Take your education seriously - part b

This fall I had the opportunity to go to one of the regional conferences for the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics in Cleveland, Ohio, of which I am a member. The long drive was certainly detracted from the day's events; nevertheless, it was still a great experience. Ron Milne took the five math education majors who will be doing student teaching next fall as well as the two students who are currently student teaching. The day consisted of browsing the convention hall, which was set up with all sorts of booths in which vendors showcased math curriculum, math games, math T-shirts, and all sorts of other things, as well as attending several seminars. There was a wide selection of seminars available based on your interests and grade level.

The first seminar that we went to "Digital Imaging in the Mathematics Classroom" might have been right up someone's alley, but it wasn't for me. For someone who is supposed to be an educator, the presenter certainly did not do a good job of engaging her audience. She talked about using a particular computer program in combination with a digital camera to help students explore functions that are found in real life, like the line of a roof or the parabola created by a pencil point. It might be interesting for a few lessons, but I did not see an application beyond that of an exploratory activity.

The second seminar that I attended was a new and pre-service teacher workshop. Most people were just like me, anticipating student teaching, only a few had taught for extended periods of time. Each of us was given a blank chart with titles like "motivating students" or "online resources" and we were instructed to collaborate with the rest of the people in the workshop to fill up this chart with tips that fit in each category. Following our discussion and large-group sharing, the presenter went through areas that we were struggling with and essentially suggested ways that NCTM could help new teachers in those areas. While it was interactive and helpful to talk to other people who are in a similar position to me, I found myself wishing that the presenter had more actual content and suggestions for us as new teachers.

The seminar that I was least sure about, but ended up being most glad that I attended was entitled "Making Algebra SWELL: Success with English Language Learners." For one thing, the woman presenting was certainly the best of the lecturers in the seminars that I attended. Her perspective was also much different than I anticipated: initially, she had been a Calculus teacher who was against using funding for ELL students; currently, she is pushing for more funding and advancements in the ELL field. Though I am not specifically studying to work with ELL students, her seminar did provide lots of hands-on approaches for teaching math. The seminar was also interesting because she actually had us do several of the activities that she uses with her students. Some her work reminded me of Goshen Middle School's push to incorporate vocabulary. Even when students understand math, they often don't know the vocabulary, so she has short daily activities that have students interacting with mathematical words. She also has students make a lot of graphic organizers and foldables in order to group similar information. One example that she showed us was a game in which students grouped all terms that mean "add" together, everything that means "greater than" together, and so on. I thought that she had a lot of great suggestions both for making class more interesting for students, but also for working with students who may be struggling.

Take your education seriously - part a

This semester I have begun tutoring two college students in Calculus I through Goshen's Academic Support Center. One year in high school, through our NHS, I was able to tutor a third-grader once a week through the whole year. Though it was extremely frustrating at times, it was definitely a formative experience as I considered entering the teaching profession. While tutoring is something that I had always been interested in doing during college, it had never worked out for one reason or another. This year, I had one night a week that was open for me to tutor and luckily it was also available for these two students.

Initially I was quite nervous about the experience because I was not sure how much of the material that I remembered since I took Calculus during my senior year of high school. After my first meeting with just one of the students, I was elated. They were currently studying a section that I remembered quite well and the student and I actually knew each other from choir. Subsequent meetings have been quite erratic. There are weeks where I can recall with great clarity exactly what they are studying, but there are others that I have no recollection of the particulars of that topic. The latter case has led to a great deal of frustration on my part and it certainly doesn't help the students either. I have worked to make sure that I know what they are studying before any given session, which has helped, though has certainly not eliminated all of my frustration.

Though I do not intend on teaching Calculus, I am a math and secondary education major, so this activity feels quite applicable to my major. Through tutoring I have begun to deal with a few of the issues that it seems that teachers often face. One of these has been trying to help students who seemingly do not want to be helped. I have also been forced to think about how to explain things in more than one way. Just because something makes sense to me, doesn't mean that it will make sense to them that way. I have also learned simply from hearing them talk about their frustrations with their professor and his teaching style. I anticipate upcoming meetings with the hope that I can constantly improve how I help them with Calculus, but also how I can help them find strategies that will help them to help themselves. That has been the hardest part - helping them work through a problem, but when we approach a similar one, they sometimes seem to be right back where they started. I'm always trying to build off of the skills that they already have with the hopes that they at least might have an idea of where to start. Though frustrations are rampant at times, if the opportunity presents itself, I would certainly like to tutor again.

