10/22/08

I just bought a new book titled The Geography of Thought by Richard E. Nisbett. It was recommended to me by my professor at Chaminade. He said that if I wanted to do my dissertation on comparing the U.S. curriculum with the Japan curriculum, then I'd need to read this book. However, I have chapters after chapters to read for school, therefore I will need to make an extreme effort in making time to read this.

I substituted again today. It was for another fourth grade class. The teacher made it so easy for me to substitute. Most of it was basically supervising the students. It wasn't as stressful as my first substituting job. In fact, I'd love to substitute for her anytime. Her students worked diligently and were honest in what the procedures were for the classroom. Except for one student. He needed my attention 24/7. Crazy kid.

One of the tasks was to proctor a math test. As I was walking around I noticed that many students didn't have labels for their answers. So I told them that they should make sure that they have labels for their answers. It's amazing because some students didn't know what a label was. So I had to give them an example. 12, what? 12 monkeys? 12 bananas? 12 dollars? What is it? I think some of the students caught on, but some were still clueless as to what they were suppose to do.

Today in my EDCS 653D class a student did a project on the Mobius Strip, an object with one surface and one edge. I was totally amazed at the presentation. Do you know what you'd get if you cut the Mobius Strip in half down the middle the long way? You should try it out. You'd be amazed, too. Another presentation was about the Fibonacci sequence represented through geometry. I knew of the Fibonacci sequence, but I didn't know that it could be represented as the Golden Rectangle. Pretty interesting things.

10/15/08

Is my specialization math? I was told today by a mother of a child that I tutor that my specialization is math. Hm. Well, I did teach 5th grade math last year. I do enjoy teaching math rather than language arts. I feel much more confident teaching math than language arts. I guess so.

If that's the case, then I should do something related to math for my dissertation. How about I evaluate the mathematics curriculum in a specific school? What about an elementary school in Japan? Would this topic last me my entire dissertation, or would it be too short? I'm still searching.

My goal is to decide on my dissertation topic by December 31, 2008. I will have my dissertation topic by December 31, 2008.

8/27/08

Today, I went to my EDCS 653D class. This class deals with geometry and measurement. It sounds like an interesting class. I know I would like it because the professor is good (Dr. Dawson). I had professor Dawson last semester and I enjoyed his course.

However, I stayed after class to tell him that depending on my Chaminade schedule, I might drop the class. He asked me what I was interested in, and I told him about combining SLS and math; how can we best support students learning math when their first language isn't English. He said, "That's a language problem, not a math problem." I guess that's true. Back to the drawing board.

8/25/08

First day at substitute teaching. Overall, I think it went better than I thought. One more day tomorrow.

It was fun teaching first grade math. Today they were reviewing what number comes before, after, and in between. Most students were able to do it. However, there were about three students who couldn't. Other students would get it wrong independently, but when prompted with a question, they immediately knew their mistake. No one in the class seem to be struggling from not understanding English.

8/23/08

PhD orientation from 9AM. It was informative and helpful. I spoke with Dr. Slaughter too. I don't think she remembers speaking with me...which actually might be a good thing.

Anyways, I talked to Dr. Slaughter and she recommended that I use my SLS credits toward my Cognate classes and take math classes for my Emphasis classes.

I just got the APA Manual. The dissertation is suppose to be in APA format, right?

Thinking about the topic...
-On supporting English Language Learners in elementary mathematics
-What type of instruction/curriculum is needed for ELL students learning math?
-How do previous notions of math affect learning math in English?
-On understanding the different methods to teach math in Japan and America
-On mathematic learning centers in schools
-Struggling children in mathematics: A case study
-Individual differences in problem solving
-Elementary math problem solving: An error analysis study