Domain 1

I picked domain one "Planning and Preparation" because i feel that understanding my content area is one of my strengths. In addition, I spend a lot of time and effort planning quality instructional activities to allow the diverse student body that I teach to be as successfula as possible. I am a huge fan of Howard gardner's multiple intelligences. I strive to address as many of those intelligences as often as I can. For instance, when I teach integers and absolute value, I have the students form a human number line. Other students are then given a number on a card and they have to find their place on the number line. In addition, I will say something like "Johnny is closer to Susie than Ricky is. Johnny's number has a greater value than Ricky's number." I will repeat the procedure on the positive side of zero, again using the student names. I lead the students to come up with the fact that if a number is to the right of another number, it is the larger number. Also, in this unit I use a song about integers. I have a cd of math songs that has a song called "The Integer Song". Months after the lesson, I can sometimes hear a student singing that song!
After what I have just written, it probably comes as no surprise that the component I am most comfortable with is component 1a "Demonstrating Knowledge of Content and Pedagogy". Content knowledge, as I stated previously, is one of my strengths. I love math. I love teaching math. I was very fortunate as an undergraduate to be a part of a program called the "Explorers Math Program." This program was desigened to allow an undergraduate to explore the field of math education before they had reached a point where it would be difficult to change their major. I was a part of this program for the last 3 years of my undergraduate work. There was a professor, who was in charge of this program, who taught me more about HOW to teach math than any of my coursework classes combined. She taught the developmental math classes at the college I attended and, under her direct supervision, she allowed me to plan lessons and to deliver the instruction. After I had taught a lesson, she would constructively point out ways that I could be more effective or ways that I could incorporate different learning styles. The knowledge I gained during that time with her was invaluable.
The component I would like to zero in on is component 3c "Engaging Students in Learning." as my previous posts might have suggested, engaging students is not an easy task. The students of today are so bombarded with information and they are so much a product of a society that wants the quick fix, that engaging them in the learning process can sometimes be very difficult. My questions to others include: "What specific things do you do to help engage your students?"; "How do you deal with student apathy?"; "How do you handle that student who does not want to do the work, does not want to learn the concept you are teaching and then turns around and becomes a discipline problem?" I look forward to hearing any feedback that anyone is willing to give.