample spaces for compound events using methods such as organized lists, tables and tree diagrams. For an event described in everyday language (e.g., "rolling double sixes"), identify the outcomes in the sample space which compose the event. |
Favorite Tools
Engaging classroom management! Students work to complete quests and level up characters that have unique abilities. These abilities can impact their classroom experience and add some extrinsic motivation. Compare it to incentive based jobs, like sales!
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A free, user friendly video creation tool! Provides access to tons of free images, video themes, transitions, and the ability to record audio, all within your browser. Fast and easy tool for high quality videos!
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Interactive assessment tool. Can provide some fun competition to your classroom. Build your own assessments or choose from one of thousands of premade ones. Kahoot constantly adds new features and game modes, so keep a close eye on them!
My personal favorite free infographic tool. As a math teacher, I feel like it has slightly more to offer on the data/graph side than Piktochart. Canva is still a wonderful tool, but I'm raising awareness for another great option!
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Self-paced learning for dozens of subjects, ranging from math to computer science to animation to history. There is huge potential with this free service. They offer assignments, personalized to-do lists and data tracking for teachers. Not to mention, annual events like Learnstorm and Hour of Code!
Free online graphing calculator that can also be used to deliver interactive lessons! Also can provide fun opportunities for connecting math and art.
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