It's True!

"Many of the things we say we know as facts have never been personally verified. We accept them as given, even when we do not fully understand them. Worse, many big ideas we have to teach may have been taught to us as if they were facts for later recall" (p. 136).
This is an issue I've been struggling with since I started tutoring. I showed students how to solve problems using theorems and formulas as if they were facts. It wasn't until my junior year of college that I was able to learn about tools to help me prove theorems I took for granted.

"Some teachers have argued that essential questions may work fine in certain subjects like history, English, or philosophy but not in skill-focused areas such as mathematics, chemistry, reading, physical education, and world languages". (p. 112) At first I agreed 99% with this statement. After speaking with my coach I realized the questions are there, but it requires a copious amount of thinking. Also, coming up with essential questions is difficult because in elementary and junior high school, I have been taught math skills by following rules and not by thinking.

Mastery

This was a fun book to read because I was able to relate to many things George Loeonard wrote. One part that stood out was when he advised, "When it's your turn to teach or supervise or give advice, you might try the following approach: 'Here's what I like about what you're doing, and here's how you might improve it'". (p 125) This reminded me of a GREAT English professor I had; when he would go over my papers, he always pointed out all the positives and then told me what I needed to work on. I appreciated him for not putting me down and just focusing on the negatives.
I also enjoyed reading Chapter 5 under "The Best of Instructors, the worst of Instructors". George had four students, two bright and two not so bright. It was interesting to read how he taught them differently and didn't pay much attention to the "slow" students. This is why I always wanted to become a teacher, to help the slow students catch up. Till this day, I'm still a slow learner (nothing wrong with that), and if it wasn't for the patience of my teachers I wouldn't have made it this far. I want to make what seems impossible for my students to learn possible. The problem with this though is I hope I don't ignore my talented students. I think I found a way, but we'll see if it works.

All in all, this book made me want to pump some iron! I always make excuses as to why I can't try new sports or hit the weights, so we'll see what happens :)

Six Facets of Understanding

There were many big ideas in this chapter; I took note of all of them, but it did get a little fuzzy at times. For example, I always thought that in order to empathize with someone (Facet:5) you would have had to experience similar situations. The Oxford American Dictionary states that empathy is, "The power of identifying oneself mentally with(and so fully comprehending with) a person or object of contemplation". In UbD says something similar to the definition, but adds that, "Empathy requires respect for people different from ourselves. Our respect for them causes us to be open-minded, to carefully consider their views when those views are different from ours. (p. 99).
I think I understand what is being said, but it empathy the best word to describe this idea? I'm not sure they go hand-in-hand, and if so, can someone explain this to me?

Decisions, Decisions

I decided to chose the 1-Page Template for the unit I will be designing because I like things to be short and simple, yet functional. The other templates overwhelmed me; there was too much information squeezed in there(it was too wordy), and that will make me go crazy. I did however like part of the unit cover page for the 6-Page Template because it allowed space for titles, grade levels, key words, etc. I also liked the calendar, but again I'd feel too overwhelmed trying to create one (at this point in my career).

Gaing Clarity on Our Goals?

This was an interesting chapter, a little overwhelming, but insightful. There was a lot of information to take in and I feel like I'm all over the place. Out of all the information given, this advice stood out the most, "The challenge then is to identify a few big ideas and carefully design around them, resisting the temptation to teach everything of possible value for each topic". (pg.66)
This is a major problem that I face. When given a topic to teach, I want to teach mostly everything because it all seems important. In reality there is not enough time and like the book said we have to, "...chose what to teach and what not to teach". (pg. 66)

Understanding

This chapter reminded me of a conversation I had with one of my college professors. I was feeling terrible because I was not able to grasp the math concepts he was teaching me. He then said to me that he didn't expect me to understand, he added that most students start understanding the math material of their previous class when they move on to higher classes (i.e. you don't start understanding Algebra I until you take Algebra II).
I used to think that understanding the material meant you can get the right answer on a test. I realized that I used to memorize how to work a problem out without understanding it's use. It wasn't until I started teaching math that I started understanding it more in depth.