Curriculum
Having worked with numerous students across several students in the US over the years, I am well versed with a variety of curriculum standards. About 40 states in US have adopted Common Core curriculum in the US over the years from 2009-2015. At the time of adoption of new standards in California, I was both a parent and an educator which led me in understanding the paradigm shift in learning and teaching the new standards. Albeit it was confusing and controversial, the goal was to prepare the students to be college and career ready. I have read a variety of literature and attended courses and webinars on Common Core to understand the nuances and elements of the standards. Meanwhile few other states have revised standards too. I have worked extensively with students in Texas following the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS). Here are a few of the states standards I have worked with:
- Common Core Standards
- Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills
- Georgia Standards of Excellence
- New Jersey Student Learning Standards
The standards are classified into practice standards and content standardards. The practice standards prescribe the mathematical practices to be followed by the students at each grade level. The content standards describe the mathematical content to mastered by the students at each grade level.
For most of the curricula, the overarching goal is to make the students “college and career ready”. As an educator, my goal is not only to make the student proficient in the content standards, but also help them develop lifelong best practices.
Approach
I believe that doing math should become a joy and not a drag for the children. I have worked with various students in improving their confidence and successfully placing them in advanced math pathways.
I identify students’ problem areas and strengths and work with them in positive, constructive ways to attain the needed progress. I design my lessons according to my students’ requirements with an emphasis on strengthening the core concepts and problem-solving. I constatly strive to see the progress in students.
My approach to teaching math is to make them learn the concepts deep enough to understand, appreciate and enjoy what they are learning. Every topic I teach I make sure they are able to solve the related word problems to make sense of of why they are learning. How to solve a problem accounts to procedural fluency and why they are solving a problem a particular way develops the higher order thinking. And I make this happen by teaching them with 360 degree approach. I employ the use of technology for virtual manipulatives, graphing and geometric tools such as geogebra as required to enhance the learning experience for students. I believe that learning math means trying problems, making mistakes, trying a different strategy and then get the Aha ! moment. It might involve sketching graphs and making observations, connecting the dots to relate the concepts . I integrate old school methods with latest technology apps and manipulatives including Geogebra, Desmos, MathOpenRef etc. Along with this, I stir in a bit of excitement with mazes, cross words, math bingo !
Here are some examples of how students learn hands-on:
- Use Algebra tiles to solve algebraic equations
- Percent number lines to understand markups, discounts, sales tax etc.
- Solving proportions using models, equations and tables
- Similar figures and scaling
- Areas and perimeter of polygons, circles and composite shapes
- Pythagorean theorem and its applications
- Surface Areas and Volumes of prisms and pyramids, cylinders and cones
