Forever a Student 1

Forever a Student

MATC Synthesis Paper

In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the

Master of Arts Degree in Teaching and Curriculum

Department of Teacher Education, Michigan State University

Laura Naumann

PID A43275579

August 3rd, 2018

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Introduction:

On May 3rd 2014, I graduated from Michigan State University ready to take on my

student teaching year. I remember feeling a mix of emotions that day. I recall feeling

disappointed, not in my schooling career or the experiences I had at MSU, but sadness in the fact

that I would no longer be a student, learning and experiencing life from the eyes of a learner.

Jumping into my student teaching year, I quickly realized that that emotion was short lived.

Being a teacher, you are forever learning. A day does not go by where I do not learn or take

away something from my students. Certain things you learn through experience, such as not

sitting two strong personalities at the same table or assigning a quiz the day of the homecoming

football game. However, there was also a type of learning that was absent. I missed reading

articles, discussing problems and issues with my peers, and formally taking the time to reflect on

my teaching practice. Because of the absence of professional learning in my life after student

teaching, it was an easy decision to return to MSU in order to obtain my Master of Arts in

Teaching and Curriculum with a concentration in Math Education.

Background:

Based on my desire to return quickly back to school after graduation, it is probably no

surprise that I have always enjoyed school. I was always the student and now teacher who looked

forward to the first day of school. I usually do not get a full night’s sleep mainly out of

excitement for the year to come. I enjoyed being a student, and I now enjoy being a teacher.

After completing my Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics at MSU, I began student

teaching at Ferndale High School, a city located outside of Detroit, Michigan with a diverse

student body. During my time student teaching, I learned how to plan and organize lessons with
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students in mind. We did not have a curriculum to use, so my mentor had created many of her

assignments, as well as both formative and summative assessments, on her own. I remember

thinking this was very odd. In my schooling career, I always had a textbook that was followed

strictly. I remember my mentor discussing the benefits and downfalls of making her own

curriculum. I enjoyed the freedom to decide what my students were going to learn. and how to

format it. However, it was much more work compared to what my peers were doing. After

student teaching I began my full-time teaching career at Oak Park Freshman Institute located in

Oak Park, Michigan. Oak Park is a small town located just outside of Detroit’s city limits. I

quickly learned that because of Oak Park’s open enrollment status my students were coming

from a wide variety of backgrounds. Over half of Oak Park’s students come from districts

outside of Oak Park, with the majority of these students coming from various Detroit Public

Schools and also charter schools. At the time, Oak Park was implementing a blended curriculum,

which combined student work books, teacher instruction, and online learning. I quickly realized

that this type of learning was not working for my 9th grade Algebra students. With the support of

administration and other mathematics teachers, our department used our curriculum as a resource

and began to adjust our teaching material to better meet the needs of our students. Reflecting on

my experiences with a nonexistent curriculum and then one that did not meet the needs of my

students, my interest in how to better teach my Algebra students heightened. I wanted to learn

how to best instruct my students and what curriculum resources were the best fit to help me do

so. I knew that the MATC program at MSU would help me accomplish all of these goals. Having

almost completed the Master of Arts in Teaching and Curriculum program at MSU my thoughts

on teaching and its importance have changed. I have learned more about the importance of
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collaborating with peers, how best to teach mathematics, and finally the best ways to reach a

wide variety of students.

Section 1: Importance of Collaboration with Peers

While taking graduate courses at MSU I saw the importance in collaboration. This is

something I was familiar with at a department level, but was not sure how formal collaboration

looked. I meet regularly with my colleagues to discuss ideas and data; however, I did not see a

way to formally organize these meetings and discussions around a specific lesson until my

education courses at MSU. Participating in lesson studies with my colleagues in TE 857

(Teaching and Learning Mathematics Through Problem Solving) made me see the benefits of

observing and discussing lessons with my peers (Artifact 1). I have always been an advocate of

learning from others, and in the teaching profession this is something that is easily accomplished.

This can be accomplished by lesson studies or peer coaching. I also had the opportunity in TE

807 (Professional Development and Inquiry) to complete a peer coaching cycle where an artifact

was shared with peers, focus questions were created, and then formal feedback was given on

how to better the instructional strategy (Artifact 2). We discussed the strengths and weaknesses

of my strategy, and also ways to improve student engagement and productivity. Both lesson

studies and peer coaching cycles highlight the fourth MATC standard of “Reflective, systematic

inquiry and study/refinement of one’s practice.” Lesson studies and peer coaching gave me the

opportunity to reflect on my teaching and also lesson planning. I was able to view other teachers

teach and help them build upon their lessons. These two strategies: lessons studies and peer

coaching highlight the fifth and sixth standard of the MATC program: “Communication skills

and information literacy” and “Proactive participation in collaborative initiatives, professional

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learning communities, professional organizations, and teacher leadership beyond the classroom.”

