Background Info!

This is me, Dillon Rogers!

Here's some background info to get you more acquainted with me and my teaching style:


I am 24 years old and currently attend the University of South Alabama.


I am a senior and will graduate in May, 2012.

I will be graduating with a bachelor's degree and become certified in K-6 Collaborative Special/Regular Education.

I hope to be employed by MCPSS and would love the opportunity to work in the public school setting. 

I have two brothers (one older, one younger) and my mother and father will become grandparents in January. My oldest brother will be having his first child and this is a very exciting event for us all! My youngest brother attends the University of Southern Mississippi and I will be getting married to my fiance May 19th.


I played soccer for the Women's University of South Alabama Soccer Team in 2005 and dedicated the rest of my schooling career to completing my education and working year round.


I graduated Murphy High School in 2005.


I had the opportunity to participate in a dual certification program and am happy to say that it has strongly influenced where I would like to be in the next 5 to 10 years. I have had a wonderful experience up to my current student teaching and can not wait to begin teaching in the special education department of a school. I will be certified in both regular and special but I feel very passionate about teaching in the special education setting, and will be on the lookout for great opportunities!


I am dedicated, loyal, hardworking, and persistent in my efforts to achieve high standards. I believe everyone has the right to learn and be successful. As  a teacher it is my job to figure out how to help students achieve success.

Math Philosophy ~

If there was an insurance policy for Math it would cover this:

 My Math Philosophy covers what IS success in Mathematics and how I plan to insure it to the best of my ability. I believe in giving students a solid foundation of Math skills that students will need to know to be successful later on in life. These skills will need to be mastered so that they can easily transfer them to other aspects of their life - in the community, at home, at work, etc. I think it's extremely important to teach these skills through guided discovery and constructivism. I expect my students to take new content, connect it to prior experience or concepts, and apply it to real world/concrete situations. I believe a fluent mathematician, much like a fluent reader/writer, has much greater access to the world through the open doors of opportunity. More specifically, persons who can reason with math well can create more options for themselves. 

If you'd like to read more about my Math Philosophy, go to Ms. Rogers' Math Philo and check it out in Google Doc's.

Working With Struggling Mathematicians

 
Assessment Profile Student:

Name: Sweet Jane (concealed identity for confidentiality purposes)

Age: 11

Grade: 5th


Subject: Math

Overview: 

The student enjoys Math, and says it is her favorite subject. She has a positive attitude towards school and learning. She shows eagerness to practice and become more fluent in Math skills. She shows strengths in counting, counting on, addition/subtraction, and computation in the form of number sentences. She struggles with interpreting the operation associated with word problems. She has been given a highlighter and taught the strategy of highlighting the question. She has been instructed in the different types of addition and subtraction word problems and how to recognize them through using manipulatives. Sweet Jane practiced interpreting the appropriate operation called for by the word problem.

creating a number sentence for a word problem

Student, working out a number problem in response to a word problem

When I implemented this assignment, I chose a student who was known to be a struggling reader and who received services for Special Education. All though she reports Math to be her best subject, she still requires accommodations on tests and assignments in class. She receives extra assistance and instruction from the Special Education Teacher as well. 
 I had been working with the student in Reading, as well, and decided that her level of trust/comfort with me was already established. This is what helped me decide to choose this student.
As I interviewed her, I realized that she had no concrete sense of where she really was in Math, and because she did better in Math than in Reading, she felt that Math was her best subject. 
I knew she needed to be taught a better strategy in checking her work and I worked with her on that. Questioning was used in several methods from dramatic word problem solving to self questioning. 
Also, I worked with her on developing a better understanding of types of word problems and deriving meaning from them. We worked on understanding the different types of word problems for addition and subtraction. We worked out several problems by highlighting the question, re reading the problem, and deciding first what operation we should use to find the answer. Then, she solved the problem and checked her answer by questioning. 


Here is the Assessment Report that gives a detailed description of the interview process and my conclusions and recommendations for the student.


These are pictures of the second interview tasks, questions, and discussions that could not be included in the document due to file size:

Assessment Report

Assessment Report

Assessment Report

Assessment Report

Lesson Plan 1: Secret Agent Math!

I recently taught a Math lesson to my students (5th grade) that went great! It was a Secret Agent themed lesson and they had a Mission Possible and a Mission Impossible of math skills to carry out. After attempting the first mission, the students were trained in comparing and ordering large whole numbers in the millions place and sent on a final mission to use their newly acquired Math skills...

Confidential Envelope for Secret Agents!

As they were handed a CONFIDENTIAL envelope with their mission inside, the students bubbled about what to expect. They were given 7 minutes to complete the mission (a compare and order problem) and were also responsible for telling HOW they got their answer. After the time was up, they were asked to circle a number on a scale of 1-5 related to how they felt they did on the mission. 1 stood for "I have no clue" and 5 stood for "I understood and am ready for the next mission". After scoring them, most of the students felt like they were a 5 and turned out to be a 5.

Self Assessment graded

Only a few students felt like they were a 3 and turned out to be a 5. Early finishers were told to complete the BONUS CHALLENGE QUESTION that was also included in the envelope. It was a challenge for the students to create their own compare and order problem for another student to solve. They had to include the correct answer on the sheet. They were given a decoder and decoder sheet and shown how to record their answer on the sheet. When another student tried to solve the problem, they could check their work by using the decoder to view the correct answer.

Student using decoder to look for the hidden answer

The kids really loved this and they really wanted to create problems for other classes to solve! All of the students were given an opportunity at the end of the lesson to complete the Bonus Challenge Question and create a decoder message for the answer. The other classes have the opportunity to pull these and practice comparing and ordering. Since the 5th graders switch once a day, I taught the lesson twice. By the second lesson, I felt more comfortable teaching it, but my results were just as high in the first class. After reviewing the mission results, self-assessments, and an overall reflection of how the lessons went, I am confident in moving on to the next objective.

Mission packet and Bonus Challenge Question

Student work telling how they knew this number was the greatest

Click Here to view the lesson in Google Doc's. 

Click This  to view the power point that goes with the lesson.

Click Me  to view my professional reflection.

Lesson Plan 2: Weekly plan- Fractions

These pictures represent my ability to teach using manipulatives (pattern blocks, number-line bars, fraction bars, base blocks/bars), using literature, and using technology.

I taught a weekly lesson covering equivalent fractions and introducing adding/subtracting fractions with unlike denominators. To begin, I read Hershey's Milk Chocolate by Jerry Polata, then I read Fraction Action by Loreen Leedy

6 different tables with about 4 kids at each

After reading these books to the students on each day of the week, I introduced the objective for each math lesson. The students would be learning about equivalent fractions and they would be learning about adding and subtracting fractions with like and unlike denominators. 


Using different models to represent equivalent fractions, the students used pattern blocks, counters, tenth sticks, and a number line to model equivalent fractions and parts/pieces of a whole.

They also used paper cut outs of Hershey's Milk Chocolate bars (cut into 12ths) to compare equivalent fractions and to add/subt. fractions with like and unlike denominators.


This demonstrates my ability to teach math using technology, manipulatives, and literature:

Students problem solving with fractions

Counters and pattern blocks

Using fraction bars to represent fractions

Using the SMART board to relay information about the least common denominator

Teaching with technology

Teaching using technology

Several pieces to make a whole shape