In my second year I looked to build upon some of things I felt I did well in the first year like integrating technology and building engaging projects and/or assignments for MATH 186 and MATH 361. I also actively sought ways to improve some of the things I did not do well in my first year like handle the skill gaps in PreCalculus II, put my individual touch on MATH 120, and pursue multiple avenues of scholarship.
My teaching goals for this year were reactions to elements of courses that I taught the previous year with which I was not satisfied. The following are those things which I targeted:
- I would like to do a better job of assessing my students’ performances in classes which I teach multiple times (MATH 120, MATH 186, MATH 361 etc…)
- I would like to promote more discovery in my classes. In example, having students work through guided projects, take home tests, homework assignments, etc… to see the connections between various topics, and to actively reflect upon these connections.
- I plan on developing a course project for MATH 120 to serve as the instructor portion of the MATH 120 syllabus. The project will focus on proper financial decision making and planning.
Let me interject some thoughts as they relate to each of my goals for this year.
Assessment
I really made a concerted effort in my second year to nail down the types, amounts, and levels of assessment across all my courses. This was partially promoted by the fact that I had taught some of these courses multiple times and was looking to solidify the content, but mainly I was drawn to focus on assessment because I did not feel I did a great job of it my first semester.
For example, looking back on my journal from year one I make mention of the fact that my students’ grades do not always seem to align with their performance–in both directions. I wanted to make sure that my assessment for courses like MATH 361 and MATH 120 which I would teach often stayed consistent from semester to semester, and I could point to specific indicators for a student’s performance in the course that was carried over from year to year. In MATH 120 the assessment pieces I concentrated on were quizzes.
I now give the same number of quizzes each semester in MATH 120. The sequencing and topics on the quizzes are roughly the same from year to year and so they afford me the opportunity to do a quick check on student’s understanding of the material. This was something I was without for the most part the first time I taught the course.
In MATH 361, I was able to compare student responses to similar Maple assignments from year to year. This helped me pinpoint questions or assignments which were troublesome for students and adapt the course the next year to accommodate for these areas. For example, when you teach students how to calculate inverse Laplace transforms the topic of partial fractions decompositions becomes very important. This is a skill learned in Calculus II. The first semester I taught the course I did not go back and review this topic. This had the effect of making the assignments for that section very inconsistent.
When I taught the course again in the spring, I had the opportunity to not only work a review of the topic into the course schedule, but also improve my treatment of the topic in MATH 186 in the fall of that year to my own unique way of approaching the problem. This allowed those students who moved on from 186 to 361 in the spring to be even more prepared for the topic. I noticed significant improvement.
As an aside, tackling this problem in the way I did had effects outside my own department as a student in one of Dr. Rusty Towell’s courses in physics used what he called “Ehrke’s method” as a very simple, short cut way of handling the partial fractions part of a problem involving Laurent series. I mention this because it demonstrated two things to me: (1) I can effect the performance of students not only in my own courses, but in others, and (2) if you make the discussion of a topic your own it has a greater impact on students than you often realize.
Promoting Discovery
My idea of a perfect assignment is one that starts students at a very low level of thought and leads the student on a progression of ideas and techniques that result in something very challenging that has real world significance. These are not easy assignments to write and simply put I did not use enough of them in my first year of teaching.
Because of this, I was determined to make the creation and implementation of such assignments a focal point of my teaching in this year. This line of thought is what eventually unfolded into some of the very creative projects (screencasting, ecological modeling, pollution clean up, etc…) I was able to produce for my MATH 361 students.
I also stepped up the difficulty and frequency of assignments which required the student to use Maple to analyze problems and produce solutions in MATH 186 and MATH 361. I administered three take home projects in both MATH 186 and MATH 361 that were quite extensive requiring me to give students up to a week to finish them.
Reflection Projects
In MATH 120, we have a significant portion of the course that is determined by the department. The “instructor preference” portion of the course was not something I developed well in my first year. Essentially what I did in 2007-2008 was cover an extra section of the text on voting methods. Not very exciting material in my opinion and not very challenging for students.
This year, I was determined to make the “instructor preference” portion of this course something I truly preferred, and wanted my students to experience. Because we teach finance at the end of the course I decided to lead students through a discussion of what it means to be a Christian consumer in the current global economic climate. This was a timely topic for discussion given that we were just starting to see the beginnings of the economic downturn.
I assigned a reflection/research paper to have students compare and contrast how a student’s outlook of finance in our country differs from what another student in another country might think. Additionally, the students were required to comment on how their Christian worldview effected their opinions on financial matters.
This was a highly successful first attempt at using reflection prompts in a math course, and something I have extended to multiple topics in multiple courses across the curriculum as mentioned previously.
Scholarship
I would characterize the 2008-2009 school year as being the year of the iPhone on campus. I was intrigued by these devices and the impact they could potentially have on teaching mathematics. It occurred to me that research in this area could supplement traditional research in mathematics and give me the opportunity to bring my scholarship into the classroom.
This mindset led me to using podcasts in my teaching and content offerings. I really enjoyed the ability of a podcast to allow my students to learn at their own pace; anytime, anywhere. I was able to take some of these ideas and present on them in April at the University of North Texas for the Texas Section of the Mathematical Association of America conference. In many ways, this was the thing that got me rolling on not only mobile learning research, but traditional research as well.
Service
I increased my level of service across the board this year. I was on my first committee, the abundant life committee. I began teaching the Young Professional’s class at Southern Hills, and I continued serving the department as Mu Sigma faculty advisor. I will discuss these things in more detail in the service section of the portfolio.
Overview
Despite my accomplishments in year two, I still felt I fell short in regards to scholarship. Going into the summer I was extremely motivated and focused to turn this around–which I did. In my journal reflection for this year, I wrote the following,
I’ve completed my second full year now, and I realize what is expected of me from both a teaching and scholarship perspective. I must admit though, that it never seems like there are enough hours in the day, and I have to force myself to not work on school when I go home. I’m hoping to do a better job of preparation in the summer so that I won’t find myself overwhelmed the next year.
So even though I felt my teaching improved across the board, and my scholarship was beginning to turn, I had to do better. I could do better, and that started by taking full advantage of the summer.