Applicant

My name is Daniel Peña and I have been teaching middle school mathematics for 5 years.

I believe education is the most important thing in the world as it is the basis and foundation of

learning anything in this world. Without education we would not achieve the goals we set out for

ourselves, jobs would be vacant and there wouldn’t be anyone to teach one another on how to do

something when it comes to a new subject/concept/topic. Whether it is someone showing

someone else how a job is done or a certified teacher in a classroom, there are teachers all over

this world and it is one of the most important jobs as it can be applied to endless scenarios.

With that in mind we must take into consideration in how we teach something and though

there are various ways to do so, there are always ways to improve and teach something more

efficiently which is where Project Based Learning comes in. This format allows for the teacher to

get creative and present the students a project that not only shows them a concept but also shows

them how/when to apply it. You provide them a problem and guide them throughout by

providing resources needed to solve that problem which in turns leads them to think things

through and educate the best route in how to solve it. My experiences with Project Based

Learning have been beneficial as the projects had problems in which we need to solve and must

apply the concept we were currently learning. Those projects included budgeting for a

predetermined job and goals that we were given and how to manage and display why we

purchased/afforded what we could, or building models of bridges as in physics we were

displayed how many have sunk and collapsed and we had to figure our both why they did and fix

the problem by restructuring the bridge and create a model (downscaled) with the new

calculations we came up with and figured out. This in turn has stuck with me because these

concepts can easily be read from a book but when you provide an application to the concept they
keep and kept me engaged in wanting to be able to solve the problems.

School Environment

Estrella has a 100% demographic of students from low income families and have teachers

with an average of 26 students per class but vary within the school. As I have seen in my classes

there are 30-40 students in each class period with a total student population of nearly 1.5K

students and with large classroom sizes continuing to be a problem the lack of available attention

a teacher is able to give to every single student is still a struggle. With more students being in the

classroom there are some that are bound to struggle and may not receive that small extra bit of

help that could have possibly been the key for them to understand the concept that was being

explained. Being that this is a low-income area resources aren’t as prominent and may not be so

easily afforded by parents or the schools.

Classrooms utilize technology to try and reach all the students and I integrate technology

into my instructions and lesson in order to make the learning interactive raise students’

engagement. As mentioned before with the wide range in number of students in the classroom

technology integration is also a helpful factor in assisting us instructors in reaching as many

students as possible as compared to without technology.

With this in mind there are still students that are struggling to understand some math

concepts as sometimes they don’t feel they have not received that extra explanation and help

they may have needed whether it be a time constraint or being unable/feeling unable to ask.

Being as I want to reach more of those students and be able to help them out, I want to propose

creating a network of students who would reach out and becomes a sort of mentor to others.

Creating a tutor resource and helping those who want to participate in creating helpful activities

or centers would greatly benefit students & apply what they have been learning.