Blog 24: Exit Interview Questions

1. What is your essential question? What is the best answer to your question and why?
My essential question is "What is the best way to teach mathematics so that it is retained?" My best answer is connecting mathematics to real life. This is my best answer because through my research I found that students become more interested when mathematics relates to them. Some students have trouble thinking abstractly. Also, the Common Core State Initiative will focus on applying mathematics to real life, so it is obviously important. It is better than my other two answers because it requires the use of both. Conceptual Understanding, Problem Solving, and Procedural Fluency can be easily obtained if real world applications are taught. Applying mathematics to students' lives make it seem more relevant, so therefore connecting with the students is also involved.

2. What process did you take to arrive to your answer?
I started off my EQ with "What are the most important steps to teaching the California Algebra Standards?" I realized that next year it would not matter because the Common Core State Initiative will replace the California standards. What I came to realize was that one of the major problems with mathematics is that students always forget what they learned. In the end, I changed my EQ to "What is the best way to teach mathematics so that it is retained?", because students need to remember what they are taught.
My potential answers were knowing the right teaching steps, connecting with students, and connecting mathematics with real life. I came up with my first answer after my 3rd interview. Cesar Covarubias, my former middle school math teacher, told me about his 3 teaching steps: Conceptual Understanding, Problem Solving, and Procedural Fluency. I came up with my second answer when researching articles on connecting with students. There were many helpful sources that included being respected and being less intimidating. However, the most helpful one was "7 Strategies for Teachers to Connect with Students", written by Tara Brown. I came up with my third answer after requests from my teachers at I-Poly. Mr. Ogden and Mr. Purther agreed that it was important to connect mathematics to real life, so that caused me to research that topic more.
After reviewing an article titled "Common Core State Standards for Mathematics", receiving new activities from Mr. Estrada, and getting confirmation from my final interviewee, Tor Ormseth, I came to the conclusion that my best answer was connecting mathematics to real life.

3. What problems did you face and how did you resolve them?
My first problem was with mentorship. My mentor works at Rivera Middle School in Pico Rivera, and her school days are from 8:00AM to 3:00PM. I am not able to go from I-Poly to Pico Rivera without it taking longer than 3 hours on the bust, which is my only means of transportation. To resolve this I have been going to Saturday school that lasts for 2 hours, and once in a while I go when I have a vacation day and that school does not.
My second problem was with my essential question. As I have stated before, I needed to change my essential question in the second semester. It was a problem because most of the information I received from the first semester was focused on California Algebra standards, so it was not that useful. I did not have much to back up my second and final EQ. To solve this, I asked many math teachers to help give me answers to the EQ so that I can research the suggested ones. I asked Mr. Estrada, Mr. Ogden, my mentor Mrs. Murillo, my old teacher Mr. Covarubias, and Mr. Ormseth. From what they told me, I was able to arrive at my 3 most important answers.

4. What are the two most significant sources you used to answer your essential question and why?

My first most significant source was "Common Core State Standards for Mathematics" on the Common Core State Initiative website. It is a 148 page document about what students need to know by the end of the year based on the grade. What I thought was interested was that it did not have familiar classes, such as Algebra and Geometry. Instead it had ideas from each original class incorporated into a year.

My second most significant source was Tor Ormseth. Mr. Ormseth is an Algebra teacher at Burke Middle School as well as a professor at Fullerton State University. He helped me get another feel for Common Core, and he also helped confirm that my best answer should be connecting mathematics to real life.

5. What is your product and why?

My product is that I have become much more knowledgable about how to help students understand concepts. I have also developed better relationships with the students I tutor, which is really helpful. I believe that my best product is that I have become much more experienced with mathematics and I myself have grasped a better understanding of some concepts than I had before. After all, teaching and simplifying mathematics to students forced me to review what I believed I knew.

Blog 23: 2014 Interview

I interviewed 2 Juniors: Noah Nikielski and Juan Rizo, both from North House.

Noah:
M: What ideas do you have for your senior project and why?
N: I want to do electrical engineering or mechanical engineering. They are what I know the most about.

M: What do you plan to do for your ten hour mentorship experience?
N: I was planning on volunteering with my mom's friend. He is getting a PhD in mechanical engineering.

M: What do you hope to see or expect to see in watching the 2013 2-hour presentations?
N: I hope to see someone doing engineering or at least architecture.
M: There is a presenter who is sort of doing both. The presenter is Andy Guan, and I believe his senior project is architecture, but he also covers much of the engineering involved in it.

