Short Term Goal
One short term goal of mine is to create more projects that are student-centered. Sometimes it can be tricky to create a project that is common core aligned, but also gives them the freedom to incorporate their own interests into a project. When I have created a project that gives the students this avenue, I have seen more ownership by the students and better knowledge of the curriculum. For example, with my unit on surface area and volume, students had to create a new composite three-dimensional figure. They could create whatever they desired. One student created a new rocket, another student created a gumball machine, and another student created a house for a cheetah. The students created a blueprint and had to find the surface area and volume of their creation. My goal is to create several more projects like this in the next few months and to help the students become more excited and take more ownership over their learning in my classroom.
Long Term Goal
My long term goal is to eventually be a STEM teacher and create my own curriculum. Being a math teacher limits the amount of time I am actually able to teach many of the STEM ideas that I would like to incorporate into the classroom due to the common core state standards. It can be tricky to incorporate STEM activities and lessons in with state testing and pressures of maintaining high test scores. I would truly love to be able to create my own STEM curriculum and magnify the students’ interests and really let them explore. I am already seeing my 6th grade students coding in class. I would love to teach my students some coding as I feel this will be so relevant in the future for everyone. I would also like to do World of Wonders, but take it to the next level where the students do an entire research project on a wonder and then reach out to a business, company, or expert to learn even more about their wonder. I would love to create my own STEM curriculum and teach it one day.
One short term goal of mine is to create more projects that are student-centered. Sometimes it can be tricky to create a project that is common core aligned, but also gives them the freedom to incorporate their own interests into a project. When I have created a project that gives the students this avenue, I have seen more ownership by the students and better knowledge of the curriculum. For example, with my unit on surface area and volume, students had to create a new composite three-dimensional figure. They could create whatever they desired. One student created a new rocket, another student created a gumball machine, and another student created a house for a cheetah. The students created a blueprint and had to find the surface area and volume of their creation. My goal is to create several more projects like this in the next few months and to help the students become more excited and take more ownership over their learning in my classroom.
Long Term Goal
My long term goal is to eventually be a STEM teacher and create my own curriculum. Being a math teacher limits the amount of time I am actually able to teach many of the STEM ideas that I would like to incorporate into the classroom due to the common core state standards. It can be tricky to incorporate STEM activities and lessons in with state testing and pressures of maintaining high test scores. I would truly love to be able to create my own STEM curriculum and magnify the students’ interests and really let them explore. I am already seeing my 6th grade students coding in class. I would love to teach my students some coding as I feel this will be so relevant in the future for everyone. I would also like to do World of Wonders, but take it to the next level where the students do an entire research project on a wonder and then reach out to a business, company, or expert to learn even more about their wonder. I would love to create my own STEM curriculum and teach it one day.