Recharging your batteries - part c

This year over Fall Break, I went up to Brunk's cabin with a few friends for a lovely time. I originally wasn't sure that I should go because I more just felt like staying at home and trying to relax rather than feeling like I needed to go somewhere and organize something. I definitely made the right decision though. I think that if I had stayed home, I would have felt pressure to do homework rather than take time to relax. In addition to having lovely, low-key company, our activities were very informal and relaxing.

For dinner, soon after we got there, we made hobo dinners over the fire. Rather than have one or two people cooking, hobo dinners require each person to put together their own meal, package it in tinfoil, then throw it into the coals. So after each person put theirs on the fire, we just sat around and talked until dinner was done. After eating and more conversation, s'mores, of course, were a necessary component of the evening. The rest of the evening included putting a puzzle together, listening to several friends singing and playing piano and just sitting around talking and relaxing.

After sleeping all next to our wood fire and eating breakfast outside, we took a walk through the woods. Thankfully it was a beautiful day and the trees were just beginning to change. After exploring the woods around the cabin, we returned to campus. Though I initially wasn't sure about going, I am very glad that I did. It is always a nice change of pace just to be off campus for a little while. I certainly was much more relaxed for my upcoming homework than I would have been otherwise.

Recharging your batteries - part b

I have always been a huge fan of intramurals here at Goshen. I grew up in an active family and have always had active friends, so joining impromptu games of soccer or volleyball is just second nature. While I am athletic to a certain degree, I don't have the dedication or desire to play a collegiate sport; intramurals seem like the perfect solution. Unfortunately, during my freshman year of college, I was not able to participate in any intramurals until after Christmas break. I was recovering from knee surgery and had not been cleared by my doctor to participate in anything that was remotely competitive.

Since that point I have participated on two indoor soccer teams, two indoor volleyball teams, two basketball teams, and one outdoor Frisbee team. Currently, we are wrapping up an indoor volleyball season. While the beginning of the season was a bit rough, we are actually doing quite well. My experience on this team exemplifies one of the reasons that I enjoy intramurals so much: getting to know new people and interacting with others in a different manner than usual. I didn't even know everyone on my team at first, though we have some friends in common. It has been fun to get to know them both while we are playing, but then also seeing them around campus.

Another reason that intramurals are important to me is because of the physical release that participating in sports provides. Volleyball isn't this way so much, but playing basketball or soccer and then coming back to my room tired and sweaty is a feeling that directly contrasts and counters the sleepy-eyed exhaustion experienced after spending too many hours studying in the library.

Recharging your batteries - part a

Many of my housemates would not agree, but one way that I have found this semester to recharge has been cooking for my housemates. I live in Kenwood, right on 8th St, with eight other people. We decided at the beginning of the year to try to have four meals a week and thus far have been pretty successful. Each Sunday night we decide who is cooking with who and on what night, then we frantically attempt to decide what to cook so that we can form a grocery list for the shopper of the week. My least favorite part of cooking is deciding what to make. We also have two vegetarians our house, so it has been interesting trying to figure out how to create interesting, filing meals that will either not contain any meat or will contain meat in an optional way.

One meal that I recently cooked that I felt went particularly well was called "Pakistani Kima," which is basically a hamburger curry served over rice. To accommodate my vegetarian housemates, I made a smaller amount that contained more vegetables and no meat. We get many of our recipes out of the World Community Cookbooks: More With Less, Extending the Table, and Simply in Season, which are produced by the Mennonite Central Committee. This meal was no exception. One of the reasons that I enjoyed cooking this meal so much was because it led to exclamations from my housemates about how this meal reminded them of their moms and different variations of kima that they have in their homes. I was surprised at how well it turned out.

While at times cooking for the house can be stressful because of time constraints on when the meal needs to be ready or simply because of the time that I am taking away from homework to do the cooking, overall it has been a positive thing for me. Because of the way that we schedule when we cook, I have mostly been able to pick times that are convenient for me. Also, I am someone who has a hard time just taking a break and completely relaxing, so while cooking is not something that typically requires a lot of brainpower, it still feels like I am doing something productive. Meals have been a nice time to reconnect with my housemates and eat some very good food.