This is my first blog entry for my sabbatical. It includes several journal entries about what I did during the summer of 2011 up until this point in time, September 2011.
May 2011
I met with my Advisor for the first time, Dr. Joe Zilliox. He seemed very approachable and was easy to talk to. My main goal for meeting with him in May was to determine if I could take courses over the summer in order to get a head start on my classes for my Master's Degree. When I mentioned that I was attempting to finish the program within a year because I was on sabbatical, he smiled, and in a very polite way gave me a look of "Are you serious?" I was a little confused, because the pamphlet about the Master's program said that it could be completed within two full time semesters…but I assumed that statement probably wasn't totally accurate. I learned that most students at UH take anywhere from 5 to 7 years to complete their masters, because they work full time.
I was delighted to find out that I would be able to sign up for two required courses over the summer: Interdisciplinary Curriculum for Adolescents and School Curriculum Middle Level. I was excited and a little nervous thinking about being a student again after 20 years. The courses were going to be online, something I never did before.
The last thing my advisor helped me with at our meeting was that he looked ahead into the fall semester to see what classes I could take. He found two. I was shocked. I realized then that it probably wouldn't be realistic to think that I could finish my degree within one year. That was a little disappointing to me. It wasn't that they didn't offer enough classes to take in the fall it was that they offered classes on the same day at the same time. Why????
May 26, 2011
Disappointing news…both of my summer classes were cancelled - just one week before they were supposed to start!!!!! Ugh! I immediately sent an email to my advisor to see if there were other courses I could sign up for. He did find one, and I was happy with that.
I will be taking a Seminar in Curriculum for Math- another required course. The start date is June 7th and the end date is August 2nd. Once again, it will be on line. I am looking forward to finally getting started!
June 8, 2011
I survived my first class on line. Yea! I am very excited about this course!
Seminar in Curriculum for Math is taught by Dr. Tara O'Neill, and it meets on Elluminate every Tuesday evening from 5:00 until 8:00. Technology is amazing! We have 10 people enrolled in the class. 4 people are on Oahu, 4 people are on American Samoa, 1 person is in Kentucky and 1 person is on the Big Island. It's pretty amazing that our classroom is online. During our first class we were introduced to Elluminate and how it works. The professor was able to lecture, share videos, and share documents with us. We were also able to have conversations with one another via the chat box as well as using the microphone icon. It was mentioned that for some classes, we would be broken up into groups in break out rooms to have mini group discussions. Cool!
We were introduced to the main purpose of our class: Teaching from the STEM perspective. When we had our discussion about what this topic actually meant, I was at a loss…I didn't know what it stood for. Now I know that it stands for Science Technology Engineering and Math. Our goal will be to design a project that will incorporate hopefully all of these ideas together, but it will need to incorporate at least math and science. Wow!
June 29, 2011
Our class has been going well. We have been reading many articles about the idea of STEM integration. I now have a better understanding of what it means to design a curriculum that incorporates each of the topics of science, technology, engineering, and math. At this point in time, I am interested in designing my project around the idea of creating balloon cars, because it incorporates all topics. The only catch, though, is that we will need to actually carry out our projects in our classrooms this coming year. Our professor assumes we are teachers in our own classrooms, but what she doesn't realize is that I will be on sabbatical, and I will not have my own classroom. I am sure, however, that I will be able to work something out with one of my 8th grade colleagues.
July 20, 2011
After many revisions and switching of ideas in the design of my project, I have finally decided that this will be the driving question to my project: Using a video you create, how will you challenge the 8th grade math and science teachers to teach concepts using activities that are meaningful to your life? Basically, the project will take one cycle. Students will be broken up into groups, and they will need to create a 3 to 5 minute video on their favorite activities. They will have to show how math and science are connected to and important in their activities. They will have a couple of brainstorming and warm up activities to help them with their ideas for their video. Some of the curriculum-framing questions for this project are: Who are these students, and how can they be reached? How do these students view themselves as math and science students? How are math and science applicable to each student's life? What types of activities should be used to teach math and science? How do adults use math and science in their daily life?
August 10, 2011
Our class finished last night, and with it came all of the instructions for our next steps. Even though we will not meet any more on line, our projects will have to be carried out and finished up by October. We need to (1) create research questions, (2) implement the STEM unit project, (3) collect data to address the research questions, (4) evaluate and analyze the data, and (5) make our findings public, perhaps in a department meeting.
August 17, 2011
I just met with Jen Hong, and she will be allowing me to team teach with her during the first cycle in October. We will be carrying out my project. I am excited, and I am looking forward to having her students create videos on how math and science are important to their favorite activities. I am very appreciative that she is allowing me into her classroom.
August 12, 2011
Yea! I was actually able to sign up for 4 classes for the fall. They are: Problem Solving in Mathematics Education, Introduction to Research in Curriculum and Teaching, Qualitative Research Methods In Educational Organizations, and Probability and Statistics. I am very happy! Classes begin on August 22.
August 22, 2011
Ugh!!! One of my classes, Probability and Statistics, was cancelled!!!! It was cancelled due to low enrollment. Oh well, taking three classes is not bad at all. It is better than two.
September 6, 2011
I have been "in school" now for two weeks, and it is going well so far. I have been reading a lot of assigned articles, and they have been very interesting. The two most recent articles I read were Gary Davis': Richard Skemp's Relational Understanding and Instrumental Understanding and Pesek and Kirshner's Lessons Learned From Research. The first article talked about how there is a difference between relational understanding and instrumental understanding. Skemp quoted Mellin-Olsen's definition of relational understanding to be
" 'knowing both what to do and why' " and his definition of instrumental understanding to be
" 'rules without reasons' ". (p. 2, paragraph 5) The article on Lessons Learned From Research went on to say that relational teaching and instrumental teaching should not be used together because, together, they are detrimental. It states that using relational methods, by itself, is better. In other words, having students figure out how to solve problems on their own instead of being given all of the formulas is the ideal situation for math students. We have yet to discuss this in class.
I absolutely love my Problem Solving class. We basically take word problems, solve them, discuss them in class, and prove why the solutions work. It's amazing. We spent our first two classes on 6 out of 10 problems on the first Problem Set. It's incredible how far we can take the proofs to problems that are very simple to solve.
