Graduate Showcase
Welcome to my graduate showcase. Throughout my master’s program at Michigan State University I set many goals for myself as a learner. One of my goals was to delve deeper into the curriculum and pedagogy within the various content areas. I wanted to learn about best practices in teaching and utilize them with the diverse learners in my classroom. Another goal of mine was to incorporate technology into my teaching. This meant that I needed to learn about new technologies and discover ways that they could add to the content I was teaching. The completion of my coursework has allowed me to be reflective of my goals. I am able to see what I have learned and how that has impacted my teaching and learning.
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I have seperated my work based upon the two goals mentioned above. The first section contains artifacts that showcases my learning and application of best practices in education. The second section showcases my use of technology and the effects it has had on my learning and teaching.
Curriculum and Pedagogy: Best Practices
Action Research Project
In this project I examined the following questions:
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What effect does collaboration have in student engagement and understanding in mathematics?
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What effect does the use of open-ended versus closed-ended tasks have on engagement and understanding?
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My findings allowed me to see that student discourse increases with the use of collaborative, open-ended tasks.
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Literacy Learners Project
This project allowed me to work one-on-one with a student to examine their learning needs. I was able to use the research based practices I learned about in my studies to create and plan lessons for him. I assessed his knowledge and his background to guide my teachings. This project helped me to understand all of the variables that may factor into a student's learning journey.
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Technological Pedagogy
Living in a world that is filled with technology changes the way we think, learn, act and teach. While our content may remain the same our methods of teaching and learning must adapt to this. This essay outlines my ideas and beliefs about how technology has adapted the environment we teach in.
Teaching Mathematics
The following essays outline key practices that I found are essential to the teaching and learning of mathematics. To go beyond the surface level of understanding we must teach the why of mathematics in conjunction with the how. Allowing children opportunities to make mistakes, discover misconceptions and have open communication among themselves. Teaching students how to take control of their learning will give them the tools they need to be successful in all aspects of life.
Technology: Tools and Integration
Tech Tools
I had the opportunity to explore different technologies used by educators for the classroom. I was able to delve into the exploration of three different technologies, analyzing their components and integrating them into my everyday lessons.
Online Learning
This video showcases my progress and learning of a muscle up. I had to teach myself how to do a muscle up using only YouTube Videos and help forums. This new learning style taught me a lot about who I am as a learner and it gave me insight to the possible learners I may have in my classroom. Check out my blog posts and video of my progress.
Padlet
Padlet is a technology that allows you to showcase your ideas and connect with one another on a digital platform. It opens up communication and collaboration on a virtual level, allowing for students and educators to share their thinking and wide. I was able to create a Padlet to show the correlation between Professional Noticing, Complex Instruction, Positioning and Discourse.
Cooking with TPACK
This video shows the importance of repurposing the tools you are given to accomplish a goal. My blog and video outline the importance of utilizing technology, pedagogy and content knowledge in conjunction with one another. All three elements help to create the most successful learning environment for all students. The challenge in my video was to create a fruit tray using a paper plate, paper bowl, spoon, apple and orange.