Domain: Knowledge

Dimension 1 & 2--Knowledge of Learners and of Subject Matter

My undergraduate studies were in Computer Sciences and Public Policy. I started off my

career working as a Congressional Intern in Washington DC and later went on to do technology

consulting. During weekends, I would mostly tutor Math to my nephew via Skype.

During my foundational courses in this program, I got a better understanding of the

learning process involved in students lives. How student learn the various subjects that are

presented to them. Since I love studying Mathematics, I want to instill this desire in my

students as well by connecting with them through various subjects and topics of their interests.

As I embarked on my first year teaching journey, I kept in mind some important pointers

that were shared by Dr. Gardella, my Methods I and II Professor. On my first day of teaching

(practicum), I gave out a simple yet reflective homework to my students. The first question

asked them to list three activities they enjoy doing. The second question asked them to write a

couple of sentences about what they hope to learn or gain from this years Math class. Finally,

the third question asked them their favorite subject. The idea was for me to get a sense of the

student body in my classroom so I can prepare the lesson accordingly. Also, I wanted to know

the expectations that the students have from their Math class, which in turn would help me set

up my expectations.

Setting expectations is something that I hear a lot from most of the teachers at Hunter

College. If you do not have a game plan, then you may have an obscure end goal. Therefore, in

order to be an effective an organized teacher, always have expectations from your students and

iterate them in a coherent way which is understood and implemented by all students. Mostly,

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when expectations are not clearly stated or communicated to the students, there is a lot that

can go wrong in a classroom.

Dr. Gardella stressed a lot on connecting Math to real life and most of our assignments

were geared towards how to introduce a topic without using math technical language. After

all, no one gets excited when they hear surface area or ratio. As David Soussa points out about

the impact of episodic memory in ones life which related to conscious memory of an event in

our own history, I made sure that I introduce the topic of study with a very simple real life

scenario. If a teacher does not adapt her curricula to cater to her students, then the students

get quickly discouraged when the material feels difficult or challenging.

At first, I did not enjoy my Math classes because the structure felt very traditional.

However, as we progressed during the semester, I felt that I understand the concepts at a

deeper level. Professor Burke used a lot of humor in his class work. Example: He put up three

triangles on the projector with the following question: Which triangle is the sexiest one?

That was sure to catch everyones attention and we all started justifying our claim of the

triangle we picked to be sexiest. This made me realize that in order to provoke student

learning in a group setting, a good teacher needs to put in some elements or buzz words that is

sure to catch everyones attention. As a result of which, all students willingly participate in the

exercise.

Most of the Professors in this program effectively carried out group activities in our

classes which can definitely be incorporated into any classroom setting. In my Educational

Psychology and Adolescent Development classes, I enjoyed all the class activities that Professor

Wojick implemented. That made the class very engaging and interactive. We would do a lot of

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group work and then share out our groups findings. This allowed for everyone to express out

their comments and opened up the discussions at a deeper level.

One of Professor Wojicks particular activity that I found invigorating was the gallery

walk where he had various pictures on different corners of the room and had us walk in groups

and classify the pictures based on our readings. I strongly feel that these kind of activities

promote mutual respect and a sense of community in the classroom.

There is one thing that I noticed all teachers try to do is to keep track of time and

making sure that their desired activity is carried out in the allotted time. From my classroom

observation at a public High School in Queens, I really admired the Geometry teacher I was

observing. She would always set the timer on her phone for even 3 minutes, which would

enable the students to keep moving with the classwork. Every time the timer would ring, the

students would speed up and the teacher would then given them an extra minute or so to finish

up the task. I found this strategy to be very effective. Not only does it allow the teacher to

proceed with her instruction smoothly but also the students get a sense of urgency to finish

their work. The same time keeping strategy was also adapted by Professor Clarkson in my

problem solving class at Hunter.

Finally, one of the unmemorable class was SPED 708 which really opened up my horizon

into the teaching career. Prior to taking the class, I was totally ignorant about the various

students out there. I heard about Individualized Education Plan (IEP) but I had no idea of what

it actually encompasses. The class gave me a desire to continually find ways to improve my

planning and delivery through differentiating instruction.