Both TE 857 and TE 807 provided me with an opportunity to collaborate with classmates in

order to better our teaching. I still recall the suggestions my peer coaching peers gave me about

bettering my activity that was discussed. This type of collaboration helped me deepen my

understanding of student learning, and also created a community in my group. I still actively

communicate with my TE 807 peers about teaching and our struggles. The collaboration that was

learned and performed during my MATC program has also transpired into my teaching career. I

am taking on leadership opportunities and am learning more about collaboration opportunities in

my building. Collaboration is something that I always knew was important, but not until after the

MATC program did I see the direct effect it could have on student learning.

Section 2: How Best Teach Mathematics

The collaboration done in the MATC program has guided my development not only as a

teacher leader, but also as a mathematics educator. Being a math teacher, I receive a unique type

of pushback from my students. Ask anyone about their experience with mathematics in school,

and I guarantee they will have a story of their best and or worst math teacher. So many people

have a negative view on math, and as a math teacher at the secondary level I discuss with my

students every day the importance of the 9th grade Algebra class they are taking. During my

mathematic specific method courses during my student teaching year, and also the mathematic

specific courses taken during my MATC program, I have learned valuable lessons on the

importance of teaching math in productive and effective ways. Students need to see the

importance of the math they are learning and the value it has in their personal life. During TE

855 (Teaching School Mathematics) I had the opportunity to find a call for manuscripts on a
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topic of relevance to my teaching career. The call for manuscripts I chose to write for was titled

“Open the Door and Keep it Open” for the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.

Through the process of writing this article I reflected on the effectiveness and also importance of

engagement and group work in a mathematics classroom (Artifact 3). Engagement is something

that must be present in order for students to learn in your math classroom. I believe that group

work truly aids in maintaining this engagement. When students are able to work with one

another, they are given the opportunity to learn from their peers. I think group work is a crucial

part of a mathematics classroom because it enables entry for close to all students. This entry

allows for students who may not have tried the task to attempt it with their peers. However,

having students in groups does not always lead to successful group work. In order for group

work to be truly dynamic the tasks groups are given must be group worthy tasks. Through my

mathematic method courses (TE 802, TE 804, TE 855, and TE 857) I have read, and also had

multiple discussions and reflection opportunities to discuss why some tasks are group worthy

while some are not. Productive group worthy tasks should be open ended. There also should be

multiple ways of solving the problem. This will then lead to productive and meaningful

classroom discussions.

Through my time at MSU I have gained a valuable understanding of how to run a

classroom discussion in order to help deepen students understanding of the material. The

procedure for creating a meaningful class discussion is as follows: Anticipate, Monitor, Select,

Sequence, and Connect. This allows for teachers to have an idea of what students may be

thinking and then use that knowledge to sequence the ordering of procedures that will be shared

with the class. All of the knowledge I gained in my mathematics specific teaching courses relate

directly to the second MATC Standard “Understanding of subject matter, how to teach it, and
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how to design curriculum, instruction, and assessment to foster students understanding” and also

the third Standard “Understanding and use of theoretical perspectives and conceptual

frameworks to situated and analyze issues and problems of practice and policy.” In all of my

mathematics classes I was able to learn about the mathematics teaching reform that is happening

in the United States. Students need to see the connection between school and their real life.

Teaching mathematics in a way that will prepare students for their life outside of school will only

benefit them in the long run. Reflecting on my experience in the MATC program and also

classroom experience I believe this is best done with engagement in mind, as well as productive

group work and also class discussions on these tasks.

Section 3: Reaching a Wide Range of Students

Not only are math specific teaching strategies important, but also the ability to reach a

wide range of students. Recently I was asked the question “What does learning for all mean to

you?” As a teacher, I think this is the ultimate goal. You want every student who enters your

classroom to have a fair chance at learning and the ability to take away all the knowledge from

your classroom as possible. I think unfortunately this is easier said than done. However, the

MATC program has helped open my eyes to different ways of instructing and using both

technology and literacy in my classroom in order to strengthen student’s mathematical ability.

While enrolled in TE 846 (Accommodating Differences in Literacy Learners) I took part in a

Literacy Learner Analysis (LLA) project (Artifact 4). At first I was frustrated in trying to see

how literacy and reading strategies would help students with the mathematics I was instructing,

but after completing this assignment my view on literacy in the math classroom has changed.

