https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vTQTNIROUqnwqVAOATvFApWJ5b_Km5wNuqdKt56BGWOewt13M6UGDATSyJwcYeU7kU1PibsXFRf6SC7/pubhtml?widget=true&headers=false” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>Honors Geometry Unit 1 Spreadsheet Here is the Spreadsheet with all the work from Unit 1. Remember the content test and the notebook check are Friday, September 7.
This fall I am beginning a new challenge teaching at Carlsbad Early College High School in Carlsbad, New Mexico. Our school is on the campus of New Mexico State University-Carlsbad and is part of the Carlsbad Municipal School district. When our students graduate at the end of four years they earn both their high school diploma and an Associates degree. The programs of study available to them are varied from automotive and nursing to more traditional programs leading to 4-year programs.
For the fall semester, I am teaching Geometry as a one-semester course. This week my students got to spend some time dancing and practicing angle relationships with David Boudreaux’s (@Boudreaux_Math) Dance Dance Transversal Today, the 14th day of school, we finished Unit 1 in the Springboard curriculum – Proof, Parallel & Perpendicular Lines. When one is teaching a whole year of Geometry in one semester – time must be maximized!
Our school is truly One-to-one and I am finally able to take real advantage of digital resources. Although there is a steep learning curve and a big time commitment at any new school – I am committed to doing more blogging this year! My instruction has grown, deepened, and improved so much through my work with #MTBoS I know I have to give back to this amazing cadre of educators and body of work!
Have a great year all!
Diana
Beginning in June 2015, I am conducting a research study as part of my doctoral studies at Walden University in order to learn more about how math teachers use blogs to define and exchange ideas and opinions in virtual communities.
The purpose of this study is to determine how mathematics teachers can be encouraged to reach out virtually and stay connected through reflective teacher blogging to improve their instruction.
If you agree to be in this study, you will be asked to:
• Complete a one-time online survey taking approximately 10 minutes.
The survey URL is:
Thank you for your consideration!
Diana
“At the end of the last mile on the journey from noble intentions of common standards to the reality of students learning, our hopes are in the hands of teachers.” Daro (2011)
Mission #1 from Exploring the MTBoS
Who are you? Introduce yourself to the MathTwitterBlogosphere! How’d you get into teaching? What do you like most about your job?
My name is Diana and I am a middle school math teacher from New Mexico. This is my 27th year of teaching, but I haven’t taught my first year 27 times. Even though I have been teaching a long time, I am still learning how to be a teacher.
As a freshman in college, my first “computer class” was Fortran. I remember creating the stack of punch cards that was my assignment, carrying them carefully to the computer building – yes the whole building was one computer! One time I dropped the cards and after hours of trying to sort them and many tears, I finally just started over. For my 50th birthday (only a few days away) I got a Macbook Air. This amazing piece of tech on my lap is way more powerful than that computer that occupied a whole building. In fact, so is my phone 🙂
I became a math teacher because as a student, math was the only thing that did NOT come easy to me. Math was always a challenging and I struggled to understand. I drove my teachers crazy asking, “Why?” all the time. I am a strong spatial reasoner, but numbers were definitely not second nature.
What I like most about my job is helping kids know more math today than they knew yesterday! When I started teaching math – way back when – a good math teacher was a good “explain-er.” I worked hard figuring out multiple ways to explain MY thinking. I encouraged my students to ask “Why?” and relished taking time to explain. Now, my job is so much more. I still have to be at explanations. I also teach my students to explain their own reasoning. I teach them to create logical arguments to support their reasoning and to respectfully critique the reasoning of others. I also have to help my students become wise consumers of the explosion of data that bombards them every day.
Well, that is plenty for my very first blog post ever! I was worried I couldn’t write a whole paragraph, and now I have a whole page 🙂
Does That Make Sense? Musings of a Math Teacher 