Initial Educator Statement

Looking at my strengths is as challenging as looking at my weaknesses. I feel that as

an educator I should always have a humble posture of learning and never consider that
Ive fully mastered my content. Taking my upper level abstract math courses over the
past years has been enough to show me that I will never fully understand mathematical
theory. Watching an engineer friend of mine develop nuclear fusion using calculus
shows me that my grasp of calculus is at best scratching the surface. Seeing how a
computer geek uses matrices and algorithms to set up a webpage or how a researcher
uses exponential equations to study cancer growth is marvelous. Statistics is used to
create psychological diagnostic tools and research mental health. As a math teacher
one of my goals is to further explore the subject I teach.

Math is used in physics, economy, architecture and medicine as well as other
disciplines! I want to transmit this understanding to my students. I want to connect my
subject matter to the real world and create a greater appreciation for the beauty math
reects. To do this I plan to research every day applications of math to allow my
students to contextualize their learning and to create meaningful learning experiences.

We all have a favorite teacher we remember from high school or middle school. What
made their class stand out, and why was it meaningful for us? I think the Wisconsin
Educator Standard One touches on this. The standard not only addresses the need to
know the subject being taught but makes the subject matter meaningful for pupils.
This is something I would like to further develop over the coming years. To do this I
plan to enhance my lessons with examples of every day uses for math and to invite
professionals to come talk to my class.

Living in Middleton, WI, we are fortunate to have an abundance of engineers and
scientists in our community as well as many university professors and researchers who
can be invited as guest speakers to our class rooms. Part of my plan as a developing
professional will be to maintain contact with local Phds and engineers to come present
their work to my classroom and help my students see how math is used in so many
elds! I believe this would create more motivation to study math and greater interest in
the eld. Separating academics from real world application can easily happen but
should be avoided. My goal would be to weave connections between what is in the text
book and what is happening in diverse scientic elds in our area.

Another area of growth Id like to focus on is how to adapt instruction to meet the
diverse needs of pupils. With immersion classrooms becoming the new norm it is a
challenge to meet the needs of every student. When planning lessons and trying to
differentiate for diverse learning styles, we also need to consider the needs of our ELL
population, our students with disabilities, our students from broken homes, the list goes
on and on. For now I will focus on one area of growth of particular relevance for me.

I have had the chance to work with ELL kids and am dedicated to improving my abilities
to meet the needs of this population. To do this I plan to take ELL courses over the
coming years while continuing to work with parents and students to improve their at
home support systems and academic expectations.

I believe that a great part of education is instilling intrinsic motivation and perseverance
in the student population. This internal will power to triumph and to succeed in school is
fundamental for success. Many of our students havent fully developed successful
academic expectations and behavior. To further work with the ELL population, Id like to
organize a study skills seminar to help both parents and students understand what is
needed to succeed in high school. Inviting past students to share what worked for them
would be part of my plan of action. Creating greater outreach to parents would be a
part of this as well.

Wisconsin Educator Standard Three addresses the need for teachers to understand
that children learn differently. I believe that responding to this truth is daunting and
often times neglected. When State standards encourage the use of curriculums aligned
with the common core, it is easy to be lured into one size ts all pre-fabricated lessons.
While there is a need to align our work to a common core, it is easy to forget that as
teachers we must choose the delivery of our content areas and modify said content to
meet the needs of our class.

My goal as a multilingual educator who has studied abroad and struggled through the
many challenges this implies is to learn how to better advocate for these students while
offering tools to them so they can be successful even in the face of adversity.

To evaluate my success in this area I will track student grades in my content area
paying special attention to my ELL population. I will evaluate their background, what
grades they have achieved in the past and track their improvement in my class with
data reecting math performance. This data will come from class grades and available
standardized assessment tools.