M: What questions do you have that I can answer about senior year or senior project?
N: Is it hard? Hahaha.
M: It's actually not that hard if you meet all your deadlines and work on it throughout the year. There is a lot of preparation for the 2-hour presentation, including the 10 minute presentation, the 30 minute presentation, presenting on activities, templates, research checks, etc. Finding mentorship for engineering is tough, but since you're mother's friend is going to help you with that I'd say you are good to go.

Juan:
M: What ideas do you have for your senior project and why?
J: To play sports and baseball. I really like sports.

M: What do you plan to do for your ten hour mentorship experience?
J: To go around asking all the coaches, like minor league coaches, so they can help me out with my project.

M: What do you hope to see or expect in the 2013 senior presentations?
J: To see intellectual presentations and to teach us Juniors how to run our projects when we're seniors.

M: What questions do you have that I can answer about senior year or senior project?
J: Who do you make a presentation that is 2 hours?
M: It's easy because they break it down. They don't just say, "Here, present it." They give you a template. It's really just an outline and you have to fill it out. You're supposed to put basic ideas of what you will talk about, so it helps you be organized. It's sort of like preparation for your powerpoint. You have about 2 hours for the actual presentation, but that counts for getting set up, activities, and speaking time. It's really easy, especially when you work on it throughout the year. The first one you do is a 10 minute presentation, then a 30 minute presentation, followed by a couple of activity presentations. So by the time you actually do it, you'll be ready.

Blog 22: Final 3-Column Chart

Here is my final 3-Column Chart:

Alex's 3-Column Chart

Blog 21: Independent Component 2

Literal:

1. I, Alex Ayala, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.
2. There are many sources that can verify my 30 hours. The first is Mr. Ogden, who signed off my hours for whenever I tutored students in the Senior class. The second is Mr. Estrada, who allowed me to watch him teach his class on fourth block, usually on Mondays and Wednesdays. The final, whom I have received the most hours from, is Eddy Silva. She monitored the hours that I tutored underclassman.
3. Independent Component 2 Log
4. Like I said for then second question for the Literal, I did a variety of things in my Independent Component 2. I went to Mr. Estrada's class usually every Monday and Wednesday to watch him teach his class. Since I was not here when he became the Freshman math teacher, it was a new experience. Aside from seeing a different teaching style, I also received new activities that are based off of Common Core. I only tutored once for the Senior class, and it was helping a student with their Aleks. I received the most hours from tutoring 2 students, one being a sophomore and the other being a freshman. The sophomore, Brian Arteaga, asks for help with Geometry and Science, while the Freshman, Jayson McIsaac, asks for help with Algebra and Spanish. Jayson was a newer student, so he has not improved as much as Brian did. In the beginning, Brian did not seem like he wanted assistance, but now he constantly asks for help if he is unsure of his answers.

Interpretive:

Mr. Estrada, Common Core Activity, Tutoring Senior Students

Applied:
Watching Mr. Estrada teach helped me realize how important it is to connect mathematics to real life, which is my third answer. The Common Core Performance Task is a great example of this. It asks for the students to find the most profitable way to produce a combination of breads and batches of cookies. Not only that, but is ask for the students to provide evidence of their answer, as well as evidence to disprove other answers. Tutoring students that are Seniors and underclassman helped with my first answer, which is knowing the right teaching steps (Conceptual Understanding, Problem Solving, and Procedural Fluency). If the students were having trouble, I would run through these steps until they got the hang of the subject. At the beginning I did not really use this strategy, I would only answer questions about problems and show them techniques that I previously learned. Now I use it because it ensures that similar problems will be understood.

Individual Blog Post #8

This is a picture of one of the students from the Senior class who I helped with her Aleks. I helped her with some algebra processes.

Individual Blog Post #7

This is the assignment that Mr. Estrada handed out to the students. It involves finding out how many batches of cookies and how many loafs of bread will be the most profitable for the baker. What is interesting is that even though it has an exact answer, the "performance task" asks students to provide evidence, such as charts, tables, graphs, and illustrations.

Individual Blog Post #6

In this picture, Mr. Estrada explains to the students an assignment that comes from Common Core. Although it was designed by Mr. Estrada, the assignment is known as a Performance Task.