Why Professional Development Can Be Held For Mathematics Teachers

Controversy over the education curriculum has always been present. There has been a countless number of students questioning the reasoning for going over specific topics in all classes. The iconic “when are we going to use this in the real world?” question has sparked within the majority of mathematics classes. Stanley Fish’s editorial does not regard the importance of subjects taught in math courses, but rather, the material college professors should be teaching within their English courses.

My career in education, I am currently leading the Mathematics department in Paterson Charter School for Science and Technology besides my teaching duties last 4 years. I work closely with teachers in the department to make sure they implement the school policies and curriculums in their classroom properly. As a department head, I visit classrooms and observe the routines

I currently work for West Point Public Schools, I will be starting my seventh year with in the district. During my time at West Point, I have been involved in several different roles. I have been a sixth grade teacher where I taught the lower level reading, and language arts classes. All of the sixth grade United States History, along with being the sixth grade special education case manager, and served as one of the upper elementary reading coaches along with being a special education behavior teacher.

Currently, I am working in the Kansas City Kansas school district. I was a preschool teacher assistant for three years and decided that I wanted to go further with my career goals. So I stepped out on faith and resigned from the district and started substitute with the district. While working in the urban school district I have learned so much from the students compared to when I was a student in the district. Not only have I learned from them I do believe I have made an impact on their education as well.

Many students at the elementary level perform poorly in mathematics because when they complete kindergarten; they acquire inadequate knowledge of basic mathematics. Due to lack of enough skills and concepts, these students continue to experience this problem even in upper elementary school (Duncan et al, 2007).By the fourth grade, these students performance becomes very poor such that they are not expected to improve when they get to the next grade. The major program to improve student’s achievement in mathematics is the introduction of more intense professional development in teacher-led instruction, providing examples, and teaching problem-solving strategies for all

This artifact addresses the standards of content/subject matter, diverse learners, instructional strategies, and methods of teaching in several different ways. The artifact deals with the content of 8th grade math, in this particular artifact it deals with slope, proportionality, and slope intercept form. With using these concepts, I used a variety of strategies including creative thinking and problem solving to make questions. I was also able to create opportunities for diverse learners in this lesson with the strategies and methods of the 8th grade math content. When creating this lesson it was not my goal to interconnect these four standards, it was after reflecting on the lesson that I observed I connected these four standards in my lesson

This article described the how a group of educators came together to introduce problem solving to third-grade students throughout the year as a means to teach other concepts instead of just teaching this concept when it was reached in the textbook. The educators were in groups of three with a mathematical consultant. During the course of this project the educators met with the mathematical consultant every four weeks to discuss how students responses and their presentations. During these meeting the educators would often make adjustment to better fit the students. The article contained subsections about the special spark, the before, during, and after of the problem

I am currently the deputy head of mathematics, having recently been promoted from being deputy head of year. In my previous role I had pastoral responsibility for students ensuring their well-being and trying to give them a positive experience of their school live. In addition to this I was an active mathematics teacher, teaching key stages 3 to 5. In my current role, I have responsibility to ensure every student achieves the best they can in maths through leading a team of 15 teachers.

This past Friday, I had the opportunity to interview Carolina Portales. Mrs. Portales is a kinder garden ESL teacher in the Grand Prairie school district. She was nice and kind answering most of my questions, and she even gave me some advices to get through the first year . According to Mrs. Portales the math professional development activities that she has participated in are the ones that the district of Grand Prairie offers. She described her overall experiences learning math as not so good, because she has had good teachers that care about students’ learning, but some other teachers do not. She has not learned everything she needs to learn, but she knows enough to teach, what she needs to teach.

I have been teaching in Tipton County for 8 years. I teach Algebra 2 at Covington High.  I love what I do and I enjoy making a difference in students' lives.  I am married and have a 1-year-old and her name is Taylor.  She turns 2 on December 24th and she keeps me busy.  I am currently enrolled in the leadership program because I wish to be an assistant principal at some point in my career.  I am confident that my education and experience will make me a successful leader one day.

To be an adequate teacher to students all teachers need to understand the basics of literacy and numeracy to enable them to convey the curriculum sufficiently and accurately. “In an increasingly complex world, being able to read, write, add, subtract, divide and multiply is crucial” (Rankine, 2013, p.3).

As a result of implementing any of the ten lesson plans, the students will learn about quantities and their relationships. Moreover, the students will use their curiosity to explore and learn about the world around them. For example, they can learn about how and why leaves change colors. As a result of developing and implementing this artifact, I learned that educators need to ask and respond questions to help foster students’ inquisitiveness and scientific thinking. I also learned that teaching mathematics can be done through interactive activities, and not through hand outs. To improve these lesson

Ten years ago, I took my first job at Hamburg Area High School. This high school math position also included coaching middle school soccer in both the fall and spring. At the time, I really felt this was perfect. I would teach mathematics and coach soccer. Five years ago, I had the opportunity to work for the Wilson School District. Once again, I would be teaching math. Coaching fell by the wayside as I got married and had children. After working a short while at Wilson, I came to realize how quickly things can change and how I should always be looking to open new doors to create new opportunities.

Many educators will argue what makes an effective teacher and how that correlates with the function of the classroom. When we talked about how to be an effective teacher we discussed three components, teaching through problem-solving and selecting appropriate tasks, creating appropriate environments and using appropriate interventions. In my field experience, I was able to observe these three effective mathematics teaching components and understand how they apply to the classroom. After leaning about these components, I was then able to use them in my personal experience and see how they

Being a teacher is not an easy task as many people could think. To be a teacher does not only imply to know the subject to be taught, it also includes being willing to constantly improve oneself integrally, as much as updating the resources and materials one uses in teaching. Reflecting and analyzing over and over again the best way to teach to learn and how to make students to extend what has been learned. The many hours spend in the classroom will never be enough to plan lessons, prepare materials, review pupils tasks and exams, as well, all the administrative requirements one has to cover for whatever institution we work. Besides all this a good teacher, a professional one, will have to find the time to keep preparing to improve