One of the areas I feel condent in is understanding teen development and offering
support not just for their academic development but also for their social and personal
development. I think one of the reasons so many teachers love this profession is those
key moments when they can mentor and support a student. Understanding the
difculties teenagers go through, which stem not only from crazy hormonal uctuations
but also broken families, poverty, learning disabilities, peer pressure or mental health
issues, is an often under recognized part of our jobs. Wisconsin Educator Standard
Two, teachers know how children grow, addresses this area of teacher development.

This is an area where I feel I have a lot to offer. My rst degree was in Clinical
Psychology, and I had the chance to study child development, the effect of hormones,
neurology, mental health, motivation, emotion, attention and perception. This
knowledge combined with my study of family dynamics and self-esteem development,
give me an advantage when addressing the varying needs of adolescents.

Some of my favorite insights from my psychology training came from Gardners
Multiple Intelligence theory, Maslows Hierarchy of Needs and Piagets Stages of
Development. They offer perspective which is valuable for an educator when
considering how to help individual students in need.

Good teachers try to see what is at the core of a students failure in class. They may
then reach out to a tutor, a counselor or another support mechanism to help the student
learn. I feel I have a good ability to address these. I also feel that I can modify my
instruction to meet some of these needs. This is something I have had countless
chances to do in my role as ELL math teacher. I have coordinated IEP meetings and
met with students individually to address deciencies and have seen them improve as a
consequence.

One of the best ways to support kids in math is to work with them one-on-one, but time
does not always allow for that. Offering chunked assignments which walk through the
steps needed to take to solve say a polynomial equation is sometimes just enough
support to make all the difference. Allowing students to process a subject in many
different fashions is also a way of ensuring we are offering quality instruction.

This leads me to another area I feel strong in which is Wisconsin State Standard Seven,
planning different kinds of lessons. This is something I strive to do and will continue to
do as a future professional. I can do this not only because of my creativity but also
because I believe it is necessary to even out the playing eld by creating accessible
information for all students. Our society tends to value lecture and paper and pencil
work over other means of learning. Math is more dynamic than that. Students should
have the opportunity to see math in the real world. Why not have a math eld trip to see
geometry in real world structures or evaluate the use of sinusoidal waves in studying
sound or music? Why not play some music when talking about the use of these waves
and describe their role in sound?

Math need not be a dry class, math is just as applicable as biology in the real world.
And yes, when Ive worked in biology classes, Ive marveled at how many awesome
videos they watch, the labs they do, the eld trips they incorporate. This is not
something we frequently get to see in math yet I feel that approaching math from
different angles helps different learners grasp key concepts.

I will incorporate these things into my classroom whenever possible and keep Garners
Multiple Intelligence theory in the forefront of my mind when lesson planning. Creating
a class structure that allows for a wide variety of lesson plans is absolutely necessary.

One lesson I created during my student practicums which exemplies this was cutting
coupons to study percent change. The students clipped coupons and evaluated which
one was offering the biggest percent change, i.e. the biggest markdown. They then
organized them from best deal to worst. Perhaps this is a lesson they will remember
because it involved hands on kinetic learning and a real life useful application they can
relate to.

In my Algebra II class, we had the students create a concept map of different ideas and
terms they had been working with over the past couple of weeks. Many of them said it
really helped them understand how everything was related. A visual learner may
remember a concept map better while a kinetic learner may appreciate a more physical
manifestation of a concept.

Using games can be effective as well, and research indicates it enhances learning as
does technology, which brings me to another thing I am excited about developing over
the upcoming years. This is not something I have been able to do as a student teacher
but I hope to as a full-edged professional. I would love to use more technology in my
class room. I have had the chance to work with an awesome semi-retired math teacher,
Tim Fahlberg. He is a huge technology lover and has countless ideas for incorporating
technology into the classroom. When he taught, he pioneered creating video lessons
with his classrooms, used smart pens to enhance learning, i-pad technology One
small thing Id like to incorporate into my classrooms would be the use of online
homework where students could receive help online while completing their homework. I
would love to be able to post online videos which walked them through difcult problems
and use a blog where they could post questions and help each other through
challenging math problems.

The possibilities are endless!