Representation

Representation is a very important part of being a teacher.  Giving our kids every opportunity they can to learn through different mediums of representation is essential.  Everyone learns differently and as teachers it is our job to help our students use their learning strengths to grow and learn what they may think are difficult concepts.

Deborah Moore-Russo and her partner Jillian Wilsey had some interesting insights on was to change representation in the classroom.  They did a study on math teachers to see how they taught basic algebra.  The most important thing that they found in the study was that teachers constantly evaluate how they are representing their content.  In addition to that I would argue that teachers need to evaluate themselves constantly on how they are representing content in multiple mediums.

As a result of my research more than anything I plan to self-evaluate my teaching often and make goals to improve and do better. That is my biggest goal in this aspect. I understand that I won't be able to be perfect in any aspect of my teaching until I get out in the field and practice.  I hope to be able to give my students options for how they learn what they need to learn in my class.  This should help my students be more motivated to learn my content.  My classroom vision involves my students being excited and engaged while learning my content, and the more options I can give them to learn the content and the more options I can give them to demonstrate the learning the more engaged and excited they will be. 

Moore-Russo, Deborah A. and Jillian N. Wilsey. "Delving into the Meaning of Productive Reflection: A Study of Future Teachers' Reflections on Representations of Teaching." Teaching and Teacher Education, vol. 37, 01 Jan. 2014, pp. 76-90. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1016/j.tate.2013.10.002.

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