Jennifer's Leadership Showcase
Making Me, My Students, and Fellow Teachers Effective Learners!
My focus in my Master's of Arts in Education was both leadership and teaching mathematics. I believe that what I learned during my technology and mathematics courses brought forth ways I can support my education team in helping students understand many topics. I want to present my best artifacts that have and will help me be a great educational leader to my team and my students. I have decided to organize my artifacts in the order of my goals, how I can change my in my classroom, and ways I can engage students. I start with an essay that describes an overall goal to get my students become life long learners. Next are three artifacts that show research of what strategies might work along with proof that no matter how long a teacher teaches, he/she will always learn new things. Then there are two power points on plans to not only make my classroom built for success but how I can help my colleagues become more effective teachers. Finally, the last three artifacts are on what I learned about technology and how I can use different forms of it to engage my students, Please click on the images to experience my journey to become a better leader.
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What Being A Life Long Leaner Means! |
I have always struggled with the idea of grades and what I actually learned. As a teacher, it is difficult to encourage students to be proud of their learning instead of getting an A-, not an A. This is an essay of my thoughts after I read "What the Best College Students Do," by Ken Bain. His words inspired me as a leaner and an educator, how I want my student to look at their education. Click on the picture to read my essay.
Even The Most Experienced Can Learn! |
This is an essay about reflection and inquiry can bring new meaning to educational ideas that you have been using for years. "The Girl with the Brown Crayon," by Vivian Paley, lead me to discover how keeping a journal can organize and produce education thought and also why it is so important to ask a student their thinking. I think we forget not to assume what our students want, know, or don't know, sometimes their thoughts bring new meaning or change to the curriculum.
Does Mixing It Up Work? |
Justifying In Mathematics! |
During this project I was able to develop an action research, preform, and reflect. I decided that I wanted to see the effects of written communication in the math classroom. Being a leader is not only about bringing a team together with multiple supporting ideas, but to show a reasoning behind a process. This research supported written communication in my math classroom but, as a leader, I can show it as evidence of why we need to analyze a student is thinking. Through this action research I was able to pinned down if a student confused about a concept or just making a fixable, simple error.
Support The Team! |
This artifact was an opportunity
to put me in the driver's seat. I was able to design a year plan for my
educational team that would support their growth as a teacher and learn new
ways to strengthen what happens in their classroom. As a leader, I felt I
could do so much and integrate multiple ways to help my co-workers, but with
that, more is no always better. It's about the depth and reflection.
Managing The Classroom! |
By putting together my own management plan to organize my classroom, I was able to analyze why many other ideas that I might not use, will work in other situations. Being able to adapt to the pros and cons of my management plan, I can then be able to contribute ideas to my educational team. Classroom management is one thing that will always change based on the students. It is good to keep in mind that one thing does not work for everyone or every student.
Re-proposed Lesson. |
My re-proposed lesson plan gave me another opportunity to prove the engagement of students through technology and differentiation. This helps me in my leadership by creating ideas and support for my education team. Engagement of students and keeping it, is a challenge but the use of different technology can change a lesson and make it easier for the student to understand. This lesson provides a way for students to understand the reasoning for a graph over time using a Calculator-Based Ranger.
Using A Movie To Teach And Analyze |
This digital movie project gave me a chance to experience how the use of technology can engage students and it also gave me the opportunity to analyze how I can help more students understand a concept by differentiating the instruction. This project was for me to use technology to prove the importance of differentiating but I constantly use this movie to demonstrate how to factor. Click on the photo to view the short movie.
Teaching Through Technology! |
The vodcast I made supported to idea of engagement through technology. I realized that even with the internet, students understand more if the concept is being taught by their teacher. It was because of this project that I started to make short review videos my students could go to for help. It is my job, in my classroom, to give multiple opportunities for my students to understand math concepts and the use of technology can go a far way. Click on the photo to view.