While performing this assignment, I came across two strategies used to help students perform
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word problems in the math classroom. I learned that literacy plays an integral role not only in the

ELA classroom, but every other class as well. The student I worked with during my LLA project

was a 17-year-old female who would be entering her senior year of high school. She explained to

me that she always excelled at reading and writing, however math was a struggle for her.

Because of her struggle with mathematics she was also not a fan of word problems. During the

LLA, I was able to research and implement two different strategies to help her gain confidence

with word problems in mathematics. These strategies allowed for students to read through the

material and find the core important pieces in the real-world word problem. One strategy called

“STAR” had students perform the following steps: Search, Translate, Answer, Reason. This

method is something that works for struggling mathematics students. The LLA project allowed

me to gain knowledge on how to reach more students than before when dealing with word

problems in the math classroom. This increased my confidence in the first MATC Standard

“Understanding and commitment to students and their diversity”. I learned ways to differentiate

my classroom based on a student’s literacy ability and also attitude towards mathematics. This

opened my eyes to using new strategies in my classroom in order to increase student learning.

This project also gave me the chance to communicate with parents about their students. Part of

this project was to write a detailed letter to the parent to explain suggestions on how their student

could improve, and what we did over the course of this project. This helped with the fifth MATC

standard of “Communication skills and information literacy”.

Along with literacy strategies the MATC program also gave me the opportunity to learn

how technology can help students in the math classroom. Because I have already seen the

downfalls of a hybrid curriculum on my students I was hesitate in taking a class entirely on

teaching mathematics with technology. However, after completing CEP 805 (Learning Math
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with Technology) I have seen more of the advantages in using technology to help reach all

students. In CEP 805 I created a resource library of 20 tech tools (Artifact 5). This website has

resources on number sense, solving equations, and graphing linear relationships. These three

topics are all important foundational skills students should have for Algebra 1. In creating this

website, I found many resources that would aid struggling students in deepening their

understanding of the math they were facing. I think one of the hardest things when trying to

reach “all” students is the time it takes to differentiate and create activities for all ability levels.

In CEP 805 I was able to create a library of tools that could help these students. The technology

aspect helps teachers have the time to differentiate material for all their students. This resource

aided in my understanding of student’s diversity, and how best to accommodate that. This project

also strengthened my confidence in the first and second MATC standards of “Understanding and

commitment to students and their diversity” and “Understanding of subject matter, how to teach

it, and how to design curriculum, instruction, and assessment to foster students’ understanding.”

During my time at MSU and enrollment in the MATC program I have also discussed and

learned about the notion of teaching for social justice. While this is not something I have dug

deeper into, it is still a notion I think about often when teaching. When discussing how to “reach

all students” it is important to note that this does not just mean differences in ability levels but

also students who may differ in race, socioeconomic background, or sexual orientation. I believe

too often in education these things may be overlooked. In my MATC program teaching for social

justice was described as using relevant topics and examples in order to help students see how the

mathematics in their classroom could better their current situation. Students need to see the

connection between Algebra and how learning Algebra may be able to better their personal
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life’s. Teaching for social justice also ensures that students are given the opportunity to see how

mathematics can help change society around them.

Conclusion:

While writing this paper, I was given the opportunity to reflect on many aspects of the

MATC program as well as my teaching. This reflection has helped me deepened my

understanding of myself as a teacher. Having a better understanding of why I teach and how to

teach effectively has changed my teacher persona. In TE 807 (Professional Development and

Inquiry) I was asked to write a stance on quality teaching. This was done at the beginning of

semester and then again at the end (Artifact 6). Reflecting on this assignment I am able to see

how my views of teaching changed just from a 12-week course. This highlighted the first and

fourth standard of the MATC program. After writing this paper I am also able to see how I have

grown as an educator from the Maters of Arts in Teaching and Curriculum program. At first, I

was anticipating this program to aid me in reforming the curriculum at my school. While it gave

me the tools and leadership qualities to do so, it also gave me so much more. I gained valuable

knowledge on the importance of collaboration, and how collaboration can be done both formally

and informally. I strengthened my understanding of teaching mathematics, and reflected on the

importance of discipline specific strategies to do so. And finally, I learned ways to reach all

students and also had the opportunity to reflect on why this is so necessary. While I know, I will

forever be a student, learning from my experiences on a daily basis, I was fortunate enough to

continue being a student by formally completing my Master of Arts in Teaching and Curriculum

from Michigan State University.